Milk and Milk Products.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 August 1922, Page 1

Milk and Milk Products.

THEIR FOOD VALUES. BUTTER AND CREAM. (Christchurch Sun). Cream consists essentially of the fat of milk, but it would be a mistake to suppose that it consists of fat alohe. It contains, In addition, proteid and sugar in n s fully a high proportion us milk itself. The real difference, indeed, between milk and cream is that in cream some of the water lifts been replaced by fftt-.

The exact amount of fat in cream varies: the differences depending to n large extent on the method in which tho cream has been separated from the milk. In cream produced by a centrifugal Separator the proportion of fat may amount to Go per cent., while in ordinary creiim ,obtained by skimming, it may be merely 18 to 20 pe r cent. On the average, perhaps, one may say that a good sample of cream should contain 40 per cent, of fat.' ,

In n psychological sense-, cream is chiefly to be regarded as a growth and fuel food. The growth value of CreaiVi is due to tho fact soluble, a vita mine. It has been calculated that one pint of cream is equal in fuel value to about as much as l£lb of bread. 18 bananas, or -1411> of potatoes. Good cream (from 40 per cent, to 46 per cent.) is equal to a similar quantity of most of tho cod-liver oil emulsions, and it is more agreeable to the taste and better liorne by individuals. A quarter of a pint of cream per day is not an uncommon prescription for persons suffering from wasting diseases. However, one and a-half pints of cream do not contain more fnt than one pound of butter.

BUTTER. Butter is produoed from cream by churning. This causes all the minute fat globules to run together into a solid mass while tile fluid part containing almost all the sugar and most of the casein is removed, in the form of butter-milk.

The flavour and aroma of butter are due to the growth of organisms in the cream during ripening. Butter prepared from pasteurised cream is devoid of true butter flavour and aroma. The exact amount of fat in butter varies within fairly wide limits .hut averages from 80 to 82 per cent. One ounce of butter may therefore he reckoned as the equivalent of four-fifth,; of an ounce of fat. Tn addition, butter contains 12 to 15 per cent, of water, and about 2 per cent. of casein and milk sugar.

Butter has a. low melting point (31 deg. to 34deg. C.), and that, in its turn, implies that it is easily digestoil and absorbed. As a matter of fact, butter is the most easily digested of all fatty foods. The fat of the human body lias a low molting point even lower than that of butter—the temperature being about 25deg. C . The ease with which butter is digested renders it of great value as a source of fat in the diet of sickness. VALUE IN SICKNESS.

In phthisis, dialietes, and many forms of dyspepsia, patients can take a quarter of a pound of buttci pet day without difficulty, and with great advantage to their nutrition. Tho absorption of butter in the intestines is very complete: even when a quarter of a pound is taken per day, less than r, per cent, is wasted. This is a more favourable result than could he obtained with any other form of fat, and should teach u s that it may lie well to give butter a fair trial before having resource to codliver oil, or other medicinal fatly preparations.

In the feeding of young, growing children, n deficiency of fat cannot bo replaced by such fools ns jams, which although containing an excess of sugars, do not contain vitnminc fat soluble a. If, therefore, butter is with-held from young growing children. and is replaced by jam, rbaeh.tis or rickets is liable to ensue. Again, for the supporting of body bent, one

part of butter l s equal to 2i parts of sugar in fuel value; that is, it would require three pounds of jam to be equal in fuel value to one pound df butte I s , It therefore follows that if jam i s substituted I'Or butter the result is that nutrition suffers and vigour js lost;

It has been found that an Ordinary slice of bread ,spread the usual thickness with jam, takes 40 grammes of jam to cover it, whereas, 8 grammes of butter will cover the slice. In otliei words, as actually used In it llollle,, iii takes five pounds of jahi to go as far as one pound of butter. Good butter should posses s a uniform appearance, neither patchy nor striped. Its colour varies .and colouring matter is generally added during churning. Nor mally, that is when colouring has not been added, the colblir varies from pure white to yellow. Butter, should be neither too soft nor too hard; it should neither be smeary nor hard and brittle. Fresh butter should contain either no salt at nil, or only very small quantities, hut very little fresh o r unsoltod butter is being used .in New /calami Keeping butter Luch ns is generally used here contains from 4 to 5 per cent of ordinary salt besides a small percentage of other preservative.