Even the poorest of people tried to keep a cow to supply them with milk and butter. Selling the butter, along with eggs at market, was an important way that a farmer’s wife earned money for the family. People with more cows also made cheese.
Milking
The cows were milked by hand twice a day, usually by the women, wearing a ‘brat’ (coarse apron) and a snow white bonnet. The cow would swish off the flies with its long tail and a child was often asked to hold the cow’s tail to prevent the person milking receiving a lash across the face as the cow flicked its tail. The warm milk from the cow was passed through a strainer (or sile) to remove any dirt, straw etc.
‘Bithag’
For butter-making, the new milk from the cow was put into dishes and left for a day or two to allow all the cream to settle on the top. The dishes were then tilted on their sides and the cream, either blown off using the breath, or skimmed with a saucer, into an earthenware container called the ‘bithag crock’. ‘Bithag’ was the collection of souring cream from several days’ milkings being kept for butter-making. The ‘bithag’ collected over a week would be sufficient for putting in the churn to make butter. The ‘bithag’ would first be warmed by placing the crock in front of the fire.
Churns & Churning
A churn was a container in which the thick sour cream could be stirred around rapidly to make butter. There were several different kinds of churn. The oldest type was the staff churn. The staff churn was a tall round wooden tub standing on the floor. It was narrower at the top than at the bottom. There was a wooden staff at least 1.5 metres long to work up and down in the liquid inside the churn. At the bottom of the staff was a plunger – a circular piece of wood with holes through. The staff was worked up and down in the ‘bithag’ which could pass through the holes. The staff was held in both hands and every time it was pressed down it was given a gentle twist. The action had to be carried out at a certain speed. Young children would be taught how to use the staff. They would stand on a stool and learn to move it up and down without splashing the ‘bithag’ on the floor.
Churning often took an hour and a half before any butter appeared. Sometimes the men would be asked to take a turn with the staff. If the butter was very slow in coming they might bring in a magic herb or say a charm to try and improve matters.
The staff churn was the commonest kind in the earlier part of the 19th century. Later on came the box churn with ‘fliers’ (four blades set at right angles to one another on a spindle) outside of which was a handle which could be turned.
Finally came the barrel churn which turned end-over-end. There were different ways of turning the barrel churn; handles, levers, treadles operated by a person, or mechanical power from a water wheel. Sometimes a horse walking round and round on a circular horsewalk as for a horse threshing mill would be used.
Human power was the usual method of turning the barrel churn. There was a glass-covered hole in the lid of the churn so that you could tell by the little yellow specks on the glass when the butter was coming. When this happened the liquid in the churn sounded heavier and the butter would begin to slap against the lid of the churn. Once the little specks of butter appeared the churning had to be done more slowly to allow the butter to gather together. Later the churn lid was unscrewed and the butter lifted off by hand. The sour milk left in the churn after the butter was removed was called ‘buttermilk’. It contained small floating pieces of butter and had many uses, from drinking to making bonnags and pancakes.
Butter
The butter taken from the churn was usually washed in a large turned wooden bowl known as the ‘meilley’. The butter was first rinsed with cold water, two or three times, to remove the buttermilk from it, then clapped for some time by hand to remove the remaining buttermilk and get stiff butter. In later times wooden hands were used. The butter was dashed against the sides of the ‘meilley’ to get rid of the liquid and ended up as a long roll, thicker in the middle than at the ends. In later times the butter was made into a block with the wooden hands and weighed in pounds.
Summer butter was often pale in colour and certain plants would be used to give it colour. Carrots peeled, cut into strips and soaked in water gave a yellow coloured solution which was often added to butter. The firm butter was printed, each farm having its special design. The old style butter prints were flat and round, later ones were made with a rotary printer. The trade marks were important as people often asked for the butter from a particular farm with a good reputation.
It was usual to scald everything in the dairy: churn, ‘meilley’, butter and print etc. The butter was less inclined to stick to hot, wet surfaces.
There were usually slate shelves in a dairy for putting the butter and milk dishes to stand on. In hot weather, leaves were used for wrapping butter. Dock leaves were a favourite, but rhubarb, cabbage and sycamore leaves were others used. We hear of people taking their butter to market with a layer of dock leaves at the bottom of the basket, then a row of butter pounds, then more leaves and so on. The leaves were dripped in cool spring water first. Sometimes butter was preserved with salt until required later in the year. Some people rubbed salt into the butter, others put wrapped butter into pickle in a crock. The salted butter might just go into the crock in a mass. When cows were dry in winter, salted butter would be taken from the crock and washed to take away some of the excess salt.
Cheese
Cheese was made from fresh milk. Normally milk with cream was used but sometimes people who could not spare the cream made cheese from skimmed milk and this gave a cheese a very tough outer skin. Milk for cheese-making was warmed to blood heat by putting a crockful beside the fire. Rennet (made from calf’s stomach) was obtained from a butcher and put into the milk to make it curdle. Manx people used a plant of the buttercup family known as the lesser spearwort, from the marshes, to make a solution put in with the rennet. When stirred thoroughly, a cloth was placed over the crock while the curdling went on. The curd was then taken out and cut into lumps. The liquid (whey) was pressed by hand as much as possible and a little salt added to the curd. The curd was now ready for the cheese press where it was placed for several days to force out the remaining whey.
There were different kinds of cheese presses, all having round containers with holes in the bottom for the whey to escape through and all designed to put pressure on the curd. The whey was fed to the pigs. The wooden container was lined with fresh muslin before the curd was put in. Often the contents of the press would be turned and the process of pressing repeated. One or more stones were used with the cheese press to give a good pressure. On one farm two men were required to lift the heavy stone from the cheese press.
The cheese taken out of the press was put in a cool place to set for two or three weeks. Cheese varied a lot in size, small ones weighing about 3kg, others 8 or 9kg, and some even heavier. Sometimes a solution from gorse blooms was added to cheese to make it yellow. At other times cheese was flavoured with caraway or sage. Occasionally sheep’s milk, goat’s milk or buttermilk were used to make cheese.
Source: Manx Farming and Country Life (1991) by Manx Heritage Foundation, part of a set of teaching pamphlets issued to schools. Photograph Bink at Renscault courtesy of imuseum; Butter print photograph and bink and crock photograph is part of the teaching set. Photograph links to: Staff Churn; Paddle Churn, Barrel Churn.