School: Brownknowe (roll number 7464)

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1. Churning (continued)

   

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   It is said that if any persons come in, and you churning, if they do not help you that the milk will be blinked and that the butter will not come to the top or be able to be taken off. Nearly everyone who comes in takes the staff from who ever is churning and gives it a brash. The staff is always moved upwards and downwards when we are churning by hand with a plunge churn.

   When small round pieces of butter come up as we plunge, and the buttermilk is free from very small pieces we know that the butter is made.

   Water is sometimes poured in during the churning if the milk is long in breaking in the winter time. Too much boiling water, if poured in at first, would scald the butter and make it very white. When the butter is ready it is lifted out with wooden spades which have been scrubbed with salt and scalded beforehand. When it is being lifted out of the milk it is squeezed, between the spades, to press out all the buttermilk. It is then put into water which is slightly off the cold, and washed well to remove

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. activities
      1. economic activities
         1. agriculture (~2,659)
            1. butter and churns (~3,280)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Etta Roulstone

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Rathmelton, Co. Donegal

   Informant

   Mrs Roulstone

   Gender

   Female

   Age

   40

   Address

   Rathmelton, Co. Donegal