COMPOSITION AND PROPERTIES OF BUTTER 539 



per cent and over 20 per cent water, but butter can be made to 

 contain considerably less than 10 per cent and very much more 

 than 20 per cent water. The water content of butter averages 

 about 14 per cent. 



The water content of butter after washing and draining, 

 but before working and salting, and while the butter is still in 

 granular form, under normal conditions of churning, firmness 

 of butter and size of granules, generally averages above 16 per 

 cent, but it varies considerably with the firmness of the butter 

 and size of the butter granules. 



Other factors being the same, soft butter granules have a 

 higher water content than firm and hard granules. In the case 

 of normal firmness and very fine granules, similar in size 

 to small rice kernels, the water content of butter before work- 

 ing and salting averages around 20 to 24 per cent. In the form 

 of small corn kernels butter averages around 17 to 18 per cent 

 water and in still larger form, such as in lumps, the water 

 content may drop below 16 per cent, always provided, how- 

 ever, that the butter is of normal firmness at the time it "breaks." 



If the large granules or lumps are excessively soft, such as 

 is the case when the churning temperature was too high in 

 proportion to the melting point of the fat, then such lumps 

 usually show a high water content. In such cases both the soft- 

 ness of the butter and the over-churning are the direct result of 

 the high churning temperature which causes the butter to 

 "break" and gather so rapidly that excessive massing takes place 

 before the churn is stopped. 



In unsalted butter and in properly worked, salted butter, 

 the water is present largely in the form of microscopic droplets, 

 varying widely in size and ranging in diameter from less than 

 one micron (one twenty-five thousandth of one inch) to over 15 

 microns (three five thousandths of one inch). In butter prior 

 to working and in much of the salted butter there are present 

 also considerable quantities of water in the form of large drops 

 and water aggregates larger than drops. 



As previously stated with relation to the physical structure 

 of butterfat and the philosophy of churning, butter represents 

 an emulsion of hydrated colloid-in-fat, that is, it is an emulsion 

 of buttermilk-in-fat. When the butter is worked, a portion of 



