COMPOSITION AND PROPERTIES OF BUTTER 541 



of remaining in butter in the form of very finely divided drop- 

 lets, unaided by working. 



In sweet-cream, unsalted butter, the fine state of division 

 of the water droplets present in butter before working remains 

 practically intact and is not materially affected by working. 

 In sour-cream butter the lactic acid present has a tendency to 

 slightly lower the permanency of the emulsion by its action on 

 the nitrogenous constituents of the buttermilk and such butter 

 may be expected to show a slightly smaller number of very 

 small droplets and a slightly larger number of larger droplets. 

 The difference, however, is very slight. 



In salted butter the effect of the salting-out influence of the 

 emulsion is very marked and during the early stages of the 

 working process salted butter shows a marked decrease in the 

 number of small droplets and a decided increase in the number 

 of the larger droplets. In this condition the water in butter is 

 not permanently fixed, the emulsion is incomplete and the but- 

 ter is leaky. This butter, therefore, has to be worked until the 

 body is sufficiently plastic to permit, by means of the working 

 process, the redivision and re-emulsification of the water droplets 

 until the size of these droplets is again reduced nearly to the point 

 that prevailed before the salting and working commenced, other- 

 wise this butter remains permanently leaky. 



It may be logically considered, therefore, that the water in 

 butter is present in two forms; namely, in the form of very 

 finely divided droplets, as originally emulsified and locked up 

 in the granules during the churning process, and in the form 

 of larger droplets, drops and aggregates of drops of free moisture, 

 which is loosely held in the interstices between the butter gran- 

 ules and a part of which adheres to their surface. 



The control of moisture in butter, then, resolves itself into 

 the retaining in the butter of the first form of water, the finely 

 divided and thoroughly emulsified droplets originally present, 

 and the dividing and emulsifying into the butter of a portion of 

 the free water; and the ease with which the moisture content is 

 controlled depends on the control by the buttermaker over the 

 mechanical firmness of the butter and the temperature of the 

 cream and wash water. 



