MILK 241 



It is sometimes necessary, in order to secure a good starter, to 

 save a number of samples of milk and select the best from the lot. 

 When an exceptionally good starter is secured it can be propagated 

 from day to day by adding a small portion of it to a quantity of 

 sweet skim milk, enough milk being used to make the necessary 

 amount of starter for the cream to be churned. This controls the 

 souring of the milk just the same as the addition of starter to the 

 cream controls the souring of the cream. Where one is churning 

 every day this is a very good method for carrying forward the 

 starter. In fact, it may be used when but two or three churnings 

 a week are made just as satisfactorily, discarding the lots on the days 

 there are no churnings. 



Under factory conditions, where mixed milk from a number of 

 herds is used, it is always necessary to heat the milk intended for 

 the starter to near the boiling point to destroy the bacteria that it 

 may contain, and then renew the germ life in it by adding a portion 

 of a well-ripened starter, but under farm conditions there should be 

 no necessity for this. The milk should be so clean and so pure that 

 the only decomposition which takes place would be that of souring, 

 and it wilt usually be found that this souring gives the pleasant acid 

 taste to the milk that is desirable in the butter. 



When an attempt is made to ripen the cream without the ad- 

 dition of a starter the results are not usually as good. An example 

 of what takes place in cream can be readily seen after one has some 

 experience in making starters. Very often one sample of milk will 

 not develop the desirable flavors, but will become entirely unfit to use 

 in the cream as a starter, while another sample, perhaps taken from 

 the same day's milking, will sour with a fine flavor. The cream 

 contains the bacteria that developed in both of these starters, and 

 each kind has equal chance to develop, unless a large quantity of the 

 right kind is introduced, these overcoming the undesirable kind 

 present and thus controlling the changes which take place. This is 

 the purpose of the starter. 



During the last few hours of ripening there should be taken into 

 consideration the temperature at which the cream must be churned. 

 When it is completely ripe or has reached that point where the flavor 

 is fine and the arom-a good, it should be quickly brought to the tem- 

 perature necessary for churning, if not already at that temperature. 

 If it has to be lowered several degrees, it should stand at the churn- 

 ing temperature for a period of three or four hours before churning. 

 This becomes necessary because the butter fat is a poor conductor of 

 heat and takes longer to change in temperature than the milk serum. 

 Everyone is familiar with the fact that oils and fats cool very slowly. 



During the process of ripening the cream should be stirred oc- 

 casionally to obtain best results. Just what is the result of stirring 

 is not entirely known or why it is necessary, but it is known that 

 cream when frequently stirred ripens with a more uniform and finer 

 flavor than cream which is ripened without stirring. 



Flavors in Cream. In speaking of flavors, so far only acid 

 flavors have been mentioned. There are undoubtedly desirable 



