The Chemistry of Cookery

by W. Mattieu Williams

‘Artificial butter is the result of several processes. The internal fat of cattle is first chopped into small pieces, and then passed through a huge and somewhat modified sausage-machine. The finely-divided suet is afterwards placed in suitable vessels, and heated up to 122° Fahr., but a higher temperature must be avoided, otherwise a portion of the stearine, or true tallow of the suet, becomes inextricably mixed with the oleomargarine. It need scarcely be added that the tallow taste would be fatal to the manufacture of a first-class article. The melted fat is transferred to casks and left to cool; afterwards it is put in small quantities into coarse bags, several of which are made into a pile with iron plates between them, and placed in a hydraulic press. The result is the expression of the pure oleomargarine as a clear yellow oil, the solid stearine remaining in the bags.

‘The next step is the manufacture of this oleomargarine into the substance which has been designated “butterine,” and which is quoted on the London market as “bosch.” The “oleo” is remelted at the lowest possible temperature, mixed with a certain proportion of milk and of butter, and then churned. The result is the production of a material closely resembling butter, in fact practically identical so far as appearance is concerned. It is washed, worked, and otherwise treated like real butter, and packed to simulate the kinds of butter which are most in demand on the market to which it is sent. In London all kinds of butter are sold, and we believe that they are all more or less imitated.

‘Unfortunately for the consumer of butterine, not all that is sold, even as butter, is made with so much regard to care and cleanliness, or with such comparatively unobjectionable materials. The demand for oleomargarine, which constitutes about 60 per cent. of the mass that is churned, has naturally raised its price, and various substitutes have been tried with more or less success. Lard has been extensively used, and is said to answer fairly well. Oils of various kinds have also had their trial, but used alone their melting point is too low. Earth-nut oil is used in small quantities by some makers in order to impart an agreeable flavour, especially in cases where the artificial butter has been “weighted” by the addition of water to the milk, or meal to an inferior oil.

‘The adaptation of M. Mège’s process to the imitation of other dairy products is a natural sequence to the success, in a commercial sense, which has attended the manufacture of artificial butter. The skim-milk difficulty in the American butter factories has set their managers to work at the problem of its conversion into something saleable for some time past. This difficulty has been increased of late years by the invention of the cream separator, which deprives the milk of practically all its cream; but on the large dairy farms of Denmark, where from 100 to 300 cows are kept and these separators are used, the skim-milk is made into skim-cheese, and the working classes in that country do not object to eat a nutritious article of diet which they can buy at about fourpence per pound. But neither the American nor the English labourer, as a general rule, likes a cheese that is at the same time exceedingly poor in fat and excessively hard to bite.

‘Obviously the first step was to add fat to the skim-milk so as to replace the cream which had been taken off. This, however, was no easy matter, for neither oleomargarine nor lard would mix with the skim-milk when directly applied. The imitation cheese attempted to be made in this way was wretchedly bad; and, when cut, the added fatty matter was found in streaks, and to a great extent oozed out in its original condition. “Lard-cheese,” in fact, soon became a by-word and a reproach, and it is stated that last year a large quantity of poor, unsophisticated cheese was sold under that name, and thus increased its evil reputation.

‘But the utilisation of the skim-milk still remained a necessity to the managers of the “creameries,” if they were to be commercially successful. The question was, therefore, considered whether it would not be possible to make an artificial cream which should replace the natural cream which had been taken off the milk. This idea was soon put to a practical test, and with most remarkable results.

‘The process now adopted begins with the manufacture of artificial cream as follows: A certain quantity of skim-milk is heated to about 85° Fahr., and one-half the quantity of either lard, oleomargarine, or olive oil, as the case may be. These substances are conveyed through separate pipes into an “emulsion” machine, which subdivides both materials to a surprising degree, while it mixes them thoroughly together—the arrangement insuring that the machine is regularly fed with the due proportions of the substances which are being used. It is stated that the artificial cream made with olive oil in this way is not objected to in the United States for use in tea and coffee.

‘For the manufacture of imitation cheese, about 4½ per cent. of this imitation cream is added to the skim-milk. The latter being raised to 85° Fahr., and the former to 135° Fahr. or upwards, the mixture attains a temperature of about 90° Fahr. The remainder of the process is identical with that used in the manufacture of American Cheddar cheese, except that a special mechanical agitator is used to insure that the curd shall be evenly stirred and cooked, so as to avoid any loss of fat in the whey. Success or failure in the manufacture of imitation cheese seems to depend chiefly upon the perfect emulsion of the skim-milk with the fat in the preliminary process of making artificial cream. That having been accomplished, the remaining processes are said to be perfectly easy and satisfactory. It has been asserted by competent judges that the best descriptions of oleomargarine cheese can with difficulty, if at all, be detected from the ordinary American Cheddar of commerce; but the imitation product has nevertheless a tendency to become rapidly mouldy after having been cut.

‘The trade in imitation butter is now something enormous and increases every year; in the Netherlands alone there are sixty or seventy factories. Imitation cheese is only just beginning to appear on the London market, but there can be little doubt that before long it will compete successfully with all but the best and most delicate descriptions of the real article, unless it is branded so as to show its true character. One firm alone, in New York State, made 200,000 lbs. of imitation cheese last year, and their factories are in full work again this year.’

My first acquaintance with the rational cookery of cheese was in the autumn of 1842, when I dined with the monks of St. Bernard. Being the only guest, I was the first to be supplied with soup, and then came a dish of grated cheese. Being young and bashful, I was ashamed to display my ignorance by asking what I was to do with the cheese, but made a bold dash, nevertheless, and sprinkled some of it into my soup. I then learned that my guess was quite correct; the prior and the monks did the same.