GRADING MILK AND CREAM 87 



very poor cream is saved a few days until a sufficient 

 quantity is accumulated to make a churning. Payment is 

 then made to the producers on the basis of the price 

 received for the butter. 



NEUTRALIZING ACIDITY IN CREAM 



Very sour cream is not desirable in the manufacture 

 of butter. Since the advent of the hand separator and 

 with it less frequent deliveries of cream, there has been 

 difficulty in getting the cream to the butter factory in 

 good condition. As noted previously, the lactic acid in 

 butter soon causes it to deteriorate. The logical way 

 to decrease the acid in cream is to neutralize it; the 

 plan adopted by many centralizer plants to carry away 

 the bad odors of poor and sour cream is to force air 

 through it. The more effectual improvement is obtained 

 by neutralization of the acid. 



65. History. — The neutralizing of the lactic acid in 

 milk is practiced by some cheese-makers. A product 

 known as " viscogen " was used by Babcock and Rus- 

 sell ^ to restore the viscosity of pasteurized cream for 

 table use. The practice of neutralizing the acidity of 

 cream for the manufacture of butter has been general 

 in centralizer creameries for about ten years. In connec- 

 tion with its early use, McKay ^ writes : " As far as I know 

 I was the first to use neutralizers in butter-making. A 

 number of years ago I conducted experiments that lasted 

 several months, using various kinds of alkalies. A large 



' Babcock, S. M., and Russell, H. L., On the Restoration of 

 the Consistency of Pasteurized Milk and Cream. Agr. Exp. 

 Sta. Univ. Wis., 13th Ann. Rpt., p. 81, 1896. 



2 McKay, G. L., The Use of Neutralizers, N. Y. Prod. Rev. 

 and Amer. Cry., Vol. 39, p. 366, 1914 and 1915. 



