NEW ZEALAND BUTTER

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7929, 12 October 1911, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND BUTTER

CONTINENTAL TRADE REQUIRE

MENTS,

Messrs A. H. Turnbull and Co. are issuing the following circular to dairy factories throughout the Dominion on behalf of Messrs Weddel and Co., of London; Wo have now sold for the New Zealand factories a large quantity of butter, unsalted and without preservatives, and think it necessary and wise to advise you that it is of the greatest consequence that the factories should do all that is possible to let this butter arrive on the Continent sweet and in the best possible condition.

We suggest you call the attention of the factories to the advantage this new market will be year after year, if the first experiment the foreigner is making in New Zealand butter should turn out thoroughly satisfactory. It will mean a now and permanent outlet for the New Zealand butter.

As you are aware, butter without salt and without (preservatives is a very delicate article, and when out of cold store will not keep so long as if it had salt and had preservatives. In cool weather, such as you will have at the beginning and end of the season, there is not the danger there is in the middle of the season, when hot weather prevails, foi cream getting over ripe, and when once cream is over ripe nothing can restore it or correct the flavour due to the over-ripeness or over-fermentation thai has taken place. Will you, therefore, instil into the minds of the directors oi each factory that the utmost care should be taken, especially during the hot weather, to see that their cream is in the best possible condition, and that no amount of cream, however small, which is tainted or which is out of condition should be allowed to be made into unsaltcd and unpreserved butter. We shall be very disappointed if any neglect or any laxity be allowed to exist in the factories of New Zealand over its manufacture. Heat, as you know, is the great enemy of sweet and fresh butter, aud that is the main danger they will have to avoid. On the Continent, in the larger towns, and on the tables of the wealthy and middle classes, choicest butter is always to bo found. There is no article of diet on the Continent which the people ate more particular about than their butter; in Paris especially. They have a butter in Paris called “Xsigny," which is known all over Europe, aud it sells ordinarily every summer at 2s 6d per lb. In the North of Italy, on the Lombardy Plains, the Italians make a butter of very high quality, but not so good as “Isigny.” We have had unsaltcd butters from New Zealand which at times reminded us of "Isigny" and tho Italian butter, and ii New Zealand could establish a high quality standard for their unsalted butter it would benefit them, as you can see, very materially.

There is no natural law which prevents New Zealand making as good butter—not as good as “Xsigny," we admit-as the best Italian and Ihp best ordinary French, other than “Isigny," but to do this'lhe utmost cleanliness in their utensils, the utmost care by the manager of tho factory as to the quality of the cream he takes in, aud altogether the best efforts of the factory must be put forward if it wishes to attain to that high standard.

Pasteurisation has now spread fairly widely over New Zealand, and along with it there is too much belief that pasteurisation is a restorative process; it is not a restorative but a preventive. -That is, if you pasteurise your cream or milk early, before any deterioration has taken place, then your butter will keep very much better and longer than if deterioration had already begun. To understand this process properly, bacteria in milk and cream are similar to yeast in brewing; in fact, yeast and bacteria are both micro-organ-isms, and closely allied, and in both cases tho higher tho temperature tho more rapidly do these organisms multiply and break down the sugar of malt and the sugar of milk. This breaking down produces at the beginning the fine flavours, but when continued long enough for them to exhaust the sugar of malt and tho sugar of milk then comes the bad flavours—another environment has been created and othjT*r organisms are producing bad and foreign flavours. Of course after the butter is made, great care is necessary to keep it cool and out of all hot atmospheric conditions, both from the factory to the railway, while it is on the railway, and between the railway and the shin. This may seem to you, and perhaps to tho managers of the butter factory, like attempting to teach- them their own business, but wo have no desire to dictate to the factories; all we wish is that tho utmost possible care be taken so that this great development may not only make an excellent start, but establish a sound reputation. We submit the foregoing to your consideration.