SAI/TING THE BUTTER 335 



butter, or necessitating the overworking of the butter. Their 

 distribution also tends to be less uniform, the individual crys- 

 tals are farther apart so that their action on the casein and the 

 expulsion of buttermilk are uneven, and the fusion of brine and 

 water in the butter is slow and relatively incomplete. This in 

 turn tends to cause an uneven color in butter. 



When the salt crystals are too fine, the salt is prone to be 

 pasty, which renders its uniform distribution difficult. Exces- 

 sively small crystals hinder the expulsion of buttermilk because 

 the drops of buttermilk which each crystal is capable of tak- 

 ing up are so small, that their complete and ready expulsion 

 is hampered. 



Salt crystals of medium size, and which will pass through 

 a screen having 25 to 30 meshes to the inch, are best suited 

 for butter salt. 



With reference to the shape or form of the salt crystals, 

 the butter salts are divided into two classes, the flake crystal 

 salt and the cube crystal salt. The flake grain represents a 

 thin and flat crystal usually of rhomboid or pyramid form, while 

 the cube crystal grain appears in the form of regular-shaped 

 solid cubes. Since the flake grain, with the flat thin crystal, 

 exposes more surface in proportion to its cubic contents, than 

 the cube crystal with its cube shape, it is obvious that the flake 

 grain salt dissolves somewhat more readily and is therefore bet- 

 ter suited for butter salt than the cube crystal grain, unless the 

 cube salt is of sufficiently smaller grain to reduce the cubic con- 

 tents of the cube crystals in proportion to their surfaces to 

 that of the coarser, crystals of the flake salt. The difference in 

 the shape of the crystals is due to the temperature at which 

 the brine is evaporated. The flake grains are the product of 

 evaporation at a high temperature (under atmospheric pres- 

 sure) while the cube crystal grains result from evaporation at 

 a relatively low temperature (in partial vacuum). 



Solubility of Buttersalts. The solubility and rapidity of 

 solution of Colonial, Diamond Crystal and Worcester butter 

 salts, representing the Grainer, the Ahlsberg and the Vacuum 



