232 CREAM RIPENING 



On the other hand, if butter is made from sweet or only 

 slightly ripened cream, its flavor is mild, the decomposition has 

 been only slight. When this butter is taken from the churn, 

 the changes which are capable of developing good flavor have 

 not reached the limit. Further changes do not produce im- 

 mediate deterioration, the top has not been reached, and the 

 development of good flavor can continue through a consider- 

 able distance of changes and for a considerable length of time, 

 before the desired flavor yields to objectionable flavor and 

 deterioration. Therefore, butter made from sweet or only 

 slightly ripened cream, has relatively good keeping quality, other 

 details of the process of manufacture and quality of the original 

 cream being the same. 



Again, the theory that the lactic acid produced during the 

 process of cream ripening exerts a favorable influence on the 

 keeping quality of butter is not well founded. It has gained 

 considerable credence because of the fact that high acid, such 

 as is found in ripened cream, produces an unfavorable medium 

 for many of the objectionable bacteria present in the cream, 

 and therefore retards or inhibits their destructive action. This 

 argument permits of consideration only when confined to the 

 cream. In the finished butter, made from ripened cream, the 

 percent acid is too low, ranging usually between .15 and .35 

 percent, to exert any appreciable retarding action on germ life. 

 From the standpoint of the biological effect of the lactic acid 

 resulting from cream ripening, therefore, it is highly improb- 

 able that the ripening of cream is capable of benefitting the 

 keeping quality of butter. 



On the other hand, even the slight increase in the acidity 

 of butter made from ripened cream, through chemical action, has 

 a very marked detrimental effect on the keeping quality of the but- 

 ter. It appears that acid is one of the essential agents, in the com- 

 bination of conditions that reduce the resistance of butter against 

 the deteriorating influence of age, and that causes the develop- 

 ment of such off-flavors as storage flavor, oily flavor, metallic 

 flavor, fishy flavor, etc., as discussed in Chapter XVII on "Butter 

 Defects." 



The fact that the changes brought about in sour cream, 

 whether souring be due to natural causes or to artificial ripen- 



