Keeping Things Cool in the 19th Century, Pt. 2: Making Butter

It is early spring and just after dawn on the Pennsylvania German farm...

Breakfast is a memory, the cows have been milked and now it is time to get on with the morning chores.Any fresh cream that is not going to be needed immediately will be poured into clean cream crocks, covered with pristine linen cloths and stored in the cool spring house. 

The dairy cattle that were raised locally by the early Pennsylvania German pioneers did not produce the quantity of milk that we see in modern cows. Most often, fresh milk (cream!) was stored/collected for several days and kept cool in spring houses until it would have been churned into butter or made into a soft cheese that had many variations and uses (more on this in the next post). Butter making was very competitive and lucrative. As a commodity, butter was something that a proud farm wife would have been able to sell at a local market for a profit (small, perhaps, by today's standard but an attractive means to make some extra money for a woman who spent a great deal of her time on her family farm and had little opportunity to make money for herself). 

The process of butter making was relatively simple but the process of making your mark in the cottage industry was anything but. At least until the middle of the 19th century (before the advent of the milch haus or milk house, the successor to the spring house that served the purpose of a creamery), butter was often made in the spring house, itself. Meticulously clean, many early spring houses contained two rooms and cream was often strained directly through cloth into earthenware vessels (sometimes small oak tubs that would hold a couple of pails of milk were substituted for the crocks). With the milk set into the crocks, the haus frau (farm wife) would wait at least a day to let the higher fat cream rise to the surface of the vessel. (Dairying was most often the realm of the woman on the farm). Once the cream had separated and risen, floating on top of the milk, a skimmer was used to skim off the precious cream where it would be carefully removed and placed into another earthenware crock where enough could be gathered until there was enough to churn into butter. Additionally, allowing time for the cream to rest for about 3 to 6 days before churning it was believed to produce a better final product=butter!

Ventilation was a crucial element to keep the air flowing and the temperature more or less cool and balanced, even in the summer months. In addition to a water channel through which a small section of  cool spring water flowed freely, windows were opened as needed to ensure good air flow.

Dutch doors that could lock on the bottom but provided upper air flow were also commonly used:

After the ripening period, the cream was transferred to a churn where it would be agitated/churned into butter.

A dasher churn, seen on the left with its wooden "dasher" handle rising out of the metal base. A common design.

 Another popular churn design that was commonly used by the Pennsylvania Germans was the barrel churn that used a hand crank and interior paddle. Cream was placed in the top of the barrel and locked into place before the crank was turned. A relatively cleaner method than the dasher churn, some also believed that the barrel churn was faster, as well.

The process of making butter was very competitive and not always an honest one. Sometimes the cream would spoil and unscrupulous individuals would attempt to churn and then sell the unsavoury product. The wise haus frau (farm wife) who took great pride in her work and investment would take great pains to establish her own brand or mark--often by imprinting her finished product before taking it to be sold. Word would quickly circulate if your reputation had been compromised for selling tainted butter. Wooden butter prints were intricately carved and were often quite beautiful, decorated in various folk motifs. On the table below are various small butter prints displayed beside wooden butter paddles, a heart-shaped cheese mold and a large wooden butter bowl.

Folk motifs like acorns and leaves (above) or tulips (below) are lovely reminders of the great care taken to mark one's butter.

My colleague, Kathleen, carefully cradles the dasher churn between her knees. It is a good idea to place a clean cloth on top of the churn so that splashes of cream will not get on your hands or your apron. Kathleen is focused on the work ahead but the work ahead will take at least a couple of hours. Vigorous, rhythmic up and down motion is needed to agitate the fat molecules in the cream.  Finally, a delicate yellow ball of butter is separated from a clear liquid--the buttermilk. Traditionally, this buttermilk would have been a nutritious addition to a pig's food.

Transferring the finished butter into a separate bowl where it will be pressed with a butter paddle to ensure that all liquid is out of the butter. It is at this point that one can add a light sprinkling of salt to flavour the butter. I have to say, fresh churned butter is absolutely delicious and tastes nothing like the store-bought kind!

Finished butter, ready to be printed...

The only thing missing is the bread (but that's another post)! Until then, why not check out:  http://historyofbread.wordpress.com/


Coming Up: Keeping Things Cool in the 19th Century, Pt. 3: Making Cheese

Spring Houses: Keeping Things Cool in the 19th Century

  There was a time when nearly every Pennsylvania German and Mennonite farm in Waterloo County would have had one. Varying in size, design and construction there was one thing they all would have had in common: cold and fast-flowing spring water. Many of them were banked i.e. built into a hillside where temperatures were easier to control. Some were built directly over active springs whereas others simply channeled off a section of the spring and directed the flow of the water into a stone masonry channel where the water would continue to flow, unimpeded by anything in its path. The purpose of the continuous flow of cold water was eminently clear: to keep a number of things cool at a time before the advent of electricity or refrigerator.

A peek into the spring house at the Joseph Schneider Haus Museum reveals stone shelves for holding buckets, crocks and barrels that would have been needed for the task of dairying.

An excellent view of the spring water channel where crocks or buckets of fresh cream or milk would be kept refreshingly cool when lowered into the water. 

The gentle slope belies the banking technique of constructing a building into a small hill. At one time a rivulet of fresh water would have flowed freely through this channel and would have easily been able to provide a channel of water for inside the spring house. Many Pennsylvania German and Mennonite homes had used this same technique. Even barns were banked.

Another view of the water channel. One can see the 90 degree angle through which the water would pass. The foundation of the spring house is stone as are the floors and inner shelves. Dairying equipment such as the Mennonite cheese press(on the left) and the barrel churn (right) were typical of the types of things one might find in use. Cows were milked twice daily in the barn by the women (dairying was considered to be women's work) and the buckets of milk would be carried to the spring house. Here they would be stored for a day or two before being churned into butter or longer if used for making the soft cheeses that the Pennsylvania Germans enjoyed.

Cream would rise naturally to the top of the pan of milk and would be skimmed off and transferred to a cream crock. Once they had enough, it could be churned into butter which would normally be sold for a profit. Here both windows are open and demonstrate how they would have provided ventilation and air flow to keep the cooled air fresh, not stagnant.

Setting up the spring bench once the milk buckets were washed and rinsed. The cleaned buckets would be stored upside down to dry in the warm sun.

 
"Dutch doors" were doors that were split and held the advantage of being able to be closed at the bottom but open at the top. This would also help with the air flow through the building.

Milk and Cream were not the only things that needed to be kept cool. Barrels of cider could also be kept cool in the spring house.

A wooden butter bowl, butter paddles and cream crocks sit along with tin buckets on the stone shelf above the water channel. In the foreground is the wooden cheese press.

                                                                               

 Close-up view of the barrel churn preferred by the Pennsylvania Germans. The cream was poured into the round door and then locked. The barrel sat on wooden legs yet inside paddles were turned to churn the butter by means of a handle fixed to the side of the barrel. Dasher churns were preferred by the British although the Pennsylvania Germans did use them, as well.




As mentioned, the spring house was usually located near a spring or creek, however, it was often one of the furthest outbuildings from the main house. This distance also caused some frustration when a heavy rain threatened to overturn the crocks that had been lowered into them. Louisa Schneider, daughter of pioneer Joseph E. Schneider, complained about how she and her sisters would often have to run out to clean up the mess following a rainstorm when the water level would rise so quickly that it toppled over the crocks of precious cream.

Unfortunately, few examples of early spring houses remain in the Region of Waterloo. Of those that do, only dilapidated and run-down remnants are what is usually left behind. Visible from Bridge Street (formerly known as Country Squire Drive, Waterloo, Ontario) all that remains of this spring house is its shell. The date on its entrance states 1913 but it is believed that is the date of the renovation for the building when key repairs were completed--one of them being a new roof and a concrete exterior patch job that covered much of the original stone masonry.Originally located on the farm of another Schneider family (the Snyder-Gingrich family), the spring house was a fine example of banked stone construction.

A close-up view of the stone work reveals sturdy and exquisite construction. The building was indeed durable and well-made. I often forget that these men who built these were farmers, not contractors.

A boarded up window

Inside, little of its former glory remain. However, one can still see the water flowing freely and quickly through the channel. It might be abandoned and forgotten but amazingly it still works!

Many spring houses had two stories with the upper chamber being used as living quarters or summer houses.Some even had working hearths. If space allowed, the upper storey could also have been used for cheese and butter making. In this abandoned spring house, the walls have been whitewashed and plastered over the stone exterior walls.

It is sad to see such buildings forgotten in time. My heritage conservation self is committed to preserving the memory of this building--at least in photographs.