WORKING THE BUTTER 357 



in color, because the water droplets which it contains are very 

 minute and there is a permanent absence of large droplets. 



Overworked butter usually has a poor body and defective 

 grain, severely criticized on the market. Overworking injures 

 the grain of the butter. If butter is overworked while soft, the 

 body is prone to be greasy ; if overworked when hard it tends 

 to be salvy in texture. A plug of such butter pulled from the 

 tub breaks with a smooth surface, similar as if it were cut with 

 a knife and showing that the grain has lost its identity. Over- 

 worked butter also has a dull, lifeless color, similar to oleomar- 

 garine and which is not attractive to the buyer. Such butter 

 seldom stands up \vell on the market under unfavorable tem- 

 perature conditions and its flavor and keeping quality may be 

 impaired. Frequently butter of this description contains exces- 

 sive moisture. Butter with a firm body will stand much more 

 working without injury to its body than butter that is soft. 



Effect of Working on Moisture Control of Butter under 

 diverse Conditions. The working is an important part of the 

 process of buttermaking as a means to regulate the moisture 

 content of butter. In fact, the expulsion or retainance of mois- 

 ture largely depends on the method employed for working. 



The smaller the granules when the churn is stopped, the 

 larger the amount of moisture they hold. Churning butter to 

 large granules or lumps tends to expel moisture, unless such 

 overchurning is due to very soft butter, in which case the butter 

 may hold abnormally much moisture. If the churning process 

 is stopped at the proper time, that is when the butter has gath- 

 ered in the form of granules of the size of small corn kernels, 

 butter contains more than sixteen per cent moisture immedi- 

 ately after the buttermilk has been drawn off, and immediately 

 after washing it still contains an excess of moisture. The sub- 

 sequent salting and working removes this excess moisture. If 

 the butter granules are round, smooth and firm as is usually the 

 case in fall, winter and early spring, and especially in the case 

 of thin cream, the excess of moisture escapes very rapidly and 

 there is a strong tendency toward too great escape of moisture, a 

 low moisture in the finished butter and a correspondingly low 

 overrun. The excessive expulsion of moisture can be minimized by 



