CHAPTER VII. 



TEE RIPENING OF CREAM. 



By the ripening process is meant all the treatment 

 which the cream receives from the time that it is sep- 

 arated from the milk nntil it is put into the churn. 

 Upon this treatment, and the changes that the cream 

 undergoes, very largely depend the quality of the butter 

 as regards texture and flavor. The texture of the 

 butter is very largely influenced by the changes of tem- 

 perature that are brought about during the ripening 

 process. It seems to be essential to the production of 

 a firm, solid texture in the butter that the cream, at 

 some time during the ripening process, should be sub- 

 jected to a constant temperature below 50° F. for sev- 

 eral hours. When cream has been separated by a 

 gravity process, particularly by a "deep setting" one, 

 it has already experienced the effects of such a tem- 

 perature, and is read}^ for ripening as soon as re- 

 moved from the milk. But when cream is separated 

 by a centrifugal separator, the temperature as it comes 

 from the separator is rather high, and butter of good 

 texture cannot be made unless the cream is cooled 

 down and held cool for several hours before ripening 

 has far advanced. The first step, then, in the ripen- 

 ing process with separator cream is to reduce its 



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