546 COMPOSITION AND PROPERTIES OF BUTTER 



has suffered no mutilation. It may therefore be of just as good 

 flavor and keeping quality as butter containing much less water. 

 In fact, if the low-moisture butter required excessive working in 

 order to reduce the water content, the high-moisture butter may 

 be superior. 



On the other hand, high-moisture butter made in winter is 

 often very inferior to low-moisture butter, because overworking 

 was necessary in order to hold up the moisture content. 



In winter, when the butterfat is naturally firm and the 

 butter tends to be low in moisture, it may be preferable, from 

 the standpoint of quality, if the buttermaker insists on incor- 

 porating the maximum water permitted by law, to raise the 

 churning temperature sufficiently to make the butter "come" in 

 very slightly softer condition, rendering it more miscible with 

 water and thereby making unnecessary excessive working, rather 

 than to mutilate the body of very firm butter by overworking, 

 always providing, however, that the slightly less firm butter is 

 not overworked. The buttermaker should clearly understand 

 that the less firm the butter, the greater the danger of over- 

 working. Soft butter does not stand much working without 

 injury to its grain. It also usually tends to have a leaky body. 



The Curd. The curd represents the nitrogenous constitu- 

 ents of butter. It is generally thought of as the casein (casein 

 lactate) derived from the buttermilk. This impression may be 

 somewhat erroneous, as it appears that there are other nitrog- 

 enous substances in butter with properties differing somewhat 

 from those of casein and casein lactate. Storch 1 separated from 

 butter a nitrogenous substance which formed a slimy precipitate 

 in acetic acid, quite different from the usual white, cheeselike, 

 lumpy or flocculent precipitate formed by the casein. This slimy 

 precipitate was insoluble in weak ammonia, and in a 2 per cent 

 solution of sodium hydroxide, while the casein dissolves exceed- 

 ingly readily in these solutions. According to Storch, this 

 nitrogenous substance corresponds completely with a protein 

 associated with the fat globules. He claims that on the basis 

 of its insolubility in the above alkalies, this slimy substance 



1 Storch 36 Bericht des Koenigl. Veterinar- und Landbauhochschule- 

 Laboratoriums, Kopenhagen, Denmark. 



