16 DAIRYING 



left in the butter, it makes a milky brine and a butter that will 

 keep but a short time. Buttermilk changes so rapidly that it 

 helps to produce the old, rancid flavors which characterize 

 "strong" butter. This is one of the common difficulties met with 

 in farm butter; the cream being churned too warm and too much, 

 and the butter holding an excess of buttermilk which ferments 

 quickly and produces the objectionable qualities that are frequent- 

 ly characteristic of farm butter. 



403. When a thin cream is churned at a low temperature, 

 such as cream containing 25 per cent, fat churned at 55 degrees 

 F., the butter usually comes in round shot-like granules that are 

 hard and firm. It is often difficult to get such butter to stick to- 

 gether to form granules large enough to be held by the strainer, 

 but it may be done by warming the cream. Granular butter for 

 exhibition purposes may be made in this way ; the shot-like gran 



Plate 2 Large and Small Butter Granules 



ules churned from thin, cold cream are washed with cold water 

 and added to brine in glass jars or bottles, the colder the cream 

 the more nearly round and the harder are the butter granules. 



404. The ideal size of granules may be easily obtained by 

 churning ripe cream containing about 30 per cent, fat at near 52 

 degrees F. The butter when it comes will first show pin -head 

 granules which will quickly grow to the size of wheat kernels, 



