MILK AND CREAM

Without possessing a dairy, it is quite possible for families to have always a sufficient provision of milk and cream for their consumption, provided there be a clean cool larder or pantry where it can be kept. It should be taken from persons who can be depended on for supplying it pure, and if it can be obtained from a dairy near at hand it will be an advantage, as in the summer it is less easy to preserve it sweet when it has been conveyed from a distance. It should be poured at once into well-scalded pans or basins kept exclusively for it, and placed on a _very clean_ and airy shelf, apart from all the other contents of the larder. The fresh milk as it comes in should be set at one end of the shelf, and that for use should be taken from the other, so that none may become stale from being misplaced or overlooked. The cream should be removed with a perforated skimmer (or skimming-dish as it is called in dairy-counties) which has been dipped into cold water to prevent the cream, when thick, from adhering to it. Twelve hours in summer, and twenty-four in winter, will be sufficient time for the milk to stand for “_creaming_,” though it may often be kept longer with advantage. Between two and three pints of really good milk will produce about a quarter of a pint of cream. In frosty weather the pans for it should be warmed before it is poured in. If boiled when first brought in, it will remain sweet much longer than it otherwise would; but it will then be unfit to serve with tea; though it may be heated afresh and sent to table with coffee; and used also for puddings, and all other varieties of milk-diet.