Latin Texts & Translations

From milk, too, butter is produced; held as the most delicate of food among barbarous ^[Note] nations, and one which distinguishes ^[Note] the wealthy from the multitude at large. It is mostly made from cows' milk, and hence its name; ^[Note] but the richest butter is that made from ewes' milk. There is a butter made also from goats' milk; but previously to making it, the milk should first be warmed, in winter. In summer it is extracted from the milk by merely shaking it to and fro in a tall vessel, with a small orifice at the mouth to admit the air, but otherwise closely stopped, a little water ^[Note] being added to make it curdle the sooner. The milk that curdles the most, floats upon the surface; this they remove, and, adding salt to it, give it the name of "oxygala." ^[Note] They then take the remaining part and boil it down in pots, and that portion of it which floats on the surface is butter, a substance of an oily nature. The more ^[Note] rank it is in smell, the more higthly it is esteemed. When old, it forms an ingredient in numerous compositions. It is of an astringent, emollient, repletive, and purgative nature.