332 DEFECTS FOUND IN BUTTER 



which you shipped us this winter, made from cream obtained 

 from the Randall Creamery during the ' Short Course/ was very 

 fancy, and scored from 93 to 96 points. Very little butter 

 arrived at that time as fine in flavor as this. Our best trade was 

 well pleased with your butter. I wish that more of the cream- 

 eries were making this high quality butter at the time of year 

 when it is so difficult to make it. The workmanship was perfect 

 in every respect, so far as I could see, and the flavor was fine." 



If the above-mentioned cream had been permitted to sour 

 naturally the chances are that the flavor would have been very 

 inferior instead of fine. The authors have found the best tem- 

 perature for ripening cream during the winter months to be 70 

 to 74 F. 



From the above it seems that the flavor of the butter is not 

 injured by the advance in the lactation period of the cow but 

 rather by undesirable fermentations that develop in the cream if 

 permitted to sour naturally, especially during the winter months. 



Tallowy Flavor. Tallowy flavor is sometimes found in butter, 

 usually in butter that has been kept under rather unfavorable 

 conditions. Butter of this character has a taste somewhat 

 similar to that of old tallow. This peculiar flavor is more apt to 

 develop in print than in tub butter. It occurs, however, in tub 

 butter when it has been bored a number of times, thus bringing 

 the air into contact with the inner parts of it. It is found some- 

 times in print butter which has been exposed to the air and 

 light, and the color may be seriously affected, even to the extent 

 of bleaching the surface butter white. 



The cause of tallowy flavor in butter is oxidation. U. S. 

 Bulletin 84 shows the effect of air on the quality of butter. A 

 number of cans of butter were put up by Gray, and hermetically 

 sealed. Some of these cans were packed full, some about three- 

 quarters full, some about half full, and the butter in one lot was 

 put in loosely where the air came into contact with it. Thus, 

 the amount of butter in these cans was so varied that different- 

 sized air spaces were left. The solidly packed butter in every 

 instance kept the best in storage. The butter that was loosely 

 packed deteriorated very rapidly, showing a tallowy or fishy 



