142 Dairy Bacteriology. 



Importance of butter flavor. The importance of 

 flavor in determining the commercial value of butter is 

 evidenced by the relatively high value placed upon this 

 factor in scoring, viz., flavor, 45 points ; body or texture, 

 25 points ; color 15 ; salt 10 ; and package 5 points. The 

 factors on which butter is judged, are with the excep- 

 tion of flavor, wholly under the control of the maker, but 

 as the production of flavor is dependent on the kind of 

 bacteria present in the cream, it is a far more difficult 

 matter to control, and yet it is of the utmost importance 

 in determining the value of the product. 



The flavor of the butter is dependent on the quality 

 of the cream. If this is dirty and sour, the maker has 

 little control over the type of fermentation, and hence, 

 little control of the flavor of the butter. This has led 

 in some cases to the grading of the cream, basing the 

 division on the acidity, flavor, and fat content. Such 

 practice is entirely justifiable, as a better quality of but- 

 ter can be made from fresh, sweet cream than from that 

 already fermented. It is noteworthy that the quality of 

 butter has not improved since the introduction of the 

 centralizer system, in which cream is shipped for long 

 distances. 



Control of the type of fermentation. In the older 

 methods of butter making, there was little or no control 

 of the type of fermentation that took place in the cream. 

 "Where milk is produced under clean conditions, and kept 

 at ordinary temperatures, it will generally undergo fer- 

 mentation changes, due to the desirable type of acid- 

 forming organisms. In milk, which is less carefully 

 handled, the undesirable bacteria are more abundant and 

 the quality of the butter of lower grade. When butter 

 was made on the farm, before the development of the 

 f actory system, it was not a question of vital importance 



