MILK, CREAM, AND BUTTER

allows it to mingle freely with water. As previously stated, each atom of fat is surrounded with a film of casein. The gastric juice has no more power to diijest casein than it has free fat, and the little particles of fat thus protected are car- ried to the small intestines, where the pancreatic juice digests them, and on their way they do not interfere with the stomach digestion of other foods, as the presence of butter and other free fats may do.

It is because of its greater wholesomeness that in the directions for the preparation of foods given in this work we have given preference to the use of cream over that of butter and other free fats. The usual ob- jection to its use is its expense, and the difficulty of obtaining it from city dealers. The law of supply and cost generally corre- sponds with that of demand, and doubtless cream would prove no exception if its use were more general.

Cream may be sterilized and preserved in a pure state for some time, the same as milk.

Milk requires especial care to secure a good quality and quantity of cream. Scrupulous cleanliness, good ventilation, and an unvarying temperature are absolute essentials. The common custom of setting milk in pans is objectionable, not only because of the dust and germs always liable to fall into the milk, but also from the difficulty of keeping milk thus set at the proper temperature for cream-rising. Every family using milk in any quantity ought to have a set of creameries of large or small capacity according to circumstances, in which the milk supply can be kept in a pure, wholesome condition, and so arranged as to facilitate the full rising of the cream if desired. A very simple and satisfactory creamery, with space for ice around the milk, similar to that represented in the ac- companying cut, may be constructed by any tinman.

372 SCIENCE IN THE KITCHEN.

The plan of scalding milk to facilitate the rising of the cream is excellent, as it not only secures a more speedy rising, but serves to destroy the germs found in the milk, thus lessen- ing its tendency to sour. The best way to do this is to heat the milk in a double boiler, or a dish set inside another con- taining hot water, to a temperature of 150° to i65°F. as in- dicated by wrinkles upon its surface. The milk must not, however, be allowed to come to a boil. When scalded, it should be cooled at once to a temperature of about 60° F. and kept thus during the rising of the cream.

Of all foods wholly composed of fat, good fresh butter is the most wholesome. It should, however, be used unmelted and taken in a finely divided state, and only in very moderate quantities. If exposed to great heat, as on hot buttered toast, meats, rich pastry, etc., it is quite indigestible. We do not recommend its use either for the table or for cooking purposes when cream can be obtained, since butter is rarely found in so pure a state that it is not undergoing more or less decomposi- tion, depending upon its age and the amount of casein retained in the butter through the carelessness of the manufacturer.

Casein, on exposure to air in a moist state, rapidly changes into a ferment, which, acting upon the fatty matter of the but- ter, produces rancidity, rendering the butter more or less un- wholesome. Poor, tainted, or rancid butter should not be used as food in any form.

Good butter is pale yellow, uniform throughout the whole mass, and free from rancid taste or odor. White lumps in it are due to the incorporation of sour milk with the cream from which it was produced. A watery, milk-like fluid exuding from the freshly cut surface of butter, is evidence that insufficient care was taken to wash out all the buttermilk, thus increasing its liability to spoil.

The flavor and color of butter vary considerably, according to the breed and food of the animal from which the milk was

MILK, CREAM, AND BUTTER. 373

obtained. An artificial color is often g-iven to butter by the use of a preparation of annatto.

Both salt and saltpeter are employed as preservatives for butter ; a large quantity of the former is often used to increase the weight of the butter.

Artificial Butter. — Various fraudulent preparations are sold as butter. Oleomargarine, one of the commonest, is made from tallow or beef-fat, cleaned and ground like sausage, and heated, to separate the oil from the membranes. It is then known as " butter-oil," is salted, cooled, pressed, and churned in milk, colored with annatto, and treated the same as butter. I^utterine, another artificial product, is prepared by mixing butter-oil and a similar oil obtained from lard, then churning them with milk.

An eminent analyst gives the following excellent way of distinguishing genuine butter from oleomargarine: —

" When true butter is heated over a clear flame, it ' browns' and gives out a pleasant odor, — that of browned butter. In heating there is more or less sputtering, caused by minute par- ticles of water retained in washing the butter. On the bottom of the pan or vessel in which true butter is heated, a yellowish- brown crust is formed, consisting of roasted or toasted casein. When oleomargarine is heated under similar circumstances, it does not 'brown,' but becomes darker by overheating, and when heated to dryness, gives off a grayish steam, smelling of tallow. There is no 'sputtering' when it is being heated, but it boils easily. If a pledget of cotton or a wick saturated with oleomargarine be set on fire and allowed to burn a few mo- ments before being extinguished, it will give out fumes which are very characteristic, smelling strongly of tallow, while true butter behaves very differently."

Butter in Ancient Times. — Two kinds of butter seem to have been known to the ancient Jews, one quite like that of the present day, except that it was boiled after churning, so that it became in that warm climate practically an oil ; the other, a sort of curdled milk. The juice of the Jerusalem arti- choke was mixed with the milk, when it was churned until