Composition of Milk and Some of its Products 



Ash 



1643 



The ash of milk is the part left after milk has been dried and burned, 

 and contains the mineral matter of the milk. It is partly in suspension 

 and partly in solution. The ash is the most constant constituent of milk 

 and rarely goes below .68 or above .72 per cent. 



Ash is important for growing animals because it contains material necessary 

 for bone formation. Some of the minerals found in the ash of milk are 

 salts of sodium, potassium, magnesium, and phosphorus. 



CREAM 



Cream is milk in which a large percentage of fat has been collected. 

 The increase in percentage of fat means, of course, a corresponding decrease 

 in the percentage of the other milk constituents. The New York State 

 dairy laws specify that market cream shall contain not less than 18 per 

 cent of fat. Often the percentage of fat is much higher, and when cream 

 is shipped it is sometimes made to contain as high as 50 or 60 per cent 

 of fat in order to save transportation rates. 



Fleischman gives the composition of cream having high and low per- 

 centages of fat as follows: 



The principal uses of cream are in the manufacture of butter and for 

 market purposes. Cream is a good food, but it is usually regarded as 

 an expensive food. For example, comparing cream at 40 cents per quart 

 with whole milk at 8 cents per quart, it will be seen that five quarts of 

 milk can be purchased for 40 cents, the price paid for one quart of cream. 

 The food value of the five quarts of milk exceeds many times the food 

 value of the one quart of cream. 



There are two ways of separating cream from milk, the gravity and centri- 

 fugal methods. In the first method the milk is allowed to stand for several 



