128 Milk and Its Products. 



temperature as rapidly and as uniformly as possible 

 to at least 50° F., and to hold it there for as long 

 a time as is convenient, usually six to eight hours. 

 Another point which influences the texture of the 

 butter depends upon the rapidity with which the vari- 

 ous changes of temperature are made, and the ex- 

 tremes of temperature that are used. That butter will 

 have the best texture which has seen the fewest pos- 

 sible changes of temperature between the time the milk 

 is di*awn from the cow and the time it is churned, 

 and in which also all the necessary changes of tem- 

 perature have been made most gradually. Not only 

 will such butter have the best texture at low tem- 

 peratures, but it will stand the effec'ts of high tem- 

 peratures better. In other words, it " stands up " 

 under the heat better than butter that during the pro- 

 cess of manufacture has been subject to sudden and 

 great changes of temperature, although the final result 

 may have been to keep it at a low temperature. 

 The effects of ripening are more important and more 

 marked upon the flavor of the butter than upon the 

 texture. It is during the ripening that the charac- 

 teristic flavors of the butter are largely brought out. 

 It is not necessary to the manufacture of the butter 

 itself that the cream be ripened at all. Butter may 

 be made from cream just as soon as it is separated 

 from the milk, but it will be of a distinctly different 

 quality from that made from ripened cream. By 

 ripening in the ordinary sense is meant the produc- 

 tion of lactic acid in the cream. 



In some attempts to substitute other acids for 



