Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-04-03
BOGUS BUTTER.

DuUt0I duulCCIdllOllS udfO UCCll oO
thoroughly ventilated and exposed in
the past few months that one would
suppose it would be difficult to find a
| new iniquity in this direction. But,
as there is nothing new under the sun,
so would it seem there is no end to the
| artificial ways of counterfeiting the
| pure butter made from the fresh cream
of the farm. About the worst of these
| limitations of pure butter, because the
most dangerous, has recently been
unearthed in Chicago. a..,.lo. His
tits well known fact that for years
past coloring matter has been freely
used to give butter the rich golden
tint of the product Of the June mead
ows. Various recipes have been offered
the public from time to time, the ma
jority Of which, it is believed, are not
deleterious, though some of the most
popular Of them undoubtedly contain
| baneful ingredients.
| These coloring materials are chiefly
used by the repackers in the city and
| country, though, it is said, some of
the creamery factories buy them and
farmers have the secret. The butter
collected in country towns, it is well
| known, comes in all colors, from the
pale-lard shade to the tint of brown
grease. Ali this stuff is sorted and
| worked over, and the convenient col
oring matter is employed to give it
! a uniform and rich color. The dye is
usually prepared in butter oil, lard oil,
common lard, or any oil that has an
| affinity for butter.
A reporter of the Chicago Times
lately had an interview with A. P.
| Peck, Of that city, pioneer in butter
packing, and the discoverer of the
secret of incorporating artificial color
| ing in butter while repacking or max
ing it. His recipe, which first came
out in 1855, is declared to be harmless
and wholesome, and has been secured
by patent from the National Govern
ment. The basis of this colOring
material is Anato, which is now used
in nearly all the coloring recipes, and
is believed to be the only article that
can be employed to advantage. An
alto is vegetable product which
comes from Para, Brazil. In it's orig
inal form it is seed found in pods,
but it is now usually handled in a pow
| dered state and known as anatOline.
It has brick color. Mr.. Peck's re-
cipe also calls for circuma and saffron,
which, mixed with the anato, give the
desired yellow color, and the whole is
STEPPED in butter oil. This mixture
may be used in the churn, salt, or in
repacking butter, and gives it a bright
yellow tint.
Another coloring material which
has been very extensively used is
made in Vermont, The base of it is
also Anato, but an alkali is used which
is declared to be very injurious,
besides being nasty substance
which is extensively employed in
the manufacture of soap. This Yer
mont stuff has been circulated through
thefpost- offices in small trial bottles,
until it has become, it is said, so
widely known that drug-stores and
groceries do not fail to keep q supply.
The farmers wives are said to have
fallen into the evil habit of using it,
and the result is that artifcially col
ored butter comes into market in as
| many shades as Joseph's coat, and
can be sold only for repacking at
ruinous prices to the owner.
This Vermont recipe was designed
for colOring cheese, the alkali atfiliat-
ing readily with the milk, but it is
now used for making butter look
golden as we'll, though the presence of
alkali spells the buttermilk, which is
an Objectionable feature of the pro-
cess. It is said that cheese is extern
sively colored by it at the present
time. This is not poisonous sub
stance. For the reason given above
it is getting out Of favor with the
butter-makers and repackers. It was
at first put in barrels and sold at about
$3.50 per gallon, and in pint bottles
for coloring butter at 81 per pint.
The recipe for this new process is
given here: One-quarter pound
basket Anato; add water to moisten
| to thick paste. Add two pounds of
fresh butter cooked till it is creamy
without boiling. Stir all the time;
add then three-quarters Of an ounce of
circuma one grain ana1ine yellow !;
cook fifteen minutes without boiling.
Everybody knows. or ought to know
that analine is deadly poison. The
yellow analine dye is used, of course,
to give the coloring matter the right
tinge, and bring out that beautiful
yellow color of butter, which is the
glory of housekeepers and genuine
butter-makers. 1t is believed that
this deadly compound has not come
into very general use. It has been in
the market few months, and is
recommended for it's cheapness as
compared with the other coloring
| matters, and for it's superiority as a
dye, the bright analine giving a rich,
golden color.
No cases have been proven in which
people were poisoned from eating but
ter colpred by the analine recipe. Yet
instances may have occurred in which
the suffering was attributed to some
thing else, while the butter was the
| cause of the trouble.
| The Anato coloring material, of
which Mr.. Peck is the patentee, does
not cost over seven cents per 100
pounds, and the stuff is sold at $3.50
per gallon in wholesale quantities.
One would suppose this were cheap
enough to make it unnecessary to