Butter Going White.
I bought some butter and during the warm weather it melted. About 40 or 50 per cent was white, while the balance was yellow and went to the top. When the butter remelted, the yellow portion melted, leaving the white portion retaining its shape. The white portion did not taste like ordinary butter. The butter made from our cows' cream melted at a higher temperature, but did not have a white portion. Why did our butter not act like the creamery butter?
Samples of butter have occasionally been sent to this office that have turned white on the outside, and since the white part has a very disagreeable, tallowy flavor, people think that tallow or oleomargarine has been mixed with it, but we have never been able to find any foreign substance in any of the samples. We have found that some of the best brands of butter will turn white first on the outside and the white color will gradually go deeper if the butter is exposed to a current of air or if left in the sun a short time - F. W. Andreason, State Dairy Bureau.
What Is "Butter-fat?"
I would like to know what "butter-fat" means. I have asked farmers this question and no one seems to know. I suppose all parties dealing with creameries understand what the standard of measure or weight of butter-fat is, but it is my guess that there are thousands of farmers whom, if they were asked this question, would not know. We, of course, know that butter is sold by the pound and cream by the pint, quart or gallon, but what is butter-fat sold by?
Butter-fat is the yellow substance which forms the larger part of butter. Besides, this fat butter is composed of 16 per cent or less of water and small amounts of salt, and other substances of which milk is composed. From 80 to 85 per cent or so of ordinary butter is the fat itself. It is sold by weight. The cream from which butter is made is taken to the creamery and weighed, not measured. A small sample is tested by the so-called Babcock test to determine the exact percentage of fat, and payment mode on this basis. For instance, if 1,00 pounds of cream is one-third butter-fat, the dairyman receives pay for 33 1/3 pounds of this substance. If it is only one-quarter fat, he receives pay for 25 pounds. Ordinary cream varies within these limits, but may be much richer or thinner. Cream after the butterfat is removed is much like skimmed milk, although it has less water in it.
Why Would Not Butter Come?
What is the trouble with cream that you churn on from Monday until
Saturday, then have to give up in despair and turn it out to the hogs?
We warmed it, and we cooled it, and used a dairy thermometer, but
nothing would do.
If the cream was in churnable condition otherwise, the probability is that it was too cool when you started churning. It should be about 62° Fahrenheit.
Drying a Persistent Milker.