Part 5
In receiving either milk or cream from the patron, it is essential not only that justice be done in the weight or measure, but that the patron should be satisfied of this fact. The agent sent out to gather cream should be an honest man, in whom the patrons as well as the employer have confidence, and should understand his business and do it in a workman-like manner, so as to inspire confidence. He should also be versed in the various tricks that may be resorted to by patrons to deceive and cheat, and be on his guard, quick to discern any suspicious surroundings or indications. As much depends on his judgment and observation as on his honesty--especially if any of the patrons are disposed to be dishonest, as is sometimes the case where it would generally be least suspected. The later device of not only measuring cream by the gauge, but of testing its yield of butter by churning a sample, is not only a guard, to considerable extent, against fraud, but more closely approximates justice by getting at the actual quality of the cream, on which depends its value. There is no associated system yet devised--save that of churning every patron's cream separately and weighing the product--that secures exact justice to all. Nature does not appear to have furnished standards of commercial measure or value for the purpose of indicating mine and thine in mixed transactions, or in speculative exchange. We have only relative and approximate guides, by which justice, in a business sense, is by no means secured.
TESTING.
Where milk is delivered at the factory, we have as yet no standard test of value. All the receiver can do is to see that it is in a normal condition--neither sour nor tainted, nor containing bad odors. For this purpose, the smell must mainly be relied on. Hence, healthy and keen olfactories are a great aid here, as in some other cases. If one catches the fumes when the can cover is first removed, or as the milk runs into the weighing can, he is pretty sure to detect any very positive bad odor. The eye, to one of experience, is almost certain to detect any great variation. Even slight watering is seen by some from the peculiarity of the reflection of light from the surface--especially when in motion. Much water shows from the "thin" appearance of the fluid. Where the smell or appearance are cause for suspicion, or there is any other cause, a sample may be saved and such tests as are at hand may be applied. The so-called lactometer will show whether the specific gravity is below or above the normal standard. The cream gauge will give the percent of cream at a given temperature. If, afterward, a sample right from the herd, taken so as to know that it has not been tampered with, shows better quality by these two tests, it is pretty conclusive evidence that the milk from which the factory sample was taken was not in a normal condition. If the herd has been subject to no change of feed or conditions between the times of taking the two samples, any jury would be safe in bringing in a verdict against the defendant for watering, skimming, or otherwise tampering with his milk, as the facts in evidence might indicate.
BAD MILK.
Sour or tainted milk, to any perceptible degree, ought not to be received at the factory. One such mess will injure, if it does not spoil, a whole batch. The sour milk is likely to lead to a sour, leaky batch, and the tainted milk to huffy if not floating curd, and porous, quickly off-flavor and decaying cheese. We have little patience with those who deliver such milk, and none with those who attempt to devise means to work it into palatable cheese and thus to get it into the unsuspecting stomachs of the consumers. It is too much like making omelets of rotten eggs. This is especially the case with tainted milk. The first stages of souring are not so objectionable, so far as wholesomeness is concerned. Sour milk may make good pot-cheese to which we do not object, but it will not make good American cheddar cheese. To attempt to work it into this is the worst use it can be put to.
WEIGHING.
All possible precautions should be taken to avoid mistakes in weighing and giving credit. A hasty comparison of each mess with that of the previous one delivered by the same man will indicate any marked departure from weight and serve as a check against error. It is well to always announce the weight to the patron, who then has a chance for comparison with his average or previous messes. He will be pretty likely to mention any marked variation, especially if it is against him. Some patrons like to have a pass-book, in which the weight of each mess is entered. This is a little trouble to the receiver when in a hurry, but it is a complete check against errors of entry on the factory book, and against the forgetfulness of the patron, who may get the impression that he has delivered more milk in a given time than he has been credited with. Everything that guards against error or misunderstanding will be found to pay and give satisfaction to honest men. An honest factoryman not only wants to be right, but to appear right and have the confidence of his patrons. A dishonest one will want to appear right, and it is well to take such precautions as will make him what he appears. See that the weighing can is properly balanced, that the scales are true, and that the weights are correct. An honest man will bear watching, and it is absolutely necessary to watch a rogue. Where the milk is sold to the factory, of course all interest in the matter with the patron ends when he gets his milk correctly weighed and his money for it. Where the _pro rata_ system is carried out, this interest extends to the weighing of the cheese, its marketing and the division of the proceeds.
KEEPING MILK.
When the milk is in the cheese vat, it should be stirred and aired at night until the temperature is down to 70 degrees, if it is to stand quiet; if an agitator is used, which is preferable, no further attention need be paid to the milk but to see that the supply of cold water is ample and continuous. As to mixing the morning's with the night's milk, it appears to be preferable to working up the two milkings separately.
BUTTER MAKING.
There really are but four systems of setting milk for cream, notwithstanding the numerous inventions and devices. These are: 1. Cooling in water; 2. cooling in air; 3. shallow setting; 4. deep setting.
DEEP SETTING AND WATER COOLING.
Deep setting, whether in pails or pans, is always accompanied with water and the use of ice. In many instances, however, where running water is abundant, ice is dispensed with, and the pails are set in pools or tanks, while the pans have water run around them, if not under them. Under-cooling, however, is pretty well understood to be a disadvantage, unless the vessel containing the milk is submerged in water or nearly so. Ice is a good deal used, and the milk rapidly run down in temperature. Some think this is the better as well as the quicker way, if not the only way to get all the cream. Our only objection to this rapid cooling is that it runs the temperature too low, and, in our opinion, injures the keeping quality of the product.
EFFECT OF TOO LOW COOLING.
If run below 40 degrees, or the point where water begins to expand, all cooling below that point lessens the difference in specific gravity between the water and the fat globules, and operates diametrically in the opposite direction to what is desired. The aim is to condense the water, which is a good conductor, and leave the fat globules, which are poor conductors, unchanged or but slightly contracted. In this way, the heavier fluid settles and drives the light particles of fat upward to rest on the surface. But, if we go below 40 degrees, we produce the directly opposite effect and retard the rising of the cream. For quality, we prefer the slower cooling in water, and think the longer time given will secure all the cream available and in a purer condition.
BUTTERMILK FLAVOR.
If more cream or butter is obtained by rapid cooling, we think it is because more particles of caseine are entangled in the cream and remain in the butter when churned. This would of course make more weight for market, but of inferior quality and sooner to go off flavor. But where the butter is consumed fresh from the churn, this does not matter so much; and if the particles of caseine give the butter a slight buttermilk flavor, it pleases some palates that have been educated to like it. We, however, prefer the sweet, delicate flavor of cream butter, free from caseine or lactic acid. But, if one has a special line of customers, he must please them, whatever the demand may be. If the butter is thrown on the general market, and there is liable to be delay in getting it into consumption, it cannot be made too pure, nor retain its rosy flavor too long.
SHALLOW SETTING AND AIR COOLING.
Generally, in shallow setting, whether in large or small pans, cooling the milk in air is depended upon. Formerly, an underground room, or one in a shady place, was the only appliance usually resorted to for cooling. But, of late years, some method of artificially cooling the air by the use of ice is generally adopted. In some cases, the milk room is made small, with low ceiling and double walls, so that a cake of ice near the ceiling does the cooling. Usually, however, some sort of refrigerator construction is resorted to, so that cool air from the ice-house, or ice placed above the milk room, is introduced to regulate the temperature and keep it steady. We prefer cooling in air, though it may take a little more space and time. By this method, extremely rapid cooling and low temperature are avoided, and no violence is done to the milk or cream. Deep setting, it is true, exposes less surface to the air; but if the milk is not submerged, the surface is likely to be cooler than the air above, and to condense the vapor in it, which falls with all its impurities on the surface of the cream. Any foulness or bad odors are thus absorbed and go into the butter product. While submerging obviates this objection and keeps out all impurities from the air, it also prevents all escape of bad odors by evaporation. Whatever that is objectionable may be in the milk is retained there. By setting in open air, which should of course always be pure and sweet, the air, being cooled down and used as a medium for cooling the milk, takes up the exhalations of moisture and odor from the milk, and thus purifies it. The colder medium is always the condenser and absorbent, and it is only when the milk gets colder than the air above it that it condenses the moisture in the air and absorbs its odor. This will never occur where cold air is the cooling medium. The milk theoretically can never get cooler than the air, while practically it remains a degree or two warmer than the air.
OXYDIZING CREAM.
There is another advantage in using the air as a cooling medium. In shallow setting, more surface is exposed and the air, coming in contact with the surface, imparts to it a portion of its oxygen, which mingles with the oils and develops that fine butter flavor so much relished by most and which is a peculiarity of fine butter. Again, slow cooling gives more time for this oxydation to go on, and thus "ripen" the cream for churning without souring it. This leaves all the fine flavor in it, unmixed with flavors resulting from acidification. But, where milk is set deep for creaming--and especially where there is no exposure to the air, as is the case in submerging--no butter flavor is developed, and the cream has to be kept until sour before it is properly oxydized. There is not a full development of butter flavor proper, but development of flavor resulting from the mingling of lactic acid with the oils. But without this exposure and acidification, the butter is insipid and comparatively flavorless. Any subsequent exposure to the air soon throws the butter off flavor, the oxygen mingling with the fats alone while the cream is rising and still sweet. This development of flavor by oxydation is not mere theory; it has been scientifically demonstrated at Cornell University, New York, if not elsewhere, and must sooner or later be generally accepted and butter making proceed on a more rational and certain basis. But it is hard work to get people out of old ruts, or to overcome fixed habits and prejudices. Really scientific butter making, in which every step will be thoroughly understood and deliberately taken, is a thing of the future. It will come in time, and then our descendants will wonder why we were so stupid and slow as not to see and adopt the simplest principles when they were thrust into our very faces. But mind and judgment are matters of growth, the same as everything else in this universe of being.
SKIMMING MILK.
So many improvements or inventions have been introduced in the setting of milk for cream that the term "skimming" has become almost a misnomer. In both deep and shallow setting, arrangements have been made in several of the patent pans and cans for drawing out the milk from the bottom and leaving the cream. Glass gauges are set in the vessels so that the exact depth of the cream can be seen, and the milk drawn down close to the cream or a small amount of the upper portion of the milk left with the cream. In skimming with a skimmer or dipper, many aim to take the upper portion of the milk, on the theory that the separation is less perfect toward the top than it is lower down. Especially may this be done where a dipper or skimmer without holes is used. It is claimed by some careful experimenters and close observers that this adds to the quantity of butter yielded without deteriorating the quality.
WHEN TO SKIM.
Whether skimming off the cream or drawing off the milk be practiced, the question arises as to the proper time for performing the operation. The more general practice is to "skim" just as the milk gives unmistakable signs of acidity, or thickens a very little on the bottom of the pan or can. A few prefer to skim the cream sweet, and still another few let the milk lopper. This wide divergence of opinion and practice shows how very imperfectly is the real philosophy of butter making understood; but, notwithstanding this, each one is usually very tenacious in his belief as to the superiority of his own practice. A few fancy butter makers say that the finest butter is made from sweet cream, raised in cold air by shallow setting. It is insisted by them that airing and oxydizing, and not souring, is what "ripens" cream and fits it for easy churning, while this airing and oxydizing imparts the fine aroma so much desired in the finest butter. This view of the origin or development of flavor is sustained by experiments made at Cornell University, at the suggestion or under the supervision of Prof. L.B. Arnold. It is also claimed that the lack of flavor and the short-keeping of sweet-cream butter churned from cream raised by deep setting is due to its lack of oxygen, and that souring the cream thus raised, before churning, both oxydizes it and imparts a ranker and more positive flavor resulting from the effects of the lactic acid. We think both propositions look reasonable, and we should like to see a series of scientific experiments made to determine both the effects of oxygen and the effects of lactic acid on the butter product of cream. At present, theory and practice vary so widely with different butter makers who turn out a high-priced butter for the market, that one is led to doubt all theories and query whether the quality of butter does not depend on something not yet known, which is independent of all current theories and practices.
CHURNING.
And as to the proper time of churning, there is an equal divergence of opinion and practice. One churns his cream sweet, another wants it slightly changed, a third wants positive acidity in the cream, and a fourth loppers the cream, while a fifth lets the cream stand even twelve hours after loppering--and this extremely sour cream butter sells for the very highest market price. So we are left all at sea, so far as acidity is an element in butter making. Again, to further illustrate these extremes, while a gentleman in Vermont is setting his neighbors agog by raising cream in a vacuum, a Canada gentleman is experimenting with an invention to raise cream by hydrostatic pressure and get the fat of the milk so pure as to dispense with churning. We hope both will succeed.
TEMPERATURES.
There is not so wide a difference in opinion and practice as regards the temperature at which churning should be done in order to secure the best results; yet there is quite a wide range--from 55 degrees to 65 degrees--or 10 degrees Fahrenheit. But only a few go as high as 65 degrees or as low as 55 degrees. The great majority favor 60 degrees to 63 degrees as the proper range of temperature for different seasons and conditions. Some favor 58 degrees to 60 degrees, and all appear satisfied with results. It is not improbable that different degrees of acidity in the cream require different degrees of temperature for churning, and that sweet cream requires still another variation of temperature. So the breed, condition of the cows, kind of feed, quality of feed, character of the water drank, length of time the cows have been in milk, and other considerations, require variations in the temperature. Sure we are that the difference in conditions and surroundings must explain some of the differences of opinions and practices among butter makers.
WHAT MAKES THE BUTTER COME.
It is not known whether concussion or friction, or both, cause the separation of the butter from the buttermilk in churning. But we suspect that concussion is the real agent that produces the separation, as we have really seen no churn that did not in some way produce more or less concussion. All the churns we have seen used appeared to produce good results, and we find every dairyman is satisfied with the work of the churn he uses, whatever the kind, style or patent. We cannot, therefore, recommend any style of churn as superior to another, but we prefer the simple and less expensive forms, as not only costing less but being easier to keep clean.
The churning should be steady and not violent. A too rapid or sudden separation of the butter from the buttermilk is not desirable. It is no recommend for a churn that it churns quick. Such a churn is apt to injure the so-called grain of the butter and make it salvy and greasy. The least churning that will separate the butter from the buttermilk is the best.
WHEN TO STOP CHURNING.
The improved modern method, now in practice by the best butter makers generally, is to stop the churn as soon as the butter is collected in particles the size of wheat kernels. Just before this, when the first signs of the separation of the butter is seen, the sides of the churn are washed down with cold water--usually below 60 degrees, or about 55 degrees--to not only prevent waste, but to harden the butter and make it easier to handle. When the granules are the size of wheat kernels, the butter is drawn off or the butter taken out of the buttermilk, as the case may be. If the butter is left in the churn, water is poured in to float the butter, which is then gently agitated a moment and the water drawn off. This operation is repeated until the water runs clear. Sometimes one of the washings is in brine, which coagulates the caseine into a soluble form and prepares it to be washed out afterward. In this way, it is believed that purer, longer-keeping butter can be made. In some cases, however, butter makers have customers who want a buttermilk flavor in their butter. They, therefore, do not wash the butter, or wash it very little. Such butter must be consumed at once, as it will not keep.
WORKING.
By this method of retaining the butter in a granulated form, only sufficient working is required to evenly work in the salt. The less working the better.
SALTING.
The salt, after the butter is properly drained, can be carefully mixed with the butter by stirring. When thoroughly incorporated, barely pressing the butter together into a solid mass is all that is needed. If one does not want butter very salty to the taste, it can be evenly and nicely salted by completely wetting it with saturated brine, then carefully pressing the granulated butter together and leaving in it as much of the strong brine as will remain. We have seen butter salted in this way, and it was very evenly and completely salted, having in it no undissolved grains of salt, but it was not as salt to the taste as some like.
About an ounce to the pound is good salting; but more or less salt must be used to suit the taste of customers. None but refined salt should be put into butter. No salt is better for this purpose than the Onondaga F.F., which is American, and the cheapest salt fit for dairy use that can be obtained.
The principal office of the salt in butter is to impart an agreeable flavor, in conjunction with the natural aroma of fine butter; but it is a fact that too much salt injures good flavor, and it may, to some extent, be used to cover up or neutralize bad flavors. We do not recommend its use for this latter purpose, preferring that the natural flavor of butter from pure cream should be preserved.
SALT AS A PRESERVATIVE.
Salt does very little to preserve butter. It retards the decomposition of the caseous and albuminous materials left in it; but if butter is properly made of cream not mixed with loppered milk and is completely washed with pure water, it is a fair question if butter will not keep longer without salt than with it. There are instances on record where butter has been kept sweet without salt for a long time. We half suspect that, though salt at first retards decomposition, the salt itself, in time, decomposes and becomes sodium and chlorine gas, or enters into new combinations with the constituents of the butter, and thus makes new compounds that do not in the least improve the flavor. We have no positive evidence of this, but have had this suspicion awakened by facts related about the keeping of butter and by a process of general reasoning. It is true that salt is one of the most stable compounds known, but we have proof that it can be resolved into its original elements, when stronger affinities are presented for one or both of them to unite with. It would not, therefore, be strange if such decomposition sometimes follows when used in our food preparations.
PACKING BUTTER.
It is quite a knack to properly pack butter in large packages, and the work needs to be carefully done. Some use it too violently, by pounding it down, and thus making the butter greasy or oily. It should be gently pressed together in the package in such a way as to leave no spaces filled with air, for the air will surely mingle with the surrounding butter and injure its flavor. A good way is to begin the pressure at the center and work carefully toward the circumference, so that all air may escape at the sides. In this way, perfect solidity of the mass is secured, and it is left in the best condition for keeping, so far as the packing is concerned.
PREPARING THE PACKAGE.
Before putting the butter in the package, the package should be soaked in water, so as to remove the taste of the wood, and then thoroughly soaked in saturated brine, so that the wood will not draw the salt from the butter which comes in contact with it. If it does, the butter thus deprived of salt will turn white, have a sickish flavor, and soon turn rancid. It is a good idea to not only sprinkle a thin layer of salt over the bottom of the package, but to rub the moist inner sides with dairy salt, and thus make sure that there is salt enough in contact with the wood to prevent its absorbing the salt from the butter.
CLOSING THE PACKAGE.