From a rather poor milk, by removing the upper eleven ounces from a quart, about one third.
From a good average milk, by removing the upper sixteen ounces, or one half.
From a rich Jersey milk, by removing the upper twenty-two ounces, or about two thirds.
The percentage of fat in the different layers of milk
of good average quality.
What is cream?
Cream is often spoken of as if it were the fat in milk. It is really the part of the milk which contains most of the fat. It differs from milk chiefly in containing much more fat.
In what ways is cream now obtained?
(1) By skimming, after the milk has stood usually for twenty-four hours? this is known as "gravity cream." (2) By an apparatus known as a separator; this is known as "centrifugal cream"; most of the cream now sold in cities is of this kind. The richness of any cream is indicated by the amount of fat it contains.
The usual gravity cream sold has from 16 to 20 per cent fat. The cream removed from the upper part (one fifth) of a bottle of milk has about 16 per cent fat. The usual centrifugal cream has 18 to 20 per cent fat. The heavy centrifugal cream has 35 to 40 per cent fat.