TURNIP FLAVOUR.

Northern Advocate, 26 August 1924, Page 4

TURNIP FLAVOUR.

Mr G. M. Valentine at the annual meeting of the Whangarei Dairy Company on Saturday remarked that the subject of "turnipy" butter was nn evergreen one. Is there any good reason why this should be£ Turnips are acknowledged to be an excellent winter food for cattle, yet dairy farmers are afraid to use them because turnip flavour sometimes seems to persist in butter, and it is a flavour that the average consumer will not brook. Surelv it is

possible that some closer investigation of the subject than any that has yet been undertaken would enable farmers to make full use of turnips and yet do nothing to injure the quality of the butter-fat produced by their herds. Obviously this is a matter of national interest, dairying being an industry that is vital to the whole Dominion, and research would be well worth while. That investigation has not- been carried farther than it seems to have been

is surprising. But if opportunities have been neglected in the past, 'that is all the more reason why there should be no more delay. A very practical experiment in this direction was suggested at the Dairy Company's meeting by Mr Robert McDonald. His idea is that the company should churn some good quality turnip-fed cream and hold it for three months in order to ascertain whether the turnip flavour would not develop in that period. It is an experiment that could be made simply enough, and conversely it would be easy to store butter in which turnip flavour actually was detected and ascertain the effect of keeping it for a period. Perhaps it would be better not to fix a definite period, but merely to store the butter for varying periods and so watch it closely. So simple an experiment is well worth trying, for it might- have very far-reaching results.