30 DAIRY CHEMISTRY 



these fats, palmitin, stearin, and myristin make up 

 about 50 per cent of the composition of butter fat, 

 olein about 38 per cent, and butyrin, the character- 

 istic fat of butter, about 6 per cent ; the remaining 

 6 per cent being made up of laurin, capin, caproin, and 

 caprylin. For practical purposes, butter fats may be 

 divided into three classes : (1) hard fats, stearin, 

 palmitin, and myristin, (2) soft fat, olein, (3) charac- 

 teristic fat, butyrin. 



31. Palmitin is a white, solid fat found in butter, 

 and also obtained from palm oil. Human fat is rich 

 in palmitin. When chemically pure, it is tasteless. 

 Palmitin forms crystals like snowflakes. This fat 

 has a high melting point, 145.4 F. 



32. Stearin is a white, solid fat like palmitin, and 

 has a high melting point, 157 F. It also crystallizes 

 in the same way as palmitin. For a long time these 

 two fats, palmitin and stearin, were thought to be 

 one fat, to which was given the name margarine. 

 Among the fats that are particularly rich in stearin 

 are beef and mutton tallow. These melt at a much 

 higher point than butter, and are the materials used 

 in the adulteration of butter, forming a large part of 

 the product known as oleomargarine, which is a 

 mechanical mixture of the fats palmitin and stearin 

 (margarine) with olein. The larger the proportion 

 of either stearin or palmitin in any fat, the higher 

 its melting point. When one butter has a higher 

 melting point than another, it is due to the presence 

 of a larger amount of palmitin or stearin. These 



