580 WHEY BUTTER 



CHAPTER XXI. 

 WHEY BUTTER 



Whey butter is the butter manufactured from whey, the by- 

 product of the cheese factory. Whey contains from about 0.3 

 per cent fat in the case of American cheddar cheese making, 

 to about 1 per cent in the case of Swiss cheese making. 



Since the invention of centrifugal whey separators, it is 

 possible to skim the whey very exhaustively and there is no 

 consistent reason why the butterfat derived from the whey should 

 not produce a butter equal in quality, or nearly so, to that of 

 ordinary creamery butter, provided that the whey is skimmed 

 promptly after it leaves the cheese vat, or cheese kettle, and 

 that the whey cream is promptly and properly cooled until 

 churned or until shipped. Sammis 1 recommends that the sep- 

 arator cream screw be so set as to secure a whey cream con- 

 taining from 50 to 75 per cent of fat, so as to permit the addi- 

 tion of a large amount of starter to this cream. He further 

 recommends that on the evening before the day when the whey 

 cream is to be churned about 75 to 100 per cent of a good, thick 

 cold starter be stirred into the cream, that the cream be churned 

 at 50 degrees F. or below, that the churn be stopped when the 

 granules are still very small and washed with water at a tem- 

 perature from 40 to 50 degrees F. These precautions are rec- 

 ommended in order to facilitate the completeness of washing 

 and because whey butter has a greater tendency than ordinary 

 butter to soften on warming. 



Sammis states that buyers of whey cream for churning 

 often pasteurize it when received, by heating it rapidly nearly 

 to boiling, then cooling as quickly as possible, adding starter 

 and churning the next day. 



The Federal law does not differentiate between whey butter 

 and creamery butter. Whey butter is subject to the adulterated 

 butter ruling which provides that when butter contains 16 or 

 more per cent moisture it is classed as adulterated butter. 



The Legislature of the State of Wisconsin enacted the follow- 



1 Sammis, Making- Whey Butter at Cheddar Cheese Factories. Wise. 

 Bulletin 246, 1915. 



