CHAPTER V. 



CREAM RIPENING. 



If cream is churned perfectly sweet it will have a very faint 

 aroma and an insipid taste, and the demand for such butter is* 

 very limited. For this reason, all those who have no special orders 

 for it should ripen the cream before churning. 



NO UNIFORM RULES POSSIBLE. 



It is evident that if we desire to churn the cream at a certain- 

 degree of acidity (and age) our treatment of the cream must vary 

 according to the system by which it was raised. It stands to rea- 

 son that cream which has been raised for 36 hours in a shallow 

 pan, perhaps not skimmed until the milk was loppered, needs 

 not the same treatment as that whirled out of a separator within an 

 hour of milking time. Then, again, that raised in ice water needs 

 a modification in its treatment, just as cream in a separator cream- 

 ery must be treated differently from that in a gathered cream 

 creamery. A difference must also be made if we churn every day 

 or only every other day or once a week. 



BUTTER FLAVOR AND COMPOSITION OF BUTTERFAT. 



As indicated, the object of ripening is to develop that 

 peculiar aromatic flavor which is characteristic of all fine butter. 

 But what really causes this flavor is as yet a mooted question- 

 among scientists. 



Years ago when the chemists ruled the roost, the flavor in 

 butter was credited exclusively to the so-called volatile fatty acids. 

 Butterfat, it must be understood, consists mainly of Palmitin,. 

 Stearin and Olein, which may be found, more or less, in nearly 

 all animal fats ; butter contains, however, six other substances. 



Some of the "fatty acids" are volatile, and it was maintained 

 by chemists that the action of the casein and milk sugar in the 

 butter on these "fatty acids" developed various fine odors which- 

 soon turned into the disagreeable, rancid odor and taste. 



Later the bacteriologists claimed that the aromatic flavor was- 



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