178 SCIENCE AND PRACTICE OF DAIRYING. 



of a litre of artificial colouring matter be taken at 4 to 5 marks, the 

 colouring matter used for 100 kilos, of butter will cost about 80 pfennigs. 



97. Salting of Butter. Over the whole of South Germany, 

 Switzerland, and in the countries of the Austro - Hungarian 

 monarchy, the butter is not salted. On the other hand, in North 

 Germany, Denmark, Sweden, England, Holland, and in some dis- 

 tricts of France, salt butter is chiefly used. The quantity of salt 

 added differs that used for immediate consumption containing 

 1 to 3 per cent, that used for export containing generally 4 to 5 per 

 cent, sometimes, however, more, even as much as up to 10 per cent. 

 The object of salting is to preserve, render the butter better, and to 

 impart to it a flavour the salt flavour. By means of salting, raw 

 butter is more thoroughly separated from the butter-milk which 

 adheres to it than it would be possible without the application of 

 salt. Four to five per cent is quite enough to ensure for butter 

 keeping properties that are sufficient for all practical purposes. 

 Good butter salt should not only be pure, but should also possess 

 the proper degree of fineness, and should be rapidly soluble in water. 

 Butter salt of too coarse a grain does not dissolve perfectly in the 

 moisture of the butter, and too small grains form small drops of brine 

 which are difficult to incorporate by kneading. It is obvious, of 

 course, that the salt kneaded into the butter is not to be wholly found 

 in the finished butter, since a large portion of it becomes dissolved 

 in the water used in the kneading, and is thus lost. Raw butter, to 

 which 4 per cent of salt has been added, contains, when properly 

 kneaded, scarcely 2 per cent. The liquid expressed by kneading 

 contains, according to investigation, about 90 per cent of water, '15 

 per cent of protein matter, '6 per cent of milk-sugar and lactic acid, 

 and 9'25 per cent of mineral matter, exclusively salt. During salting 

 and kneading, the raw butter suffers, on an average, a loss of weight 

 of from 2 to 4 per cent; indeed, under exceptional circumstances, 

 the loss may amount to as much as 9 per cent. 



If butter salt has to be tested for its usefulness, it should be chemically 

 examined for purity and tested by means of the microscope. It should 

 be of a pure white colour and free from mechanical impurities, and when 

 dried should contain from 98 to 99 per cent of sodium chloride. Salt with a 

 musty smell or mixed with sand, or containing several per cent of gypsum 

 or sodium sulphate, calcium chloride, and magnesium chloride, and which 

 in consequence absorbs moisture rapidly from the air, is not suited for 



