CHAPTER XXI 

 DEFECTS FOUND IN BUTTER 



SOME OF THE CAUSES AND THEIR PREVENTION 



IN the scoring of butter, 45 points are allowed for flavor, 

 25 for body, 15 for color, 10 for salt and 5 for package. This is 

 the score that is generally recognized in this country. Some 

 expert judges have used the score of 50 for flavor, in which case 

 5 are taken off for body, allowing 20 instead of 25. We can, 

 therefore, see that flavor is the most important factor in deter- 

 mining the quality of butter. The other defects found in butter 

 are mechanical defects caused by the process of manufacturing. 

 Undesirable flavors affect the selling price of butter more than 

 anything else. 



Flat or Insipid Flavor. Butter that lacks flavor is sometimes 

 termed by judges insipid, or flat. Various terms are used in 

 describing the flavor of butter. For good butter, such terms 

 are used as rich, creamy, aromatic. Butter may be rich in flavor 

 without having a pronounced aroma. This kind of butter has 

 a pleasant palate flavor. A flat or insipid taste may be due to 

 several causes, such as excessive washing and making butter 

 from unripened cream. If cream is pasteurized and a large per 

 cent of good starter is used, the flat flavor, above described, will 

 be overcome. 



Butter made from cream of which the flavor is not clean will 

 score much higher if it is unsalted. For this reason, many 

 creameries manufacture their second-grade cream into butter 

 without the use of salt and make what is known to the trade as 

 " sweet butter." The theory was advanced some years ago, by 

 writers on butter, that heavy salting covered up many defects. 

 Various investigations have demonstrated that this is not true. 



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