CHAPTER VII. 
THE RIPENING OF CREAM. 
By the ripening process is meant all the treatment 
which the cream receives from the time that it is sep- 
arated from the milk until it is put into the churn. 
Upon this treatment, and the changes that the cream 
undergoes, very largely depend the quality of the butter 
as regards texture and flavor. The texture of the 
butter is very largely influenced by the changes of tem- 
perature that are brought about during the ripening 
process. It seems to be essential to the production of 
a firm, solid texture in the butter that the cream, at 
some time during the ripening process, should be sub- 
jected to a constant temperature below 50° F. for sev- 
eral hours. When cream has been separated by a 
gravity process, particularly by a “deep setting” one, 
it has already experienced the effects of such a tem- 
perature, and is ready for ripening as soon as re- 
moved from the milk. But when cream is separated 
by a centrifugal separator, the temperature as it comes 
from the separator is rather high, and butter of good 
texture cannot be made unless the cream is cooled 
down and held cool for several hours before ripening 
has far advaneed. The first step, then, in the ripen- 
ing process with separator cream is to reduce its 
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