BUTTER MAKING.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1600, 5 October 1882, Page 4

BUTTER MAKING.

By Horace Walpolk, Te Awamutu. Butter is the aggregated fat of milk, which 1 is ifirst known as cream.. Pure 1 cream consists of the gldliUlid of milk which rise to the surface on standing. Thes^'-globules are composed of three varieties of fatty matter, stearine, palmatine and oleine, enclosed in a membraneous pellicle. Butter is formed from them by removing the pellicle, and collecting the fair ifit6 a mass. Occasionally, particles of fat arc miugled with thorn, which have no pellicle. This is especially true with regard to the lighter fats, which are derived from the esential oils in the food of the'CO,^. , The first prominent fact in the separation of cream from milk is, that it rises by reason of its having a less specific- gravity than the milk with which it is.niingled as, fat, of which cream is chieflyjcqinppaed, t swells more with heat and .asLriuiis more with, cold than water, of wp fch millv is chiefly composed, it is evident that if other circuirstances are alike^creani will rise better in a high temperature than in a iow one, since the fat in creanij by swelling more with heat, will be .relatively lighter when both milk and cream are warm than when both are cold — the temperature j in. both cases neither rising nor fallpg, but standing without change. 'The colder the milk, the slower the cream rises, because there is less difference' between the specific gravity- of the cream and milk, and becaus,e. the milk is more dense, and offers more obstruction to the motion of the cream. globules. It does not rise as fast at 60 as.at 160 degress. In butter-mak - iug the iwaste of butyraceous matter is confined almost wholly to the minutest particles of cream. These rise with great difficulty, and very slowly. Those who make butter from whey often heat the whey to 170, degress,- w,hen the specific gravity b'etv/een the fat in the cream and the water in the whey becomes so great, that the cream all rises to the top in a short time. By cooling to 60 degrees, five or six times as much time is required to effect the same result. Skimming should ,be done as a rule when • the milk first begins to be sensibly sour. When the cieam becomes so thick that it will not flow back behind the finger as it is passed through it, it is* time to skim. If the vessels are very deep, and temperature very low, -tliis rule will not be applicable, for the cream will remain soft and flowing for a long time after it is all up. Milk which is cooled down much below 50 degrees while the cream is rising remains sweet almost indefinitely. On such milk the cream continues to rise as long as it is sweet, but after sixty or seventy hours the quantity is almost imperceptible, and the quality so poor as to detract from the value of the butter more than will be added by increased quantity. The sooner it is taken off after it is all up the better. There is no advantage in keeping cream standing exposed to the air longer than is necessary for it to rise. Butter is better and more of it is obtained by churning a portion of the milk with the cream. The cream and the milk taken with it should constitute one quarter of the milk. To churn less than this tends to injure the grain of the butter by having too much butter in proportion to the liquid in the churn. The butter suffers by friction with a small amount of liquid in churning, which is obviated with more liquid. In deep setting cream should be always dipped off. The top of the milk often contains contains considerable butter, so that the best way is to use a broad and shallow tin scoop, and pass it under the cream so as to take in the top of the milk. From the time it begins to rise cream is all the time changing till it is at last consumed by the products of the fermentation, whiah goes on in the milk, if left standing long enough. The principal circumstances which affects the ripening of cream is temperature ; the cooler it is the slower it ripens, and vice versa. Cream to be operated on should have a certain degree of ripeness, which is indicated by a moderate sourness, and it should all be equally advanced. If some of it is sweet and some of it sour, or parts of it are of unequal sourness, the unlike parts Avill not cluirn in the same time and a part of the butter will be left back in the buttermilk. If a churning is to be composed of cream skimmed at different times, the different messes should be well mixed and stand together twelve hours at sixty degrees. If it is colder, it should stand longer as the changes are slower, and it will take a longer time for it all to assume the same condihm. If it is warmer than sixty degiecti, less than twelve hours will make it all alike. Unless there is some special reason for churning immediately, it is better to let cream stand twelve hours before churning than to chum as soon as it is bkimmed, for it is generally not all ripe alike when skimmed, though all tauuu off one vessel. The upper part which h exposed to the air and light, generally lipens faster than the under side, ir the air has humidity enough to keep the top soft, and ifc will requite time after skimming and mixing lo make it all assume the same condition. If the aii is so dry as to dry the top of the cream, if will require time for it to soak up soft again. When the circumstances are such that neither of these conditions occur, there is no objection to chinning as soon as skimmed, if enough for a churning is skimmed at a time. It is not well to keep cream very long after removing it from the n.ilk. Butter-makers often lose by keeping it too long. Oicam changes faster than milk. It both sours and decajs sooner than milk under the same circumstances. This makes it neces«aiy to keep the cream jar cooler than the milk', if it must be kept, but it is .better and safer to churn often. If there is not enough for a churning of the cream alone, it is better to add milk and lot the churning go on, rather than keep the cieam beyond the proper time. If the temperature of the cream is to be changed before churnin<?, it should be done giadnilly. We will now pass on to churning. In churning be careful in working or handling, do not mash or break the granules of fat ; this constitutes, the grain of butter. The more the ;<toni« of tat are mashed and broken, the moie the flavour is depressed and the sooner the butter spoils, just as an egg might be expected to sj'oil the sooner for having its contents disturbed and mixed up. The difference in th-* keeping of butter whether the grain is bioken or not is very gieat. When the grain is all right butter may be kept under great disadvantages and almost anywhere. If the graiu is spoiled it Will hardly keep long under any circumstances, and the flavour is about as much affected as the keeping. In all the processes, therefore, of making and handling butter, the preservation of the grain should be. kept constantly in view, and those' methods adopted which will do it the, least violence and have the least tendency 'to make appear gie.iay. The right temperature too mast be observed, for if iwp'cpid whe,n maninulnte.l the grauules wrfl grind against each other and injure by^ tljte ,' frictio'u, and if too warm, the fiiys^ sppiled by th£ top easy mixing of .sof toped fats'.- The object of churiijng. pJtqdiye&V 'the* milk globules 'of Ijhei'r delicate' " ineiiibriuious covering* without ' BJaaWeLor 'dUstftt-bing flic" granule's 1 of fat s fofce'ih vbich^motioa and pressure" are icoi^ioe^/" > (jSuph.'a4power is, much better .thilii'mo^oAaiid 'friction, Repeated im-

pulses of motion and pressure act upon the entire mass nt once and alike. Motion and friction act 'only upoiv subh particles' as the instrument used comes in contact with. Friction wears > off the! pellicles and does its work unevenly. The larger globules meet with the moat fri6tion and hence their pellicles are worn off first. These gather into lumps befdre the smaller ones, becomes churned. If the churning continues till the, smaller ones come, the larger, ones i become overchuvned and greasy by the excessive f notion. Pressure operates upon large and small nearly alike, and the globules of different sizes come nearerrtogether and more perfectly, i