254 MANUAL OF MILK PRODUCTS 



butter granules (see Plate III, p. 122) . When this stage has been 

 reached, the buttermilk will lose its creamy appearance and 

 appear as a watery bluish liquid. The smaller the butter 

 granules, the more easily the buttermilk can be removed in the 

 washing process. If the churning is continued until the butter 

 granules are too large, the buttermilk will be incorporated in 

 them, and cannot be washed out. The purpose of the butter- 

 maker is to stop the churning process at an intermediate point 

 which will give the best net result. 

 Difficult churning. 



Sometimes great difficulty is experienced in the churning 

 process, more frequently in the case of butter-making on the 

 farm, but also sometimes in the creamery. The greatest 

 difficulty is usually experienced in the fall and early winter 

 when the cows are in an advanced stage of lactation and are 

 receiving dry feeds of such a nature as to produce hard butter- 

 fat. In creameries, this difficulty can easily be overcome by 

 the proper ripening of the cream and modification of churning 

 conditions. In extreme cases, it may be desirable to modify 

 the nature of the feed which the cows are eating in order to 

 soften the butter-fat. 



WASHING THE BUTTER 



As soon as the churning has been completed, the buttermilk 

 should be drawn off from the bottom of the churn into a fine- 

 meshed strainer in order to prevent the loss of the small particles 

 of butter. The butter should then be washed with clean pure 

 water. 

 Purpose of washing. 



The purpose of washing the butter is to remove the butter- 

 milk and under some conditions modify the hardness or softness 

 of the butter-fat. As soon as the buttermilk has been removed, 

 an amount of water about equal to the amount of buttermilk 



