School: Cnuicín na hAbhann

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1. How We Used to Make Butter and Fill Firkins (continued)

   

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   be put into it to salt it well. If the butter was pale they used to put some saffron in to give it a nice reddish golden colour. Of course all the buttermilk used be washed out of it first before it was salted.

   It was hard work salting. Timber skimmens were used to slap the butter from side to side of the the tub in order to mix the salt well in. All the women used take turns at the mixing with their sleeves rolled up above their elbows, and then when it was well mixed, a little lump of it would be taken up on the skimmin and handed round to have everybody taste it to see if it was salty enough.

   When they were all satisfied, it was then packed into the firkin which had been scalded well beforehand. These firkins were made by a man called a Cooper. They were made of timber and of a round shape like a small barrel with six or seven hoops around it. These hoops were made of twigs at the top and bottom of the firkin. When the firkin was filled, it was sometimes sold to a merchant in Castleisland, or it was sent to a Cork Butter merchant by train. Any butter

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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

   Informant

   Nora O Connor

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Knockrower West, Co. Kerry