The modern packing house

by F. W. Wilder

The oleo oil is next added and after these three ingredients have been agitated for twenty minutes and thoroughly mixed, the milk should be added last and the whole mass left in the agitator for five minutes with the lid closed tightly.

At this stage the salt and color are added, if color is used. The amount of salt required should be decided by the necessities of the particular trade to be supplied, but 5 per cent will be found a medium salting. Experience is that it is better to add salt at this time because it is more evenly distributed in the emulsion than in the granular butterine.

After the color and salt are thoroughly mixed, let the whole body run into the graining vat filled with water at a temperature of 40° F.

The oils and milk will show a temperature of about 90° F. as a whole. If not, heat to that point before drawing into the graining vat. This should be drawn through a 5-inch galvanized pipe flattened out at the end to form a spreading exit for the butterine. The butterine passes into the water vat directly behind a paddle wheel arranged so that one-half of it is above water. The wheel revolves rapidly causing the butterine to be quickly submerged, thereby graining it as fast as it hits the cold water. The quicker butterine is grained, the more flavor it retains, as the globules formed increase the flavor. Should the water be too cold, the butterine will be hard and dry, and is likely to crumble and mottle, besides causing a reduction in gain. On the other hand, if the water is too warm the butterine will be soft and mushy and cannot be worked properly, although the gain will be larger. Warm water is used on very cheap grades when butterine is to be packed in solids and a large gain is desired. As fast as the butterine to be grained shows on the top of the water, it should be lifted onto a cloth in the hands of two men to a clean box truck.

Sluice Trough.

—Many factories have discarded the graining vat and provided a sluice trough, being a trough into which the contents are passed from the emulsion churn. Water is introduced, thoroughly intermingled with the oils and performing an instantaneous chilling. The sluice trough is arranged with slats in the bottom at intervals so as to produce the effect of ripples. It flows directly to the seeding trucks, where as with the graining vat, it was dipped and poured onto the graining trucks.

Graining or Tempering.

—The butterine should then be covered with a sprinkling of fine salt and the trucks placed in the tempering room, where a temperature of 60° F. should be maintained, to remain twelve hours. In this time, it will develop all the flavor it is possible to obtain and be ready for the workers.

The temperature of the tempering room is something that must be watched carefully and should never be allowed to go above 60° F. as the ingredients in this condition contain a large amount of water, and at a warmer temperature action of the water and grease are liable to cause the goods to sour.

Milk and cream undergo many changes after being incorporated in the finished butterine and the more cream there is in the product the lower the temperature in the tempering room should be. It is not at this stage that flavor is made. Only the flavor the product already contains is developed and many batches of sour or “off” butterine are traced to too warm tempering rooms, whereby the butter fat and oil because of their mixture with water decompose and become rancid.