MILK SUPPLY AND CREAMERY PRODUCTS 81 



proper sourness when churned, the buttermilk will be 

 of a pleasing taste and flavor. Its thickness will of 

 course depend upon the amount of water, if any, added 

 to the cream in the churn during the buttermaking. 

 If the buttermilk is to be used for human food care 

 must be taken not to dilute it too much. 



Cooling Essential. — If buttermilk is left to stand for 

 hours in a warm room, fermentation goes on and may 

 soon spoil the buttermilk by making it sloppy or bitter. 

 It should therefore be cooled at once when drawn from 

 the churn; if kept in ice water it may remain in fine 

 flavor for several days. Well taken care of it is not 

 only a pleasing and refreshing drink but eminently 

 healthful. In cooking, too, it can be used to advan- 

 tage. 



Commercial Buttermilk or Cultured Milk is simply care- 

 fully soured milk. It can be made at home from fresh 

 milk either whole or skimmed or partly skimmed. Par- 

 tially skimmed milk containing from 1% to 2% butter- 

 fat is plenty rich enough and even better for most pur- 

 poses than whole milk. The essential qualities of good 

 buttermilk depend upon the proper ripening of the 

 cream or milk, the development of a pure ^' breed" of 

 healthful bacteria in a clean field free from weeds. Such 

 a plantation or '^ culture" may be grown in milk as 

 well as in cream. Its function is to turn the sugar of 

 milk into lactic acid under the development of pleasing 

 flavors and whether the butter-fat is removed by the 

 separator or by churning makes little difference. In 

 natural buttermilk there is always a little butter-fat — 

 at least H% — left, mostly in the form of fine granules, 

 too small to be retained in the butter. If the same 

 amount of butter-fat is left m ^^kim milk and that is 



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