HOW THE DANES SALT THEIR BUTTER.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1189, 14 December 1894, Page 7

HOW THE DANES SALT THEIR BUTTER.

As soon as the buttermilk has, been removed the butter is weighed in order to calculate the amount of salt required, and the salt is worked in at this time, always on the butter-worker. Sometimes, it is put in at one working, and in other places it is preferred to add it in two workings. The amount of salt used is not uniform. It is adapted to the taste of the market where it is expected to be sold ; but it varies between four and five per cent, of the weight of the butter. The salt is not weighed, but measured in a large glass with a scale graduated to grammes on the side, five grammes being equal to one per csrit. Usually the butter is sold to butter dealers, who handl'e'it either on commission or they buy it right out on their own account. These dealers are supposed to know the wants of the market, and it is customary to accept their instructions in regard to the amount of salt and colour to be added to the butter. The salt is worked into the butter with the least possible amount of and it is then laid aside for some time before the next working takes place.. In summer it is put in but ter-coolers, which are a sort of icebox. In winter it may simply be laid in large' .rolls in the butter trough or on a table provided for the purpose.

It lies, here for at least two hours in the cold season ; and when the weather is warm it may lie for eight or ten hours, ofc" even until the cool of the following morning, before it receives the final " working. The object is not only to cool the butter, and thus also to allow it to become firmer, but also to allow the salt to dissolve and to penetrate the whole mass. When it has attained the proper degree or firmness, it / is again put under the butter-worker, and the last buttermilk and a considerable portion of the brine from the salt' are worked out. How much working it can stand differs much in individual cases. Care is taken, however, that it is not the least bit overworked, so as to become greasy and sticky. This working may be repeated a couple of times, or it may be packed for shipment at once ; practice is noty uni form on this point. It is common, however, to give it one more working an hour or two later. The main point is not to work it until it has become decidedly firm, and then to work it only to the extent it can bear without injuring the grain, and yet remove as much as possible of the brine* which has formed from the dissolving salt. It is worthy of notice that, although four per cent, of salt may be added, with proper working about half of this is removed in the form of brine.

Mr Pateson, of the Fresh Food and Ice Company, Sydney, who has returned from a visit to Sweden and Denmark, is convinced that if the Australian butter producers are prepared to temporarily accept prices enabling - the colonial article to be retailed at Is per pound, the Australian butter must beat the Danish article, especially in the winter, and that it will ultimately control the market. The Danes, he says, finding - the dairy industry ruinous, are likely to abandon it. Australia, he asserts, can easily undersell the Danes.