CHAPTER VII. 



SALTING AND WORKING. 



Brine Salting is popular with many private dairymen. After 

 draining the buttermilk or after the first washing a strong 

 brine is poured over the granules, the churn revolved, the brine 

 drawn and a fresh lot of brine added. When this is drained, the 

 granules are packed directly into the tub, pail or crock by simply 

 pressing it with the butter lad^e. This is a very nice way of 

 selling brine for butterfat and if private customers are satisfied 

 so much the better, but it is not an advisable system selling on 

 the open market, and if the percentage of water left exceeds 16, 

 there is now danger of being heavily fined. First it is difficult 

 to get it salty enough and if this is done by adding some dry 

 salt it is very hard to salt uniformly. 



The object of salting is to preserve the butter and improve 

 the taste. This is generally understood, but less so its action in 

 drawing out the buttermilk from the butter granules apparently 

 washed clean. In churning, the microscopical fat globules are 

 joined together into the little visible granules and these contain a 

 great deal of "serum" buttermilk. The dry salt sprinkled over 

 the drained granules will, in melting, absorb part of the serum, 

 chiefly the milk sugar solution, leaving most of the albuminous 

 matter, and the moisture is thus reduced with less working than 

 is otherwise needed. 



APPLYING THE SALT. 



Some makers sprinkle half the salt in the churn, revolve it 

 once, sprinkle the other half, and after a while, work it once. In 

 this way it is rather difficult to get uniform results, as it is hard 

 to estimate the amount of moisture and the consequent loss by 

 drainage. Nevertheless, many makers manage to do good work 

 that way and while they use from i l / 2 to 2 ounces of salt, the but- 

 ter will only retain from ^2 to ^ ounces and in this connection 

 we must also consider the solubility of the salt used. If lumpy, 

 the salt should be crushed and sifted. 



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