WASHING OUT BUTTER FLAVOUR.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1208, 26 April 1895, Page 6

WASHING OUT BUTTER FLAVOUR.

There is an impression among ( dairymen that the flavour' of butter may be washed out, says a correspondent Of the Farm, Field and Fireside. A. little consideration will convince anyone of the error of this idea. The flavour is an integral part of the butter, and not something that is added to it. Feed a cow on grass, and she turns the grass into butter, and the butter forthwith has the grass flavour. Feed her on garlic, and the same result occurs. Now, does it seem sensible to suppose that the garlic flavour can be washed out ? Of course not; and it is no more sensible to suppose that the natural flavour can be washed out, for both flavours are due to the same cause, and one is just as much part of the butter as the other. Bdtter is not affected by water, and it would be just as wise to shield a violet from the rain, for fear it should lose its perfume, as to make butter without washing for fear of injuring the flavour. Now, someone may say, if the flavour is something that is part of the butter, and not afFicted by anything that does not aflect the butter itself, whv do you ad viae such cleanliness in the cow'stable for fear of giving the butter a bad flavour The answer is this: When you go into a dirty cowshed you at once perceive a disagreeable smell ; and a physiologist will tell you that the reason you smelt it is beonu.se the object you smell giv 8 off very minute particles, and these enter the nusirils <»"<' p lU "; **»«*- tion of smelling, row, milk w even more sensitive than the smelling apparatus of a man, for, after you have been in the stable for awhile, you cease to observe the odour. But the milk continues to absorb these particles just as rapidly the last minute it is in the stable as in the first, and these particles of manure become mixed with the milk, and with the milk the butter granules, and so, when the butter is churned, it is in part, manure. There is another point to be considered. We sometimes hear people say that butter not washed has more flavour than washed butter. This is true i but the extra flavour is nothing in the world but the taste of the small quantity of buttermilk that must be left in the butter if it is not washed. Buttermilk is liked by many persons, and, if you like it in the butter and enjoy its flavour, leave it therej but it is not the butter flavour that you enjoy, and your butter will not keep so well.