FARMER'S COLUMN.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 110, 12 January 1915, Page 6

FARMER'S COLUMN.

B UTTER-MAKING. A great deal of butter lias a good fla-v-M.r when freshly made, but will not lu'<-n so long, and on that account does not secure a good price. Wholesale and retail dairymen do .not want butter unI«'sk it has good keeping properties, and it will not pay a good price for butter from farms where they'know that ill keeping butter is made. When' once tin principles of butter-making are understood it is not a difficult matter to manufacture a prime product, and it is certainly less expensive and troublesome to make prime butter than an inferior product. WILL KEEP TEN DAYS. Good butter will keep for at least 10 days in summer, and longer in winter without showing the least signs of going off in flavour, provided it is kept in 8 cool place-free from contaminating influences. There are various- causes for butter haying only short-keeping properties, and a few of. them will been'i : . merated below. • , • RIPEN THE CREAM. A very common cause of this trouble is failing to ripen the cream, as the nature of We finished produss Ctepenn? very largely upon the nVau'2 of the 'cream'from which it is made. When Cream is not ripened, the superfluous curdy 'matter cannot be extracted, and excess"of this substance in the biit- : : ter causes it to deteriorate in flavour, soon after it is made. Sutter made from vmripened cream may be of a very pleasant'flavour when freshly made, but it will contain an excess of curdy matter, which although hot unpleasant when fresh, is quickly decomposed by bacteria, which aTe always present in butter. " ANOTHER FAULT. Another cause oi bad-keeping butter is keeping the cream too long beforechurning it. If cream is not churned when ripe it gets more acid for a time, until a certain amount of acidity is developed. Then the germs which produced the acidity cannot work, so another ~.,kind of bacteria which can grow in an acid medium commence to develop. These germs bring about rancidity in cream and butter If' the cream is churned when the germs which produce Tancidity are present, but not in sufßci ent numbers to flavour the cYeam, "the ireghly-made butter may be free from •rraneid flavour,' but it will soon develop. 1 ' WATCH THE CHURNING. |sad-keeping butter is sometimes the result of the churning being at fault. .Butter should always be churned to , small grains, which can- easily be washed to rid them of curdy matter. When .churned to small lumps, the butter will . contain too much caseous matter, which may not impair the flavour of the ..freshly-made y.product, but will soon cause it to turn '' off.''' A small proportion, of casein, about .5 per cent., is necessary in butter in order to give it -the-desired-flavour, • / BEST AT THREE DAYS OLD. ~ . Prime butter is at its best about 'three days old. This is due to .the fact that fi the-small.percentage of caseous' matter • has been decomposed by bacteria, and j.this improves the flavour of the butter. It is when too much caseous matter is present, and this decomposition takes place to too great extent, that the butter has an objectionable flavour. If butter contains only .5 per cent, of .curdy matter when it has been acted upon by bacteria, the decomposition .ceases for a considerable time, but in the case of streaky butter the excess of casein allows a practically unlimited amount of decomposition to take place or sufficient" of it to make the butter uneatable.