POOR MANS BUTTER.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 10011, 8 June 1895, Page 5

POOR MANS BUTTER.

The idea of eating margarine' as a substitute for pure butter is not one which commends itself at the outset to moat people. In the early days of its manufacture it used to be said, as a proof of the powers of soienco, that it oould bo made out of Thames mud. So much oan bo done by scientific chemistry : that it would, no doubt, be possible to | axtraot something resembling butter 1 From such mud, but no one who has '■ jver seen tho banks of Father Thames i it low water would caro to eat it. Suoh I lowever, Is not the method by which I Mr Otto Monstoad, who reoently opened i i second large margarine factory in t England, caters for the poor man's t ireakfast table. The article produced c hero consists of 60 per cent, of best r ieef fat, 20 per cent, of vegetable (nut) v il, and 20 per cent, of new milk, these t ngredients being treated by what is o nown a3 the Danish process, and 1 esultiog In a substance which is not a otter, certainly, but is a wholesome o ud nutritious substitute for it. The n rosh milk, of which 30,000 gallons are bi ikon every week from the farmers in n io neighbourhood, is first placed in w joeivlng tanks and thenco travels into ci ripe Ding" tanks, whore it stays for m xtcen or twenty hours. When suf- A oiently " ripe "il is pumped, together in ith the other ingrodients, into tho m mrns. The beef fat, from which the by larser pait bus been extracted, is in ehed down in hot vats, uud when dt ssolved is sent along pipea to meet the in ilk, tho oil going by another pipe and to iniag the other materials en routi. in fter being churned ia steam driven of

. - j churns, the mixture is allo.we-i tc fill on to ioe-oold \vater stored in hnge cooling tanks underneath. These tanks are described as veritable little aeas of ice ; on their surface the heated fat globules crystallise, and these crystals, when properly cooled, resemble the batter granules so familiar to every dairymaid. They are then collected with long spadelike tools, plaoed on wooden waggons, ond left to drain. When thh is accomplished the margariue Is sent on to huge kneading maohines, where it is converted into a homogeneous mass, and at the same time Baited to taste. Another eot of mills give it a further kneading, after which It is ready to be put up Into rolff or pats for the market. At some period of its manufacture the margarine reoeives Its colouring, that Intended for consumption in London needing to be of a rich daffodil hue, while for the North country It must be the palest primrose. During the whole process from the time the raw materials leave their respective stores or tanke, until the finished article is ready for sale, no human hand touches the stuff, everything being done by maohinery. (Jleanliceßß ib the guiding principle of the factory, which employs some 400 hands, all of whom have to don oloan clothes every day. For this purpose a laundry forms part of the premises. • Mr Mousted has another factory near Manchester, whioh for five years has turned out upwards of 100 tons of mar- ' garine each week, and still another at i Aarhus, in Jutland, which has been in : existence for moro than a year. The . retail cost of margarine is said to be . from 6d to lOd per lb, and there ap- , pears to be money in its manufacture, i Its increasing use will, however, prove a ; strong apponent of the colonial butter trade, and one whioh it Is feared will i have an injurious effeot upon the prices . realised for our prod nee in England.