340 



SALTING THE BUTTER 



organisms have a chance to grow and to decompose butter. He 

 adds that the coli group of bacteria thrives in butter con- 

 taining 6 per cent salt and B. prodigiosus thrives in butter con- 

 taining four per cent salt. Hunziker, Mills and Spitzer found 

 that unsalted and lightly salted butter had a better flavor and 

 kept better in storage at 6 F. than heavily salted butter, as 

 shown in the following table. 



Table 52. Showing Scores of Butter with Varying Amounts 

 of Salt Before and After Storage. 1 



The above ten lots of butter were made from the same 

 churning. Lots 1 to 5 were worked 12 revolutions, lots 6 to 

 10, inclusive, were worked 30 revolutions. 



These findings, then, give evidence of the fact that while 

 a small amount of salt may and does retard the action of some un- 

 desirable microbes, such as certain molds and yeast, and at the 

 same time permit the activity of desirable bacteria, such as the 

 lactic acid speries and, therefore, has a tendency to improve the 

 keeping quality of butter, the opposite effect may be expected 

 with heavily salted butter. 



But the effect of salt on the keeping quality of butter, is 

 also governed and modified to a very appreciable extent, by the 

 temperature at which butter is stored. Bacteria, in order to 

 thrive on the food they find in butter, must have that food in 

 liquid form. When the serum of butter, containing the curd 



1 Hunziker, Mills and Spitzer, Moisture Control of Butter. Purdue Bulletin 

 160, 1912. 



