DAIRYING 49 



possible and as suddenly as possible is about the only safe means 

 the buttermaker has at his disposal for checking the progress of the 

 ripening. 



*RAW CREAM BUTTER 



479. Quick Ripening. The point to which cream is ripened 

 before churning may be reached in a comparatively short time 

 after separation if the buttermaker so desires. When quick ripen- 

 ing is practiced a large starter is added to the sweet cream and it 

 is then held at a temperature of 70 to 75 F. from two to four 

 hours, or until the cream has reached about 0.5 per cent. acid. 

 The cream is then cooled to near 50 F. and held at this tem- 

 perature at least two hours or until it is churned. Some butter- 

 makers of long experience profess to be able to get the best quality 

 of butter by churning immediately after the cream has been 

 brought to the proper stage of ripeness and then cooled sufficiently 

 for churning. This method it is claimed will produce a more highly 

 flavored butter than that made when the ripened cream is held at 

 a temperature near 55 F. for 12 hours or more after ripening, or 

 until the morning churning. The butter intended for competition 

 in prize contests is sometimes made in this way, the buttermaker 

 watching the cream and churning it in the night when it is "just 

 right" rather than running the risk of loss in quality by allowing 

 the ripened cream to stand until the next morning and then churn- 

 ing it. 



480. No satisfactory theoretical explanation for the immedi- 

 ate churning after quick ripening has yet been offered, and the 

 success of such a practice depends largely on the ability of the 

 buttermaker to detect the point at which the cream is in the proper 

 stage of ripeness for obtaining the desired quality of butter. The 

 acid tests will not do this, as they measure only the amount of 

 acid developed by the ripening. After a certain point has been 

 reached the acidity fails to increase, but the ripening changes con- 



*Raw cream butter is understood to be butter made from 

 cream which has not been heated above the usual separating 

 temperature of milk that is about 85 F. 



