BUTTER MAKING

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 260, 27 June 1932, Page 7

BUTTER MAKING

"Peter.")

OPOTIKI FACTORY MANUPACTURE OF PRODUCT ENTIRELY. UNTOUCHED „ BY HAND. UP-TO-DATE EQUIPMENT.

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A large whibe-walled, red-roofed ■ buildings it stands by itself among the rich green fields. of the Opotiki' flats. Swift motor lorries bring the eans of cream in. from the surrounding district and -as they are unloaded the contents of eaclv can is examined by an . 'expert to see that it is up to standard. . After having been passed and" weighed, the can is tipped over. ja stainless steel rail and the cream falls ■ into a glass-lined receiving : vat. The : can is passed on, rinsed with sterilised, filtered water and is . then placed in a rotary can-washer. This is like a large cylinderieal tank standing on end with an- opening. in the side just large enough to admit a . can easily. linside is a revolvipg platf orm which carries the can around and returns it to the opening again clean and shining after having been scalded inside and out by powerful steam jets. From the receiving vat,. the cream is pumped through a tall rack of pipes called a regenerator, and so into the pasteuriser, where it is brought up to a very high temperature; from this it passes through the: dsodoriser, which removes any possibility of f eed flavour, such as- might result from too much clover or other stronglyflavoured herbage. After leaving the deodoriser, it passes back to the regenerator, but this time it trickles down the outside of the pipes, which has the effect of warming the incoming cream • and cooling the out-going cream. Next it passes over the outside of a water-cooler and lastly over a brine cooler, which brings the temperature almost to freezing point. At this exceedingly low temperature it enters the huge holding vats, which are lined with glass. Not long ago a tin lining was considered sufficient, but now glass it used in this very up-to-date factory as being more hygenic. The supply will remain in the holding vats until all cream has been received and then in the cool of the evening it will be drawn off and churned into butter. Inside the Factory. Having got well inside the factory : one can pause for moment and looked around. The first thing to strike is the clangour of the cans in the distance, the next the cool and lofty appearance of the butter-making room, which, like the rest of the factory, is lined half-way with glazed white tiles and from there to the roof with glazed washable white paint. What would otherwise be a glare of white 'is pleasantly relieved by a streak of bright red touched here and there, with black where the engine shafting and driving wheels are situated. Below these are the aluminium coloured holding vats, 14 feet high and 10 feet in diameter, while lower still are four huge white-painted churns, each twice the height of a man and with their metal fittings coloured green. The whole.gives a pleasant feeling of refreshment and coolness after the heat and glare1 outside. About the butter-room stand large1 • heavy wheeled tables, the white wood of which has been scrubbed until its whiteness would be a souree of pleasure to any housewife. At the far end are the bulking machine for packing the butter in bulk for export and the Benhill pounding machine. Doors in the wall lead to the refrigerating chambers, which are col- . ed by a most up-to-date process known as dry air cooling. In this process, cold air is blown down through condoits across the storage chambers and out the other side. This avoids the use of ammonia pipes in the actual storage rooms. Above the storage rooms and next to the refrigerating plant is situated .the salt room, where bags and bags of purest white dairy salt are stacked. The quality of the salt used in butter-making is of ; the utmost importance and this supply is of the highest quality. The salt is

tipped from its bags directly into 1 the chufce, at the bottom of which is a door, which is lifted as the salt is required, thus avoiding contact by hand. In the box-making room is a machine which plaqes and drives six nails at a time into the boxes; the four sides of which are placed in position by an attendant. It is worthy of note that the timber used for tbs boxes is New Zealand white pine, owing to its having no resinous odour to taint the butter. Making the Butter. One must return in the cool of the evening to see the butter being made; it is a pleasant walk- from town to factory. The buttermaker and his assistants are hurrying about in spotless white and as we enter, one of the churns slows down and stops. The buttermaker swings open the door to look inside and one gets an' appetiting whiff and a glimpse of huge masses of fresh golden butter. The buttermilk is drawn off and pumped away, freshly filtered water added and the churn once more set in motion to wash the butter.. Meantime an assistant lifts the lid of a white painted chute on the wall and salt runs out into two buckets below, filtered water is added andjthe contents stirred with a special stainless steel rod. The churn, is stopped again, the water drawn off, the salt and wateradded, and it is once more set in motion. A few minutes later one of the big wheeled tables which is shaped like an inverted L is pus.hed forward. The churn is stopped and through the open door, which is about the height of a man's head, the projecting portion of the table is • pushed. The churn is g'iven a half turn. and a quarter of a ton of butter falls on toi the table which is pffshed badk to. where another table of ordinary shape is ■MHMMIHKMlKaiaH

table is turned, and slowly the huge mass of butter slides off on to the lower one. >The process is repeated until the churn is empty and then the table containing about a ton of biit'ter is pushed- over the Benhill poitnding machine^ • ■ . Here another team of men take charge while' the others return to wash the churn, ready for the next lot of cream. With a pair of wooden pats, one man cuts chunks of butter off the mass on the table and drops it' into the hopper of the machine where a large wooden ' screw; very much like that of an ordinary household mincing machine, pushes it forward into a- press -from which it emerges in a continuous oblong block, these blocks slide down an incline and so tq another press which cuts off an exact pound and prfesses it into the well-known 11b 1 block. The block is turned over to f all squarely on a parchment wrapper which the machine. itself lifts, from q. pile close at hand and places ready. Mechanical fingers like small doors, lift the wrapper touching ,the • outside only and fold -it oyer on >top at the ends. . The 11b of butter is ; then- lifted on to another .incline down which it slides to the packing table where two men pack the now familiar parchment wrapped pound of butter into boxes, and ryet another. .whisks . them away into the cool stores. From start to finish the butter is untouched by hand.