208 Milk and Its Products 



Bad effects of over-ripening. When too much lactic 

 acid is developed in the cream the casein is firmly 

 coagulated, and in the process of churning is broken 

 up into minute granules, which become incorpo- 

 rated into the butter in the form of white specks or 

 flakes of casein. Such white specks, besides injur- 

 ing the appearance of the butter, greatly detract 

 from its keeping qualities, as the putrefactive fer- 

 mentations soon set up in them and give rise to 

 disagreeable flavors. Danger from this source is 

 liable to be present if the coagulation of the cream 

 has gone so far that any whey has separated. The 

 cream should in all cases be churned before the ripen- 

 ing process has reached this point. It was formerly 

 supposed, and is still generally believed, that the pro- 

 duction of an excess of lactic acid in ripening tends 

 to a loss of butter, from the fact that the acid 

 dissolved or "cut" the fat, causing it to disappear. 

 This has been shown, both theoretically and practi- 

 cally, not to be the case. Lactic acid has no appre- 

 ciable effect upon fat, so far as dissolving or decom- 

 posing it is concerned, and cream may be held until 

 the whey has separated to the full extent without 

 any loss in the amount of butter that it is possible 

 to churn from it. The chief evil effect in over- 

 ripening is in the production of strong and undesir- 

 able flavors accompanying the undue production of 

 lactic acid. 



Where the cream is made from milk that has been 

 produced under uncleanly conditions, or has been care- 

 lessly handled, or where the cream itself has been 



