CHAPTER XXVIIBUTTERINE

Ingredients — Colors — Equipment — Rooms — Arrangement — Testing Milk — Acidity — Milk in Butterine — Reasons for Culture — Cream Ripeness — Water vs. Brine — Milk Not Pasteurized — Preparatory Culture — Starters — Cultivating the Milk — Low Grade Butterine — Graining — Working the Butterine — Butterine Packing — High-Grade Butterine — Cleanliness — Use of Color — Formulas — Costs of Butterine.

—Butterine is a product possessing value as food and places within the reach of the masses an article which is wholesome, palatable and moderate in price. National and state legislation has done much to curtail its sale since it was found to be a competitor of the dairyman and farmer. The restrictions in force limit the volume of business, but the consumption is increasing.

Most of the oleo oil made is shipped to Europe, where it is used in the manufacture of butterine. With the comparatively dense population of European countries they are unable to supply themselves with dairy butter.

While prejudice exists in many places against butterine, it is wholesome, as it is made in a cleanly manner, for if it is not made with absolute cleanliness, and if the ingredients are in the least tainted from any cause, the whole mass is injured. This is true to a greater extent than it is in the manufacture of pure butter, and more marked in butterine. Considerable progress has been made in the manufacture of this article within the past few years, and a more desirable product has been made since neutral lard has been used as an ingredient. It is, however, necessary to use milk or cream or butter to give the goods the flavor, and many manufacturersuse a percentage of the highest quality creamery butter.

—The ingredients of butterine are butter, milk, cream, oleo oil, neutral lard, cottonseed oil, peanut oil, and palm oil. The latter two being comparatively new compounds. These, together with salt make the butterine of commerce. The manufacture of oleo oil, neutral lard, and a description of cotton seed oil is described in previous chapters, although the cottonseed oil used is usually bought ready prepared and known to the trade as “Butter” oil, peanut oil and palm oil are standard articles of commerce of varying qualities, and are usually bought on sample.

—There are three standard qualities of color in butterine. White goods, tested goods, and colored goods, in which an artificial color is used, with due acknowledgement and the payment of ten cents per pound tax. The production of butterine is closely supervised by the Federal Government of the United States, with scrupulous care and exactness, particularly as to any attempt to produce a color resembling that of butter. At least ten per cent of the quantity of any given ingredient must be used as a constituent or component part. There are, for instance, many vegetable oils, that would be considered edible but of high color, the introduction of a relatively small amount of which would help to produce the yellow color of butter. Objection is not made to their uses, but ten per cent of the quantity must be used in the formulas, and this quantity is usually prohibited for the reason that the pungency or some peculiarity of the foreign oil makes it undesirable in butterine. The manufacturer must closely watch his purchases of product to see they are not artificially colored since the introduction of any coloring substance in cottonseed or peanut oil, for example, would react upon the manufacturer of the butterine.

It is best not to attempt any innovations in making butterine without consulting the Federal authorities so as to be sure you are within the law.

—The equipment required in the manufacture of butterine is a comparatively simple outfit, consisting of the following items enumerated in the order of their use in the making of the product.

Storage tanks for cottonseed oil received in carload lots.Storage tanks within the building for containing oils for immediate use.Oleo oil melting kettles for reducing oleo oil to a fluid state.“Starter” cans in which the milk culture is kept and developed ready for use in the cream ripener.“Ripeners” for milk and cream for pasteurizing and propagating culture in milk preparatory for churning.“Emulsion” churns in which the various ingredients are mixed.Flume type crystalizers.Tempering trucks.Butter Workers.Packing tables where prints and tubs are packed.Print trucks for setting prints after making.

—The factory is necessarily divided into several rooms, notably:

(a) One in which the milk receiving, testing, weighing, pasteurizing and ripening is performed.(b) One in which—temperature 70° F.—the oil and melting facilities are arranged.(c) The tempering room in which the butterine is tempered after crystalizing. The temperature 58° to 60° F.(d) The packing room where prints are made. Temperatures 40° to 45° F.(e) The storage cooler where prints are set up before boxing and after boxed. Temperatures 34° F.

—In the usual arrangement butterine factories are designed so that the work begins on an upper floor and terminates on a shipping floor. The extent of the factory and the space allotted to each operation depending upon the volume of business. Usually decks are introduced upon which part of the work is performed. Local pumps, readily cleansed, are used for transfer of materials via pipes, and these are arranged with flow toward outlet so as to admit of perfect drainage.

—Consider the methods of receiving the milk, and also making proper tests to determine its value and the amount of fat it contains. It is very essential this be done carefully and intelligently, as the result of the test determines the value of the product purchased. Milk and cream are frequently paid for on the butter fat percentage.

FIG. 162.—EMULSION CHURN.

The test generally accepted is obtained by using Babcock’s “Acme” steam turbine test machine. This machine is made to accommodate twenty-four bottles. The machine should be set up well, secured and balanced perfectly for each test. This is accomplished by placing bottles exactly opposite each other. Should a test be desired on only one sample of milk, fill a bottle with water and place in machine opposite sample. The machine in motion makes 3,000 revolutions per minute. It will, therefore, be seen that equilibrium is necessary. Test bottles are arranged so they will contain the amount of milk or cream and acid needed. A 17.6 cc. pipette is used for measuring the milk or cream and a 17.6 cc. graduated tube for the acid. First pour 17.6 cc. milk in bottle, then pour in 17.6 cc. commercial grade sulphuric acid. Do not drop the acid on top of the milk, but hold the bottles sidewise so that the acid will slip into the milk at side. Otherwise a burnt taste will result and make it impossible to correctlyread the test. Shake the bottle well until milk has entirely disappeared, then place in machine.

After bottles are filled in this manner the machine balanced, steam is admitted gradually, increasing until machine is running at full speed. Allow to run five minutes, then stop, fill each bottle with hot water up to the lowest mark on graduate neck of bottle; start machine again and allow it to run for three minutes, when again it will be necessary to add hot water up to within one-half inch of top of neck of bottle; run machine two minutes longer, and read test. Use a pair of compasses in reading the fat in neck of bottle and read it quickly, as the fat recedes if left long. This test determines the percentage of fat in sample of milk, consequently its comparative value.

FIG. 163.—BUTTERINE TRUCK.

—The “sourness” or acidity of the milk can be determined by taste or smell, but not accurately. A test is necessary to determine the exact condition of the milk when purchased.

When milk contains six-tenths of one per cent acid, the most desirable point has been reached, as then it imparts the best flavor to the goods. If more than six-tenths of one per cent acid is used the flavor is not as good. This is also thecase if a lower percentage of acidity is used. Hence the milk or cream should be brought to this exact degree of sourness before using.

To determine this accurately, it is necessary to do it by a test, as milk may be three-tenths of one per cent acid before it is perceptible to the taste or smell. Milk that would pass as sweet by taste or smell will show two-tenths of one per cent acid.

The test to determine this is simple. Any chemist is able to furnish all alkali solution and the necessary neutralizer of proper strength. The usual way, however, is to use what is known as Farrington’s tablets, prepared by Prof. Farrington of the Wisconsin Dairy School. These tablets are dissolved in water, a convenient strength being five tablets to fifty cubic centimeters of water. The solution is mixed with the milk to be tested and shaken; the acid in the milk acting upon the alkali of the solution immediately turns the milk to a pink color and the amount of the solution required to produce the pink color determines the acidity of the milk.

—Cleanliness is the all-important factor, since milk is easily contaminated by foreign flavors and germ life. Milk readily absorbs the odors given off by articles placed in the same room. Only pure and absolutely sweet milk and cream should be used, but as absolutely pure milk, though sweet, is difficult to secure, it becomes necessary to adopt some method whereby the condition of such milk can be righted.

Careless milkers care little whether hair, dirt, dust, etc., drop into the pails while milking, thinking that in straining the milk, all particles and impurities are removed. It does remove most particles, but the germs which were clinging to these particles are not strained out. They remain in the milk and under favorable temperatures thrive and multiply unless arrested.

When the milk has been tested and accepted it should be strained through several thicknesses of clean cloth into the ripening machine, bringing the temperature in the different vats to the same point, so that as the milk is used it will all be in the same condition. In cold weather the temperatureshould be held at 70° F., while during the warmer seasons from 60° to 65° is desirable. In cloudy, murky summer weather a lower temperature will be required. Under such conditions the temperature should be held at from 55° to 60° F. until the storm is passed, when it should again be held at the normal temperature named.

—To make an acidity test, a 20 cc. pipette is used for measuring the milk or cream. Each cubic centimeter of solution is equal to two one-hundredths of one per cent acid, hence if 10 cc. of solution is necessary to turn the milk or cream a pink color, the milk would contain just two-tenths of one per cent acid and would be sweet. Any more than that would show the milk too sour for use. In receiving sweet milk, it must be assumed to contain impure bacteria, which only await the proper temperature to develop and sour the milk, producing bad flavors. It must be neutralized by pasteurizing and then cultivated with pure bacteria.

Another advantage obtained in the use of the “starter” is, that it permits the ripening of milk and cream at low temperatures. Bacteriologists state, and it is proved by experience, that a temperature of about 65° F. is most favorable to the development of the best fermentation in ripening milk and cream. Prior to the use of cultures it was customary to sour the milk at a much higher temperature, which was correspondingly favorable to all the objectionable bacteria in the milk. Without the use of the “starter” the conditions were beyond the control of the operator.

—To produce these conditions the milk should be pasteurized, which can be performed by the use of a standard pasteurizer of the type shown inFig. 164. There are a variety of pasteurizers in use.

This apparatus is equipped with an internal revolving coil of pipe or discs, built sufficiently strong to withstand the pressure of steam, water or brine circulated through the coils or discs, which is usually done in the order named.

To pasteurize, the milk is heated to a temperature of 180° F. for twenty minutes. This practically destroys the bacteria present. The milk is then rapidly cooled by passing cold water or chilled brine, or both, in turn, through the coilto reduce the temperature of the body quickly to that desired, usually 55° to 70° F., according to conditions as described. The starter or culture is introduced and the milk agitated to insure a thorough intermingling.

FIG. 164.—WIZARD PASTEURIZER AND RIPENER, STYLE B WITH VITRIFIED PORCELAIN ENAMELED JACKET AND “SIDE LIFT” PIANO HINGE METAL COVER.

—Where an abundant supply of cold water is available cream ripeners are arranged so that the first cooling is done by cold water passing through the chilling coil, since much cooling can be done in this manner. The work is completed by cold brine. It is best not to attempt this unless the volume of business is sufficient to justify intelligent supervision on the ripeners, because if it is done, some means such as compressed air must be attached to the coil in the ripener for the purpose of flowing out the water before admitting brine as the mixing would reduce the brine to a point where it would freeze on the brine coils or in the double pipe ammonia brine coolers with disastrous results.

In providing brine cooling capacity ample volume should be arranged for “reserve or inertia” since the demand is insistent and large in a short period of time.

—Some manufacturers do not pasteurize the milk and conduct operations as described in thefollowing paragraphs. However, the acidity test is equally applicable in either system.

—Only sweet milk should be used. Milk that is sour before reaching the factory causes troubles impossible to remedy, and no matter how good the “starter” the milk will have developed bacteria that cannot be destroyed; and, as the milk or cream becomes older the development of the proper bacteria is impossible to control. This is as true after it has been worked into the butterine as before. Hence it will be seen, that a great deal depends upon the milk and cream being sweet in developing proper conditions with the “starter.”

The milk upon being received is passed to the ripener, the temperature reduced as desired, and the process of “starter” is followed.

—The “starters” referred to are cultures—the bacteria found in clean, fresh milk, cultivated in vast numbers and when incorporated in milk containing an impure variety, miniature warfare is at once begun. If the “starter” is right, the warfare ends with the pure germs victorious.

There are two ferments or “starters” on the market which are commendable on account of their uniformity and purity. They are produced in laboratories, every care being taken to see that no foreign germs come in contact with them.

—Into a commercial starter can put four gallons of sweet, skimmed milk, which tests two-tenths of one per cent acid, no more. Strain through a double thickness of perfectly clean cloth, heat the milk to 180° F., holding at this temperature for one-half hour. This “Pasteurizes” the milk by killing all life in it. It also destroys all flavor.

The milk should be cooled quickly to 90° F. As soon as this temperature has been reached pour in a four-ounce bottle of “starter” or culture, holding the bottle close to the milk so as to avoid contamination. The bottle should not be opened until ready for use. After adding the ferment cool down slowly to 70° F., stirring all the while so as to thoroughly mix the milk. The bacteria grow very rapidly at this temperature. In twelve hours, if kept evenly at this temperature in a tightlyclosed vessel, a sufficient quantity of the proper germs will have been developed to produce an acidity of five-tenths of one per cent. The milk will also have thickened somewhat. If the conditions are found at the termination of twelve hours, cool the milk quickly to 40° F. and hold at this temperature until ready to make a large “starter.”

If the milk has not grown sufficient germs to produce the above named acidity, that is, five-tenths of one per cent, reheat to 90° F. and hold at this temperature until it does. Do not stir it at this stage, as the “starter” should be kept with as little agitation as possible after the germs have been propagated.

—When ready to make the factory “starter,” place twenty gallons of sweet, skimmed milk in a sterilizer, after having cleaned the vessel, and heat as before to 180° F.; hold at this temperature for one-half hour, then chill to 70° F. and add the four gallons of preparatory “starter” already described, stirring well while adding.

Let this stand twelve hours as before in a temperature of 70° F., when it should appear as the preparatory starter did, slightly thickened and showing an acidity of five-tenths of one per cent. When acidity test shows this to have been reached, chill to 40° F. (at this temperature the bacteria are dormant and will not develop), and hold until ready to ripen the day’s run of milk and cream for churning.

When the milk has been brought in the ripeners to the proper temperature, distribute the larger “starter” evenly through it. Three per cent is sufficient during the summer months, while even as high as ten per cent is necessary in cold weather.

—Put the requisite amount of factory “starter” in the ripeners, thoroughly agitate and allow to remain quiet. At the expiration of twelve hours, the milk should be ripened sufficiently for churning and by test it should show, as above stated, six-tenths of one per cent acid. When this acidity has been developed cool to 58° F. and place in churn. At this temperature the butter-fat will form in small, firm globules and separate nicely from the casein. If the temperature is lower than this it takes much longer toseparate the fat from the casein and it is impossible to separate all of it, hence some fat is lost. At a higher temperature, the fat, when separate, will be fluffy and soft and will not produce a firm body.

As texture is one of the essential points to be sought after in producing artificial butter, the churning of the milk, in order to produce the proper texture in the butter-fat, is a very important function and one which should be carefully performed. Before putting the milk into the churn it should be stirred thoroughly, as during the twelve hours occupied in ripening, the butter-fat, being the lightest, has come to the top and unless again thoroughly mixed, one churn will contain most of the fat and the others will contain comparatively little, and as each churning of milk going into the mixer constitutes a separate run, the quality of the butterine manufactured will be uneven.

—Butterine is made in various grades, differing in constituents and proportions, also color, according to selections. Some manufacturers reduce the milk and cream content and add pure butter. Formulas for various methods follow:

In the matter of color large oleo producers select fats in the raw for making high colored oil, keeping it separate in manufacture; also select oil while graining for color, and press it all separately. Another source of a high colored oil is the boiling of large knuckles from shank or leg bones in cutter cattle, cooking them in open tanks and skimming the oil. The bones are cracked and boiled several times and the oil skimmed. The flavor is not sufficient to be detrimental. This is purely an animal oil that can be used in the oleo oil to make tinted mixtures.

—This is composed of cotton seed oil, No. 2 oleo oil and No. 2 neutral lard. Straight milk is used for flavor. The oils go into an emulsion churn at the following temperatures: Cotton seed oil at 75° F.; neutral lard, added next, at 95° F., and oleo oil next at 90° F.

The cotton seed oil should be agitated for about fifteen to twenty minutes before the other oils are added, leaving the lid of the emulsion churn open. This has the effect of removingsome of the flavor from the oil and while it may be slight, it is an advantage. The neutral lard should be added next, care being taken to see that it is free from flakes and grainy mixtures. In other words, it should be brought to the proper temperature, viz., 95° F. and held there long enough before going to the agitator to be sure that the grain of the lard has entirely disappeared, for if this is allowed to go in it can never be removed in the finished product.

FIG. 165.—CHURN ROOM FOR BUTTERINE.

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 thewhole 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.

—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.

—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 goabove 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.

FIG. 166.—MAKING BUTTERINE PRINTS.

—Butterine differs from creamery butter, in that the butter-fat and casein are both used in the butterine, whereas in creamery butter the fat alone is utilized. This is done in butterine to gain all the flavor possible by passing the buttermilk through the oils. It is later washed out in the water vats, but in passing through the oils, it imparts some flavor. Butterine also requires much less working, thereby avoiding a “salvey” or pasty condition, also preventing a lossof moisture and increasing the yield of the article. Salt being the primary cause of the “mottle” or discoloration, that danger is also avoided when goods are not over-worked.

After remaining in the tempering room twelve hours the butterine is taken out to the workers. It should be worked as little as possible to obtain a smooth, compact body, as over-working produces a “salvey” condition. A very successful butter worker is illustrated inFig. 167.

FIG. 167.—BUTTERINE KNEADING TABLE.

—From the worker the butterine is transferred to the print making or packing room. In packing the product is worked up into prints or rolls, or packed solid into tubs, as the case may be, and should be run into a cooler kept at a temperature of from 32° to 35° F., and there held twelve hours, at least, before being shipped. This gives the butterine time to properly set. The prints are arranged on trays to “set” before boxing.

—The formula for high grade butterine differs from low grade in that it does not contain cotton seed oil and that cream is used instead of straight milk. The oils are also treated in a different manner and at different temperatures. Larger quantities of cream are used to improvethe quality and grades. The treatment of oils is the same in all high grades.

The neutral oil should be placed in the agitator first. Before being put in, however, it should be brought to a temperature of 110° F. or enough to remove the flakes and grain. Then cooled quickly with clear ice, or by means of refrigeration, to 95° F. and run into the emulsion churn, in motion, with the lids open. Oleo oil should be heated just enough to remove the grain and make it smooth, about 115° F., then chilled quickly to 85° F. and run into the agitator. Let it be agitated five minutes and then add the cream.

FIG. 168.—BUTTERINE SOLID PACKING ROOM.

The whole body is then agitated enough to insure mixture, ten minutes being sufficient, after which it is dropped into the graining vat, the temperature of the water being 36° F. It should be removed from the water into trucks at once and put into the tempering room at a temperature not over 60° F., tempered twelve hours and worked the same as low grades.

—Cleanliness of all utensilsis very important and live steam should be run through all pipes after each time they are used so that there is no possibility of any fats or grease adhering to the inside and becoming rancid, as it is carelessness of this kind that often causes a large amount of trouble in a butterine factory. The use of clean, clear water is imperative. If the ordinary supply is not so, it should be made thus by the use of local filtration.

FIG. 169.—PRINT COOLER FOR BUTTERINE.

—The reader will understand that this is the particular point upon which federal restrictions have been placed, and the goods today cannot be colored except upon payment of a tax amounting to ten cents per pound. On uncolored goods the tax is one-quarter cent per pound. While the goods are equally as wholesome uncolored as colored, they are not as attractive and sales are proportionately curtailed.

After the different ingredients have been thoroughly agitated in the mixer, the proper or desired coloring matter is added an article manufactured especially for this purpose. From four to forty ounces to a batch of 100 pounds, according to the color and shade required, should be used.

—The following formulas show the amount of different ingredients used and cost of finished product at time tests were made. The first is a formula for high grade, then a formula for medium grade and lastly a formula for low grade butterine. The excess of yield over ingredients used shows amount of water absorbed:

FORMULA FOR AND COST OF HIGH GRADE BUTTERINE.

FORMULA FOR AND COST OF MEDIUM GRADE BUTTERINE.

FORMULA FOR AND COST OF LOW GRADE BUTTERINE.

—The following table shows shrinkage and costs of different grades of butterine, these being compiled from actual tests. It shows the different quantities of water absorbed by the butterine at different temperatures and it is readily understood that the amount of water absorbed regulates the yield, although the more water that is absorbed the poorer the texture, so that, generally speaking, high yields are obtained by loss of texture and general character of the product. It will be seen at a glance that the higher the temperature of the water in the graining vat the greater the yield, and the lower the temperature of the water the less the yield, although the texture of the product is improved.

The high grade shrinks considerably less than the low grade. This is explained in two ways. First there is very little loss of cream in the high grade, because one-third of the entire quantity of cream used in butter fat, or solid matter. While in the low grade only one-sixth of the milk used is solid matter, and as the emulsion goes into the graining vat the milk is lost in the water. Furthermore, cotton seed oil being absent from the high grade quality, the mass retains more water, as cotton seed oil has little affinity for water at any temperature.

A less amount of salt was used in this particular test on the high grade on account of the presence of salt in creamery butter used in the formula. A careful perusal of the following table will prove interesting:

TEST SHOWING SHRINKAGE AND COST OF BUTTERINE.

Note the excessive shrinkage where weight of milk is taken into consideration with other ingredients used, the milk being lost in the chilling water and the flavor being retained. Where natural butter is used the shrinkage is much less. The computations can be made on prevailing prices.

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