1 904-] 



Water in Butter. 



425 



and one half of each lot was churned at a high temperature 

 (64°, 62 0 , and 6o° F.), and the remainder at a low temperature (52 0 ,. 

 54 0 , and 48 0 F.). The temperature of the water employed 

 for washing the butter was 5 8° F. in the first experiment 

 and 6o° F. in the second and third, but the other conditions 

 of manufacture were as nearly as possible identical. It was 

 found that the average percentage of water in the butter 

 churned at the higher temperature was 13*83 per cent, com- 

 pared with 13*24 per cent, in the case of the butter churned 

 at the lower temperature, thus indicating that temperature, 

 per se, has very little effect. It was, however, observed that 

 whenever the churning temperature is high it is difficult, and in 

 many cases impossible, to prevent overchurning, whereby the 

 butter, when it is in a soft condition, incorporates moisture very 

 rapidly. The moisture, moreover, is more readily retained than 

 in the case of butter churned at a low temperature, as it is 

 difficult to press out the liquid by " working." 



Seven experiments were made in order to ascertain the 

 influence of the percentage of fat in the cream, and it was found 

 that in every case the butter made from the thicker cream con- 

 tained a larger proportion of moisture. This is supposed 

 to be due to overchurning, as it is almost impossible when thick 

 cream is being churned under proper conditions to stop the 

 churn while the butter is still in a granular condition. 



Of all the means of controlling the moisture content of butter 

 the most effective was shown to be the amount of churning, and 

 that if it is carried to excess all other factors are subordinate and 

 have little or no influence. The examination of samples of butter 

 taken from the same churnings but at different stages — viz., from 

 three to ten revolutions between each sample — indicated that 

 overchurning increases the size of the butter granules. The 

 moisture content of butter is thereby also increased, but gradu- 

 ally and to a small extent, whereas it is greatly increased by 

 churning into lumps. In other words, the more butter is churned 

 the more moisture it contains, especially if the butter is soft ; and, 

 as a rule, the larger the granules and the softer the butter, the 

 more water remains in it. 



The opinion that there is generally less water in pasteurised 

 than in unpasteurised butter was corroborated by three experi- 



