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NATURE 



\June 22, 1882 



I MIT A TION CHEESE 



IN Nature, vol. xxv. p. 269, we gave an account 

 of the mode of manufacture of "butterine," a com- 

 pound containing about 90 per cent, of a mixture of 

 animal fats known as "oleomargarine." 



" Butterine," as the name would imply, is an imitation 

 butter which is largely imported into this country from 

 America and from Holland. " Oleomargarine " is prin- 

 cipally made in the United States by the patented process 

 of Mcge-Mouries, which consists in heating disintegrated 

 suet to a temperature of 120° F., when a clear yellow oil 

 is (to borrow a term of the metallurgists) " liquated out." 

 This is allowed to solidify, and "refined" by subjecting 

 it to pressure at a temperature of about 90 F. " Oleo- 

 margarine" is converted into "butterine" by adding 

 about 10 per cent, of milk to it and churning the mixture, 

 colouring the product with annetto, and rolling it in ice 

 to "set" it. Some idea of the development of this 

 industry may be gleaned from the fact that Mr. Nimmo, 

 the chief of the United States Statistical Department 

 reported that the export of oleomargarine for the year 

 ending June 30, 18S0, was close upon 19,000,000 pounds. 

 And this is probably under-estimated, as it is certain that 

 considerable quantities of "butterine" passed through 

 the Customs under the designation of butter. It is not 

 very easy to get data which are altogether trustworthy ; 

 but looking to the rate of increase furnished by the sta- 

 tistics of previous years, it is probable that the present 

 export of oleomargarine from America is not less than 

 from 25,000,000 to 30,000,000 lbs. per annum. Oleo- 

 margarine was the subject of some discussion in the 

 House of Commons during the last session, and the 

 matter was again brought up a few nights ago in the form 

 of some interrogatories addressed to the President of the 

 Board of Trade. 



It appears that oleomargarine has recently taken a new 

 departure, and that its use is no longer confined to the 

 manufacture of " butter substitute," or " butterine." Our 

 ingenious friends on the other side of the Atlantic have 

 discovered that a mixture of oleomargarine and blue 

 skim milk make what Mr. H. M. Jenkins, the Secretary 

 of the Royal Agricultural Society of England describes 

 as an excellent imitation of " American Cheddar." In- 

 deed, so excellent is the imitation, that competent judges 

 in the City and elsewhere informed Mr. Jenkins that 

 unless they had been told, they could not have distin- 

 guished the oleomargarine cheese from ordinary Ameri- 

 can cheese, and that they valued it from 52J. to 56J. per 

 ■lesalc, and from Sd. to yd. per lb. retail. Ameri- 

 can cheese of presumably legitimate origin is of course 

 a well-established article of importation into this country; 

 the estimated value of the cheese we import is upwards 

 of 5,000,000/., of which at least one-half is credited to 

 the United States; and " American Cheddar," "Ameri- 

 can Cheshire," " American Stilton," &c, are well-recog- 

 nised terms among retail provision dealers. We are now 

 to have "Imitation American Cheddar," "Imitation 

 American Stilton" — Stilton and Cheddar, in fact, several 

 times removed ; and Mr. Jenkins tells us that a very 

 extensive trade will be shortly established in these 

 articles, provided that their quality proves to be suffi- 

 ciently good for the English market. Samples of these 



imitation cheeses have been examined by Dr. Voelcker, 

 the chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society, who pro- 

 nounces them to be perfectly wholesome articles of food. 

 If the "oleomargarine" which enters into their composition 

 be obtained from healthy fat or suet, there is, of course, no 

 reason to doubt their wholesomeness or their alimentary 

 value. Provided that the proportion of skim milk and 

 oleomargarine be properly adjusted, the composition of 

 the imitation cheese will differ but slightly from that of 

 the best English made cheese, and will, so far as its 

 nutritive value goes, be probably preferable to the ordi- 

 nary skim milk cheeses of this country, or even to the 

 more esteemed varieties of Gruyere and Parmesan. 

 " Imitation factory cheese," as Americans call the new 

 produce, will, of course, be almost entirely wanting in the 

 characteristic fats of milk, such as butyrin, caprin, and 

 caproin, to the decomposition of which the ripening and 

 flavour of good cheese is mainly due. As is well known, 

 hard solid cheese, in which the proportion of fat is com- 

 paratively low, ripens but slowly, and unless artificially 

 flavoured, as in the case of Parmesan, acquires little or no 

 piquancy. On the other hand, a rich cheese rapidly loses 

 the acid reaction which it has when new ; the casein 

 and the fat suffer change, and the fatty acids thus 

 formed combine with the products of the decom- 

 position of the nitrogenous constituents giving rise 

 to compounds, which, when accompanied by a due pro- 

 portion of the green mould of Aspergillus glaucus, or 

 the red mould of Spore ndoncma casei, afford the piquant 

 flavour and aroma of the more valuable varieties of 

 cheese. Such cheeses, however, soon run into putrefac- 

 tive decay ; they become strongly alkaline, and may even 

 give rise to poisonous products. The fats of " oleomarga- 

 rine" consist mainly of olein, stearine and their congeners, 

 and are much more stable compounds ; hence the cheese 

 in which these bodies function will ripen comparatively 

 slowly, and would of themselves never acquire the flavour 

 of such rich cheeses as Stilton or Double Gloucester. 

 Still art can do much, and he would be rash who would 

 attempt to set a limit to American ingenuity ; but we 

 may at least hope that Aspergillus and Sporendonema may 

 prove to be beyond the reach of the imitative power of the 

 Transatlantic cheese-merchant. T. E. THORPE 



THE IRRA WADDI RIVER 

 Report on the Irrawaddi River. Part I. Hydrography of 

 the Irrawaddi River. Part II. Hydrology of the Irra- 

 waddi River. Part III. Hydraulics of the Irrawaddi. 

 Part IV. Hydraulic Works connected with the Nawoon 

 River. Parts I. and II. (in one vol.), 195 pp. ; Part III., 

 227 pp.; Part IV., 151 pp. fol. By R. Gordon, Esq., 

 M.I.C.E.,&c. (Rangoon, 1879-80.) 



THIS is a valuable Monograph on the Irrawaddi River 

 by the Executive Engineer of the great Embank- 

 ment Works of the Irrawaddi Delta, the well-known 

 experimenter and writer on river hydraulics. The mode 

 of publication does not do justice to the great labour and 

 research shown in so large a work (573 pp. folio). It is 

 apparently a Government Report, written in the period 

 1877-80, and printed at the Government Secretariat Press, 

 Rangoon, in 1879-80. Great allowances must always be 

 made for the difficulties in proper correction of the proofs 



