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COCO-NUT BUTTER. 



By John R. Jackson. 



Amongst the many new vegetable products, good, bad and indifferent, 

 that are frequently being introduced for • trading purposes, Coco-nut 

 butter has recently attracted some attention. * In May last it was re- 

 ferred to in the Journal of the Society of Arts as follows " The manu- 

 facture of Coco-nut butter is an industry of some importance in the City 

 of Mannheim. The Mannheim factory ia said to be the only one of 

 any importance in Germany ; it has an output of about 10 tons of bat^^ 

 ter a day. The product is sold under the name of * Palmin,' a regis- 

 tered trade name, or coco-nut butter. It is manufactured from the 

 kernels of Coco-nuts, and is used as a substitute for butter and lard in 

 cooking. As sold it is generally white in colour, almost tasteless, melts 

 at about 80 "^ Fahr., and is of the consistency of mutton or beef-tallow. 

 When de&ired by retail customers who are bakers, confectioners, &c., 

 the product is coloured to resemble ordinary butter. When furnished 

 to dealers it is unlawful to colour it. The proprietors of the factory at 

 Mannheim claim that an analysis of their product shows it to contain 

 more than ninety per cent, of vegetable fat with but a slight trace of 

 water ; while ordinary batter contains about 85 per cent, of fat, and 

 nearly 15 per cent, of water. It is stated that the substance does not 

 become rancid easily, that it will keep for three or four months in a 

 cool room, and that it is much more wholesome and easily digested than 

 the ordinary fats used for baking and cooking. For these reasons the 

 product has met with considerable favour in German hospitals and other 

 institutions, and for use in army camps. Coco-nut butter is generally 

 put up in square packages, wrapped in parchment-paper, a small 

 proportion being sold in tin cans, which are hermetically sealed for 

 shipment in hot weather. It is sold at one price throughout Germany, 

 namely, about 8d. per pound, or about half the price of ordinary butter. 

 The kernel of the Coco-nut is imported in thoroughly dried strips, 

 forming the Copra of commerce. It is subjected to various refining 

 processes, by which all the. free acids and other substances are separated, 

 leaving only the vegetable fat. In the latter stages of the manufacture 

 the product resembles ordinary butter recently churned. It is placed 

 in machines similar to the separators used in creameries, in which the 

 water and other foreign substances are separated by centrifugal force. 

 In the manufacture ot Coco-nut butter a by-product, consisting of free 

 acids and other substances, is obtained, and sold to soap manufac- 

 turers." 



Later on, namely, in June of the present year, the British Consul at 

 Marseilles, reporting on the trade of his consular district for 19U0, says 

 a new fatty substance for consumption in the United Kingdom, to take 

 the place of butter, is being put on the British market. It is called 

 vegetaline, and is nothing else than the oil extracted from Copra, refined, 

 with all smell and taste neutralised by a patented process. It becomes 

 sweet, like lard, and is intended to compete with margarine, and on the 

 breakfast-table as a substitute for butter. A local factory has been at 

 work for the past five years, and an effort was to be made to get hold 

 of the British market through a Liverpool firm. 



* It ia made in Kingatou by Mr. F. W. Stockhauaen, 59 East Street. 



