248 CHURNING AND WASHING BUTTER 



little difference in the moisture-content of the butter made from 

 churnings of different sizes. When there is only a small amount 

 in the churn, the atmospheric temperature is likely to raise or 

 lower the temperature of the cream. If the atmosphere is 

 warm, then the butter from the small churning is more likely 

 to be soft. A small amount of cream in the churn is also more 

 likely to be over churned than a larger amount of cream. These 

 two factors would tend to increase the amount of water in the 

 butter. In mixing the salt with a comparatively large amount 

 of butter, less working is necessary. Much of the butter is 

 mixed in the churn without going through the workers, and con- 

 sequently less moisture will be expressed from the butter. With 

 the same number of revolutions of the churn the butter from 

 the small churning is worked correspondingly more than the 

 butter from a larger churning. Medium firm butter, to a certain 

 limit, loses about .2 per cent of moisture for every revolution that 

 it is overworked in the absence of water. 



Degree of Ripeness. The riper the cream is, all other con- 

 ditions being the same, the easier it will churn. Sweet cream 

 is viscous, and consequently the fat-globules will not unite as 

 readily. The acid developed in the cream seems to cut or reduce 

 the viscosity of the cream, although it causes it to become thicker 

 in its consistency. Cream in an advanced stage of ripening is 

 brittle, so to speak; that is, if a sample of the properly soured 

 cream is poured from a dipper it will not string but break off in 

 lumps. 



If very thin cream is overripened, the curd is coagulated. 

 When this thickly coagulated cream is churned, the solid curd 

 breaks up into small curdy lumps. These small lumps of curd 

 are likely to incorporate themselves in the body of the butter 

 and injure its quality, and also its keeping quality. If thin 

 cream has been overripened, it should be strained well, and 

 care should be taken not to churn it to such a degree as to 

 unite the granules into lumps before the churn is stopped. If 

 the churn is stopped while the butter is in a granular form, the 

 most of these curdy specks can be separated from the butter 

 by copious washing. Some specks are likely to remain in the 



