BUTTER-MAKING

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1523, 28 February 1901, Page 53

BUTTER-MAKING

(By J. A. Xinsella, Dairy Oommissioner.) Butter consists chiefly of the fatty substances of milk ; water, salt, and a small amount of curd compose the remaining portion. It is impossible to lay down any hard-and-fast rules to be followed in buttermaking, as circumstances vary with climatic changes, etc. ; though under normal conditions the process is much the same from day to day the world over. It is, therefore, important that the buttermaker should be possessed of a fair amount of skill and judgment. He should further have the practical experience necessary to cope with the many difficulties which crop up from day to day. CLEANLINESS. So much has already been said with reference to cleanliness in all the different stages of the dairy business that it would seem almost needless to mention it, either in dealing with the raw material or with the finished article. But there is evidently still room for vast improvement in this, the most important and essential factor in the production of a fine article of butter. Scientists tell us that there are millions of germs floating in the air and in the water. Some of these are desirable, whilst others' are the butter-maker’s greatest enemy. It is therefore important that great care be exercised to guard against" their entrance into the milk, and the development and reproduction of the injurious bacteria. The sources of the latter are numerous, and it is therefore that everything the milk or cream comes in contact with should be thoroughly washed and sterilised. - RIPENING OF THE CREAM. The ripening of the cream is one of the most essential points in the modern system of butter-making. The flavour of the butter depends largely upon the manner in which the cream is treated and handled during the ripening process, and upon the quality of the starter used. The purposes of cream-ripening may be summed up as' —(1) To get the best flavour in the butter; (2) to get the most exhaustive churning; (3) to give the butter the best keeping-quality. The cream should be cooled to a rip-ening-temperature immediately it comes from the separator. From 62deg. to 65 deg is found to be a favourable temperature to ripen at. A lower temperature and slower ripening gives a better body to the butter, but v if the ci*eain is held at a low point for a long time it is subject to contaminating influences, this meaning deterioration in flavour. It is here that the utility of a first-class starter comes in, for by its means we can ripen the cream in a comparatively short time at a fairly low temperature. If you have a pure-flavoured starter madfe from a good culture, the flavour of the starter is sure to predominate in the resulting butter.

The amount of starter used will vary according to the length of time the cream is to be ripened, and' the condition of the cream at the time the starter is added. Thin cream will ripen faster than thick cream. In ordinary factorywork in summer 2\ per cent is found about the right amount of starter. Under normal conditions about 5 per cent gives good results. When the cream has developed sufficient acid, which will be noticed by first signs of thickening and a slight lactic-acid 1 taste, it should at once be gradually chilled to a churningtemperature, not higher than 50deg. The cream should be held at the low temperature overnight, or until the fats have become solidified, and sufficient acid has been developed for churning. In the case of fast-ripening cream becoming over-ripe, I would recommend churning immediately it has had sufficient time to allow the fats to become solidified, six or seven hours being enough for this purpose. When the cream is sufficiently ripened for churning it should have a smooth, thick, glossy appearance, somewhat of the consistency of white-lead paint. It should possess a rather mild acid taste and smell, and should have a full cream flavour. Great care should be exericsed not to over ripen the cream. I think a good deal of our butter is injured through too much acid being developed in the cream, both with and without the use of a starter. When too much acidi is developed the casein becomes coagulated, and in the churning process is broken into small which become incorporated in the butter in the form of white specks. The butter-maker should aim to ripen the cream so as to have it uniform from day to day, at the same time allowing only a sufficient amount of acid to develop to secure exhaustive churning, and to assist in giving the butter a better keeping-quality. The cream should reoeive an occasional stirring during the ripening process, in order to secure uniform ripening. The cream-vat should be covered with a white canvas cover to prevent contamiantion of the cream from outside influences. THE ALKALINE TEST. For those who are not able to judge when the cream is sufficiently ripe for churning] the alkaline test serves, as a fairly accurate means of determining the degree of acidity. I claim, however, that every butter-maker should be a practical and experienced judge of the cream he handles each day. I maintain also that there is no test more reliable under all conditions in ordinary foctory-work than that provided by the well-trained nose -

enced butter-maker. My own experience with the alkaline test is that it is not always reliable. Where tne solution was received fresh, results -were obtained, but it is liable to lose its strength, and for those who wish to introduce the test I would recomend the tablets in preference. The apparatus for applying the alkaline test consists of a 100 c.c. glass cylinder, a 17.6 c.c. Babcock pipette measure, and an ordinary white china or stone cup. The test is, briefly, made as follows: Place five tablets in the glass cylinder, then fill it with clean water to the 97 mark. When the tablets are all dissolved, the cream to be tested should be thoroughly stirred and 17.6 c.c. measured into the cup, the pipette being then rinsed with water and that added to the cream. Then pour the'solution slowly from the cylinder into the cream, stirring constantly until a distinct pink colour becomes permanent. Each cubic, centimeter of the solution used to bring out this colour will represent 0.01 per cent, of acid in the cream. Note that for every 5 per cent, increase of butter fat in the cream there should be a decrease of at least 0.03 or 1 per cent, in the development of acid. CHURNING. The object of cburning is to reduce the cream from a solution to a solid. Before running the cream into the churn it should be thoroughly stirred, in order to secure as great a uniformity as possible throughout the whole lot. If this matter is not attended to, when there is more than one churning in the vat you are liable to have considerably more acid in the first churning:, owing to the bottom cream being thinner, for the more milk in the cream the greater the development of acid. Cream of average ■slackness can be churned at a lower temperature than thin cream. In the process of churning, the temperature, the amount of acidity, and the thickness or richness of the cream should be such as to have the butter granules form in thir-ty-five to fifty minutes. SIZE OF THE GRANULES. The smaller the granules at the time the churn is stopped! and the colder the water used for washing, the more moisture will he containued in the butter without appearing in the form of free moisture. The granules being firm, the surface-moisture escapes with very little working, this resulting in a butter apparently dry on the trier, yet containing a larger amount of moisture than butter churned in large lumps and! afterwards overworked and squeezed in order to get rid of the moisture in the ‘large granules. In other words, low temperature with fine granules means an equal distribution of moisture through the whole mass. I recommend controlling the process so that the granules form as near as possible between the size of a large clover-seed! and that of a wheatkernel. TEMPERATURE FOR CHURNING. If the churning-temperature is too high deterioration will be caused in the body and texture of the butter, as the fat globules have a tendency to become soft and oily. If, on the. other hand, the temperature is too low the granules will form in reunci, shot-like grains, and the friction of the whole mass will cause the texture to be injured. The most desirable churning-temperature under ordinary circumstances is 45d ! eg to 50deg. in summer, and 50deg. to 56deg. in winter. It may be said that there is no fixed temperature for churning, and that is true to a certain extdat. The bbove are, however, given as the temperatures from which the best results have been obtained under varied conditions. The period of lactation, the nature of the food eaten by the cows, and) the season of the year .are conditions all of which affect the melting-point of the butter. When the cows are well advanced in the period of lactation the butter globules are smaller and the melt-ing-point is higher. The churning-tem-perature should then be a little higher. Generally speaking, the lower the temperature (provided the butter is secured in a reasonable time) the better will be the resulting butter. A low temperature expels the butter-milk from the granules, and allows the moisture from the washing-water to escape much more readily. If the cream is churned at too high a temperature there will be a great loss of fat in the butter-milk, besides which, as already stated, the butter will be soft and the body injured. These faults cannot he remedied by freezing the butter after it is made. The best churn may be said to be an entirely hollow box or trunk in which -the particles of butter are formed! by concussion of the cream against the sides. With churns in which the cream is agitated by means of beaters, paddles, or stirring apparatus of any kind, the texture of the butter is always injured. Difficulty often arises in getting the butter to come. Particularly is this the case in winter months, when, as a rule, the cows are well advanced in lactation, and are often fed on dryer food, which tends to make the butter-fat harder. Cream of this sort, if improperly ripeneu and churned at a low temperature, will, as a rule, cause trouble. The difficulty may be overcome by the addition of a little pure water of a temperature of 85deg. The addition of a little dry salt to the cream will also assist. These points are mentioned for the guidance of the but-ter-maker when in a tight corner. I would, however, recommend having the cream properly ripened and churned at

will then not require to be doctored after the cream is in the churn. When the granules are forming, water should be added, at a few degress lower than the temperature of the cream. This may be in the form of a weak brine, which will assist in forming the granules. When it is not desirable to have the butter-milk salty, pure water only should be added. I would, however, recommend the practice of sifting pure dry salt over the surface of the butter just as the last of the butter-milk is running off, and immediately rinsing the whole mass down by running water over it with a hose until the water begins to run clear. This method' will assist in forcing out the butter milk, and tend to firm the .granules. (To be concluded next week.)