BUTTER STORAGE 457 



weight than imsalted butter and heavily salted butter will shrink 

 more than lightly salted butter. Even after the butter is in 

 cold storage this shrinkage in the case of heavily salted butter 

 will continue, resulting in very appreciable loss of weight by the 

 end of the storage period. Light salted and unsalted butter, on 

 the other hand, do not suffer material loss in cold storage. 



Deterioration of Quality of Butter in Storage. Butter of 

 good quality, intelligently manufactured and properly packed, 

 will generally withstand noticeable deterioration under ordinary 

 commercial conditions and without regular cold storage for about 

 a month. After that time it tends to depreciate, and unless of 

 exceptional keeping quality, it will gradually develop specific 

 defects, such as rancidity, fishy flavor, etc. In regular cold stor- 

 age good butter may retain the character of fresh butter foi; 

 several months. However, age is the arch enemy of quality, 

 and prolonged storage even at commercial cold storage tempera- 

 tures, gradually develops in the great bulk of butter so stored 

 the characteristic storage flavor. 



The changes and the causes of these changes which take 

 place in butter in storage are exceedingly complex and as yet 

 far from being thoroughly understood. These changes affect 

 both the flavor and the texture of butter, varying in kind and 

 extent with the character and quality of the butter while fresh 

 and the temperature and 'period of storage. 



The flavor changes often are very marked, the butter loses 

 the characteristic flavors and aroma of fresh butter and devel- 

 ops a variety of off-flavors, the specific flavor and its intensity 

 in each particular case depending probably on specific combina- 

 tions of conditions. Only in rare cases can the flavor defect be 

 traced direct to one specific cause. A certain combination of 

 factors may yield a specific flavor defect, the absence from this 

 combination of one factor may fail to produce the same defect 

 and may cause an entirely different defect, although all other 

 factors and conditions responsible for the original defect may be 

 present. Thus butter may develop a fishy flavor under certain 

 apparent conditions. Yet when an effort is made to produce 

 fishy butter by subjecting butter to these conditions, fishiness 

 often fails to result and in its place usually some other flavor 

 develops, such as oily flavor or metallic flavor, etc. 



