4O FIRST LESSONS IN DAIRYING 



utensils, preventing the securing of the proper 

 flavor in the butter. 



For large churnings and in factory work, it is 

 possible to secure a commercial culture which is 

 merely a pure culture of desirable flavor-producing 

 bacteria, and is put on the market by laboratories 

 which make it a business to prepare it. 



Home-made starter. A home-made or skim-milk 

 starter may be made by selecting the milk, if possi- 

 ble, from a cow that has been fresh within two or 

 three months. This may be run through the sep- 

 arator before the other milk and put in two or three 

 ordinary fruit jars or milk bottles which have been 

 sterilized by placing them in warm water and bring- 

 ing it to a boil, then cooling, keeping bottles or 

 jars inverted until ready for use. The skim milk 

 should be warmed to a temperature of 90 and held 

 as nearly at this temperature as possible until the 

 milk begins to coagulate. If for any reason the 

 temperature falls too low, say below 70, it may 

 be raised by placing the bottles in warm water. It 

 will help to keep the milk warm if the jar is placed 

 in a larger vessel of water at the desired tempera- 

 ture. When coagulated, the starter should have a 

 pleasant acid flavor, free from undesirable taints. 

 The ripening of two or three starters from different 

 lots of milk at the same time will afford an oppor- 

 tunity for comparative study and for the selection 

 of the best starter to use. Buttermilk or cream 

 from a previous churning may be used if the butter 

 was of satisfactory quality, and the buttermilk or 

 cream does not have to be kept a day or two before 



