194 



RELATION OF COMPOSITION OF BUTTER FAT TO COMPOSITION 



OF BUTTER. 



During late spring and early summer, at a time when, as shown above, 

 the Reichert-Meissl number and the Iodine number are high and the melt- 

 ing point is low. the butter-maker experiences usually considerable diffi- 

 culty in manufacturing butter with a reasonably low moisture content. This 

 coincidence has suggested to the writers that there may be a more or less 

 intimate relation betwen the melting point of the butter fats and their 

 power to absorb water daring the process of butter-making. A series of 

 experiments was. therefore, conducted bearing on this point. The results 

 are shown in Table NI. 



Table XL 

 Per Cent of Moisture Retained by Soft and Hard Fats Churned Separately. 



n p t tt t Per Cent 



Per Cent Water. 



Increase 



of Soft 

 Soft Fats. I Hard Fats. ■ Over Hard 





43.84 



24.76 



77.02 









Ma j' butter 



50.62 



24.78 



104.28 



Average 



47.23 



24.77 



90.65 



Table XI covers experiments in which soft and hard portions of but- 

 ter fat (butter fat with a low and a high melting point) were separated 

 from one another by fractional crystallization of the fats and by pressure. 

 The soft and hard portions were churned separately under identical con- 

 ditions, adding the same amount of water to each churning and churning 

 at the same temperature. 



Twelve separate churnings were made each, the March butter and 

 the May butter. In the March butter the per cent increase of the mois- 

 ture of the soft fats over that of the bard fats was 77.02. In the May but- 

 ter the per cent increase of the moisture of the soft fats over that of the 

 hard fats was 104.2s. These figures unmistakably show that the soft fats 

 are capable of taking up a ureal deal more moisture than the hard fats. 

 They, therefore, can leave little doubt that the material increase in the 



