258 CHURNING AND WASHING BUTTER 



perature should be low. If the temperature of the wash-water 

 is high, and the butter is washed excessively, it will contain too 

 much moisture when it is finished, and is likely to be salvy. 

 If washed with water at a low temperature the butter will not 

 incorporate so much water. What it does incorporate in excess, 

 will, as a rule, be expressed during the working of the butter a 

 result due to its firmness. 



If the attempt is made to incorporate water by working the 

 butter in water after the salt has been added, while the butter is 

 in a hard, granular condition, it will usually appear leaky. 



If cream is in a good condition, overchurning to a small extent 

 does not produce any bad results. The germs which are present 

 in pure and well-ripened cream are not deleterious to the keeping 

 quality of the butter. The amount of butter-milk incorporated 

 in the butter is not sufficient to cause any bad effects upon its 

 quality. If the cream is in proper condition it is difficult to 

 incorporate any more than 3 per cent of curd into the butter. 

 While overchurning is not to be recommended, if it is at any time 

 desirable, it should be done in the washwater rather than in the 

 buttermilk. 



Churning Mixed, Sweet, and Sour Cream. When two lots of 

 cream are to be churned, one sweet and the other sour, they 

 should be churned separately. If the two lots of cream are 

 mixed together, the sour cream churns more quickly than the 

 sweet cream. As a consequence the churn is likely to be 

 stopped before the fat from the sweet cream has been completely 

 separated from the serum. 



At some of the creameries conditions are such that the oper- 

 ator may be tempted to mix the two lots of cream. Where 

 sweet cream arrives at the creamery just previous to churning 

 time, it is advisable not to mix the sweet cream with the sour. 

 It is, as a rule, better to carry the sweet cream over to the next 

 churning, or, if necessary, churn it separately. 



Difficult Churning. Difficult churnings in creameries are 

 not very common. In farm butter-making they are more fre- 

 quent, especially in the fall. At this time the cows are usually 

 well advanced in the period of lactation, and early in the winter 



