MILK 245 



Churning. The process of churning is the gathering into a 

 mass of the butter fat in the cream. The butter fat exists in the 

 cream in minute globules, each independent of the others, and any 

 agitation tends to bring them together, the force of the impact caus- 

 ing them to adhere to each other. As the agitation is continued these 

 small particles of butter grow larger by addition of other particles 

 until a stage is reached where they become visible to the eye, and if 

 the churning is continued long enough all will be united in one 

 lump of butter in the churn. 



Temperature. The time that it takes to churn depends largely, 

 on the temperature of the cream at the beginning. If the cream is 

 quite warm, the butter will come very quickly ; if it is too cold, the 

 churning may have to be prolonged, in some instances for hours, 

 before the butter granules will become large enough to free them- 

 selves from the buttermilk. The temperature at the beginning should 

 be regulated accordingly. It is usually considered that about thirty to 

 thirty-five minutes' churning should bring the butter. With differ- 

 ent seasons of the year the temperatures will have to be varied some- 

 what, in order to have the butter come in this length of time. It is 

 necessary in hot weather to churn at a temperature as low as 50 or 

 55 F., while in the winter months, when the cows are on dry feed 

 and the weather is cold, it is often necessary to raise the churning 

 temperature to 60 or 65 F. Cases have been known where under 

 some peculiar feed condition the temperature had to be raised to as 

 high as 80 F., in order to make the butter gather at all. Trouble 

 of this kind rarely ever occurs when the cows have succulent feed in 

 winter, such as silage or roots. Occasionally some peculiar fermenta- 

 tion takes place in the cream, causing difficult churning, but this is 

 a result of carelessness somewhere, and can 'be remedied by a thor- 

 ough cleaning up of the premises. 



Washing and Salting the Butter. It is important to know at 

 just what point to stop churning. For best results in freeing the 

 granules from the buttermilk and incorporating the salt it is consid- 

 ered that the butter granules should be about the size of grains of 

 wheat, possibly a little larger. The churn is then stopped, and the 

 buttermilk allowed to drain. After the buttermilk is well drained 

 from the butter granules an amount of water about equal in volume 

 and of the same temperature as the buttermilk should be added, and 

 the churn given four or five revolutions, slowly, so that the water will 

 come in contact with every particle of butter and wash out the re- 

 maining buttermilk. 



As soon as the wash water has drained well from the butter gran- 

 ules, salt should be added. The amount of salt used will depend en- 

 tirely on the demands of the consumer. Usually about 1 ounce of 

 salt for each pound of butter will be necessary. If the ordinary bar- 

 rel churn is used, which is perhaps the best form made, the salt may 

 be added in the churn. By giving the churn a few revolutions the 

 salt will be quite thoroughly incorporated with the butter. It should 

 stand in this condition for a few minutes, until the salt becomes more 

 or less dissolved, before the working of the butter is begun. 



