CHAPTER XV 



DEVICE FOR RIPENING CREAM 



IN storing and ripening cream the control of 

 temperature is of vital importance. It is, at the same 

 time, a matter most difficult to master. One authority 

 says : " Keep your cream cold until ready to ripen 

 the whole churning, then raise the temperature to 

 62 and keep it there. 1 ' Another told how he keeps 

 it cold, and then raises the temperature by setting the 

 cans of cream in a vat of warm water until the cream 

 reaches about 62. How to do this he did not state. 

 Steam, which must stand at 212^/2 in order to be 

 steam, will not maintain an even temperature with- 

 out constant watching and regulating. 



The author then tried a plan of his own. He 

 made a box about three feet square and high enough 

 to contain the cream-pails. This was set on legs 

 about eighteen inches high ; in the middle of the 

 bottom a hole, a foot or more square, was cut 

 and covered with sheet iron tightly nailed on to 

 prevent outside odors entering the box. A false bot- 

 tom, one inch above the true bottom, was then put in. 

 In this holes were bored all about the outside edges, 

 but none in the middle, to insure circulation of the 

 warm air. A small iron oil-stove was placed under 

 the iron-covered opening. Then a hole was cut in the 

 side of the box and covered with glass, behind 

 which was a thermometer. The apparatus was a 

 partial success, and a great improvement over former 



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