LLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 175 



SOURNESS OP SWEET CREAM. 



Cream that is sweet to tiie taste and smell may contain 

 from 0.15 to 0.30 per cent, acidity. This is quite a wide range 

 in the acidity which can not be measured by taste or smell, but 

 the sweet cream which contains 0.3 per cent, acid will ripen 

 much faster in a given time than one having only 0.15 per cent, 

 acidity if both are kept at the same temperature.. This shows 

 the advantage of testing the acidity of each lot of cream when 

 it is first put into the cream vat. The cream with 0.3 per cent, 

 acid will ripen so much faster than one with only 0.15 per cent, 

 acid, that they must be kept at different temperatures if it is 

 desired to have the same amount of acid developed at churning 

 time, which is usually about the same number of hours from 

 the time the cream is put into the ripening vat. 



The great majority of butter makers ripen cream about 

 twenty hours and then churn it. There are very few that 

 practice holding the cream forty hours before it is churned. 

 During its ripening an acid test vshould occasionally be made 

 of the thoroughly mixed cream; this will show whether the 

 ripening should be checked by cooling the cream or hastened 

 by warming it. 



Since the butter maker can easily check or hasten the 

 cream ripening, by either cooling or warming the cream, he 

 can use a starter or ripen the cream without one, for either 

 twent}^ or forty hours, if he will test the acidity every few 

 hours and find out how fast the ripening is progressing. 



ACIDITY OF PROPERLY RIPENED CREAM. 



If cream is allowed to ripen much beyond 0.6 per cent, of 

 acidity the butter will often have a sour flavor, from over ripe 

 cream. When cream has reached this point of 0.6 per cent, 

 acid, it should be cooled at once and kep^ as cold as possible, 

 50 degrees F. or lower, until it is churne»i Very little acidity 

 will develop in cream w^hich is cooled to 50 degrees F., but it 

 will ripen very fast at 70 degrees F. 



The efforts of the butter maker should be directed towards 

 ripening the cream up to about 0.6 per cent, acid, and no fur- 

 ther, and this amount of acidity should be attained a few 

 hours before churning time in order that the cream may be 

 cooled during these few hours and reduced to a low churning 



