THE WORKING AND KNEADING OF BUTTER. 179 



salting butter. To further examine it, three sieves of different meshes of 

 2, 1, and *5 mm. in diameter are used to determine its fineness. Its 

 apparent specific gravity and relative solubility should also be determined. 

 The salt best suited for salting butter is that which consists of not too small 

 but very thin and delicate crystals. Such salt is largely composed of 

 little pieces, which remain behind on the coarsest sieve, exhibit a relative 

 small specific gravity, and dissolve rapidly in water. In North Germany, 

 the butter salt coming from Lunniberg and Stade is rightly much 

 appreciated. 



In England, Sweden, and America, in order to give to the butter 

 greater keeping properties, it is common to add not salt alone to the 

 butter, but also a mixture of salt and sugar, or a mixture of salt, sugar, 

 and saltpetre. Since, however, as has already been pointed out, it is 

 possible to impart to butter the desired keeping quality by the addition 

 of salt alone, all other substances, sugar excepted, must be regarded as 

 inadmissible. 



98. The Working and Kneading of Butter. The object of 

 working butter is to unite the countless little lumps, of the size of a 

 pin -head, formed in the raw butter during churning, and to remove 

 the butter-milk clinging to them as perfectly as possible. It is also 

 desired to convert them into the finished product, which shall 

 possess a similar texture throughout and be in the best condition 

 and of irreproachable appearance. This is best effected by artificial 

 pressing and turning during the working of the single lumps formed 

 in the raw butter. The working is sometimes associated with 

 washing butter. In the preparation of salted butter, the effect of 

 working depends upon the fact that each grain of salt attracts 

 moisture from its surroundings, which dissolves it and forms a 

 larger drop of brine. The working of butter will be understood, 

 when it is remembered that on the one hand every single grain of 

 butter contains a larger or smaller quantity of small drops of butter- 

 milk, according as churning has been more or less successfully carried 

 out, and that, on the other hand, a certain quantity of butter-milk 

 mechanically clings to the surface of every single little grain. The 

 butter-milk enclosed in the little grains of butter is in far too fine 

 a state of division to permit of its being diminished to any extent 

 by working, even although this may be carried on for some time. 

 At most it may be perhaps somewhat diminished by the osmotic 

 action which salt exerts. On the other hand, it is very easy to 

 remove the butter-milk clinging to the external surface of the little 



