342 SALTING THE BUTTER 



shown, that heavy salting rather intensifies than minimizes the 

 effect of poor quality. Such butter usually takes on a disagree- 

 able, coarse flavor particularly objectionable to the consumer. 

 In fact the bulk of evidence goes to show that butter made from 

 second grade cream is of better flavor and sells to better advan- 

 tage when it is not salted at all. For this reason many of the 

 most progressive creameries, whose daily make is sufficiently 

 large to justify them to churn the different grades of cream 

 separately, put their second grade cream into unsalted butter, 

 for which they can realize a better price than if they salted it, 

 and frequently their second grade unsalted butter brings as 

 good a price as their first grade salted butter. 



Leaving out of consideration the preference of the con- 

 suming public, one of the most important disadvantages of un- 

 salted butter, as related to quality, lies in the fact that unsalted 

 butter molds very much more readily than salted butter. Mold 

 development usually makes its appearance within less than two 

 weeks of manufacture. Since this is the period before the but- 

 ter reaches cold storage, and during which the temperature to 

 which the butter is exposed, is generally considerably above 

 32 F., mold growth makes rapid progress. In the absence of 

 salt there is nothing to inhibit it, and if the unsalted butter 

 happens to be made from cream that is high in acid when 

 churned, the moldiness is further intensified. Molds flourish 

 in an acid medium. Salt brine, on the other hand, retards mold 

 growth. Salted butter, therefore, is not so prone to arrive on 

 the market in moldy condition. 



Effect of Salt on Possible Germs of Disease That May be 

 Found in Butter. This applies only to butter made from raw 

 cream, as it is generally conceded that proper pasteurization 

 of the cream eliminates the germs of infectious diseases from 

 butter. Data on the effect of salt on the virulence of patho- 

 genic bacteria, are not numerous and such data as are available 

 are confined to the bacillus of tuberculosis. Schroeder and 

 Cotton, 1 as the result of experiments with infected butter, 

 conclude that living bacilli of tuberculosis will retain their 

 infectious properties for at least 160 days in salted butter when 



1 Schroeder and Cotton, The Relation of the Tubercle Bacillus to Public 

 Health, U. S. Dept. Agr., B. A. I. Circular 153, p. 38. 



