DAIRYING 15 



which may make the churning of such cream impracticable. A 

 rich cream may be skimmed by the separator, but it is usually 

 diluted with the starter*, and this thins it sufficiently so that it 

 may not test over 30 per cent, fat when churned. This is the 

 condition of most factory cream, and it represents as nearly ideal 

 conditions of cream for churning as any practice now commonly 

 in use. : 



400. The skimming of a rich cream is one step in the pro- 

 cess of overcoming the faults in milk by reducing the amount of 

 tainted serum or skim milk in the cream. Such a thick cream 

 will not, however, churn well, and it is therefore thinned by add- 

 ing a sufficient amount of selected starter and the whole milk to 

 make it contain near 30 per cent. fat. This cream is then ripened 

 to about 0.6 per cent, acid and churned at 50 to 54 de- 

 grees F. When churned at a much higher temperature than this, 

 there is too much loss of butter in the buttermilk, and the body 

 of the butter may lack the firmness which is so much desired in 

 that of a fancy, extra quality. 



When to Stop Churning. 



401. Butter is supposed to be sufficiently churned when the 

 granules have attained the size of kernels of wheat. This has 

 been the universal rule for many years, and it answers the pur- 

 pose of a guide for beginners at the present time. Experienced 

 butter-makers are not so particular about the exact size of the 

 granules when churning stops, as they are about the temperature 

 of the granules. When butter has come soft in the churn, the 

 granules will stick together and make larger lumps of butter than 

 is the case when the granules are cold and hard at churning 

 ' time. 



402. The churning of soft butter should be stopped as soon 



" as possible after the cream "breaks" and the butter granules be- 



gin to show distinctly ; for if it is continued beyond this point, 



the butter will quickly f.orm large lumps in which more or less 



buttermilk will be enclosed. This is hard to wash out, and if 



*The cream ripening starter will be described in Les s 



son 



