BITTER BUTTER.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2251, 20 June 1881, Page 3

BITTER BUTTER.

Now and then during the winter there are complaints of bitter butter. In summer bitter cream or butter is scarcely over heard of, nor would be in winter if the milk were kept at a temperature as high as 65 degrees at all times. Whenever it occurs in summer :t is probably caused by weeds which are eaten and affect the milk ; in winter a bitter flavor is nearly always attributable to low temperature. The composition of milk renders it constantly liable to change. Milk contains fat, casoine, sugar, water, and several essential oils which affect its flavor according to the conditions they are in, so that from the moment it is drawn from the cow’s udder until it is entirely decomposed by the usual process of decay it is subject to various changes. Besides, it often contains germs of fungi that under conditions favorable to thair development end growth rapidly increase and injure its flavour. It is well to remember, too, how quickly milk absorbs odors that exist in the atmosphere about it. All of these things, when present in the milk, affect more or lees the butter made from it. Without going into detail or attempting to explain how bitter cream and butter result from such changes, it is sufficient for our present purpose to indicate how it may be prevented. It is a simple question of temperature, A lady correspondent of one of our exchanges, some time ago aptly remarked that temperature is to milk what a switch is to a railroad track. If the temperature is low, hut not low enough to prevent all action (which is at or near the freezing point), the milk will go off on the track towards a condition of bitterness just as sure os there are fungoid growths in it, but if the temperature is high enough to send it towards a state of acidity, bitterness is escaped, -If milk is heated to 130 degrees as soon as it is drawn from the adder, \ery little complaint will bo heard about bitter butter,