272 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



of the vat of cream. To be sure that these Httle bacteria that 

 sour the cream will not be out numbered, add a starter. This is 

 simply a certain amount of sour milk, having a mildly clean 

 acid flavor. 



To make the starter, whole milk or skim milk can be used. 

 The latter is preferred because the top of the starter must be 

 thrown away. Take a certain amount of either, the amount de- 

 pending on the amount of cream to be churned (1 to 2>4 gallons 

 of starter to every 10 gallons of cream.) Place this milk in a 

 covered vessel where it can be kept at a temperature of 70 de- 

 grees or even 85 if it is desired that it should sour in a shorter 

 period. At 70 degrees, as a rule, it takes from 18 to 24 hours 

 for it to become thick. When the starter is sour, it is ready to 

 be added to the cream, but first remove an inch of the top and 

 throw it away. If what remains has a smooth glossy appear- 

 ance with a clean milk acid taste and aroma it indicates a good 

 starter. Stir this well and add to the cream. It is sometimes 

 impossible to obtain a good starter from the mixed milk of the 

 herd. This is especially true in the fall or when a number of the 

 cows are going dry. In that case better results can be obtained 

 by using a commercial starter or by selecting several samples of 

 milk in perfectly clean quart jars and allowing the milk to sour. 

 Select the one that shows the most solid curd and the cleanest 

 flavor for your starter. Mix this with the desired amount of se- 

 lected whole milk taken from a cow that is giving the most milk 

 or from one that was recently fresh. Allow this to stand at a 

 favorable temperature for a short time or until it is sour enough 

 to use in the cream. 



As has already been stated, use from one to two and a half 

 gallons of starter to ten gallons of cream. If the cream for 

 churning has been obtained by setting the milk in shallow pans 

 or in the ordinary shot gun or cooley cans, the cream is usually 

 thinner than the cream obtained by the use of the hand-separator, 

 and not more than one gallon of starter can be used to ten gal- 

 lons of cream. Best results can be obtained by churning cream 

 that contains enough butter fat to produce in the neighborhood 



