CREAM RIPENING 225 



CHAPTER IX. 



CREAM RIPENING AND STARTER MAKING. 

 THE RIPENING OF CREAM. 



Definition. By cream ripening is generally understood the 

 treatment the cream receives and the changes which it under- 

 goes in flavor, aroma and texture from the time it leaves the 

 separator until it reaches the churn. These changes largely 

 control the quality of the resulting butter, with reference to 

 flavor, aroma and texture. Under present conditions and tak- 

 ing into consideration the several processes to which cream is 

 subjected in the modern creamery, this broad definition is 

 somewhat misleading and should be modified. Cream ripening, 

 strictly speaking, refers to the souring and chilling of the 

 cream preparatory to churning. 



Contrary to popular impression the practice of ripening 

 cream is the result of economic expediency, rather than of a 

 specific discovery or invention, or of careful and systematic 

 planning and experimenting for the attainment of an important 

 purpose. Cream ripening began in the early days of butter 

 manufacture on the farm. In order to save time and labor the 

 dairy farmer dispensed with the task of churning his cream 

 daily and adopted the practice of churning the cream of sev- 

 eral days' production together. In those days the creaming 

 was done exclusively by the gravity system, using in most 

 cases the shallow-pan method. When the cream was skimmed 

 off it was already slightly sour and its additional holding at 

 temperatures not low enough to check bacterial action till 

 churning day, caused it usually to be quite sour and ripe by 

 the time it reached the churn. A further reason for allowing 

 the cream to sour was that this sour cream churned more 

 readily and more exhaustively than sweet cream. It churned 

 quicker and produced more butter. 



Some of the butter made by this natural ripening process 

 was of the very best quality. This was true especially where 

 proper attention was given in the production and handling of the 

 milk and cream, to cleanliness, and when the butter was thor- 

 oughly washed and properly worked. Much of the butter, 

 however, was made on farms where these precautions were not 



