ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 151 



These two flavors the manufacturer of dairy products has got 

 to contend with, the fishy flavor in butter and the fruity flavor in 

 cheese. This fishy flavor in butter w^e do not know what product*, 

 it. Long before I knew what the fishy flavor was, we got a 

 flavor that I used to call metallic. We used to get it with cream 

 held in cans that were rusty. The tin had worn off and the 

 cream had come in contact with the iron surface and we got that 

 flavor in the cream. Farmers hold the cream too long in those 

 kind of cans. Sometimes, in creameries where the cream vat 

 tin has worn oflf, the cream will take on that metallic flavor, 

 especially if the cream is held too long. We are apt to find that 

 flavor in butter on Monday morning more than any other time 

 during the w^eek. The cream has been held from Saturday until 

 Monday and taking on more acid and the acid has worked on the 

 tin vat. The metallic flavor in butter is a distinct one from the 

 fishy flavor. I have associated the metallic flavor with the fishy 

 flavor, yet they are separate. The only one thing we find about 

 the fishy flavor is, the flavor is apparently the same as salted 

 fish. Probably the fishy flavor in butter is merely due to bac- 

 terial growth. 



The question comes up, what shall we do, as makers of 

 butter, to overcome that fishy flavor? That we do not know. 

 This is true. I think we should avoid overchurning our butter, 

 avoid over working it. We should avoid handling butter at too 

 low a temperature and attempting to chill butter that is soft. 

 We ought to harden it with cold water and then try to work it. 

 We get the fishy flavor at those times. Why, I do not know. 



The first two given in the outline of flavors, high acid, flat 

 and milk. You know what causes that. Some prefer high acid 

 and some do not. I think too much stress in the future, as in the 

 past has been laid on high acid flavor in butter. I think we ought 

 to be careful in making butter that we do not develop too high 

 an acid. We want acid enough. We do not want butter with 

 low acid. We do sometimes run high acid in butter by over 

 washing the butter in cold water. Let us aim for uniform acid 

 butter, not going to the extreme of high, or going down to the 

 low. 



