Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1895-09-19
salt for stock.

The Rural New Yorker devotes one
Of its interesting symposiums from
specialists to the question of flavor in
butter, Dr. Conn, DR.. Babcock. Pro-
fessors Plumb Dean, Jordan, Waters,
Van Slyke and Hills, and the Canadian
Dairy Commissioner, Mr.. Robertson,
being the contributors. The general
result of the opinions of these gentle
men is that the desirable aroma and
taste of butter are due to the handling
of the milk and cream rather than TO
the flavor of the original food. Fresh
butter appears to have no particular
flavor, il being the buttermilk rather
than the pure fat which gives the
taste of butter are due to the handling
some weeds, such as onions, garlic, rag
weed, etc, is recognized as unfavora-
bly, influencing butter flavor, the in
f1uence of feed is generally minimiZed
by all contributors and favor is, as
rule, ascribed to bacterial action. DIR.
Conn's views, which may be taken as
affording a fair index of the others,
are as follows:
THE flavor is not the result of any
direct influence of good. Undoubt-
eddy the food has great influence upon
the flavor, but the delicate butter
aroma is only directly related to the
food. This conclusion l base upon the
fact that / have succeeded in produc-
ing the desired flavor from the milk of
cows fed upon the widest variety of
foods. Butter fat, when first drawn
with the milk does not have the flavor
found in the choicest butter. In my
own opinion it has no flavor at all re-
sembling it. Very likely indigestion
Or change of food may influence the
flavor of the butter. AS butter is ordi-
nsrily made this will almost certainly
follow. Here, too, the influence is an
indirect one. but no less certain. Some
times the food does have a direct in
fiuence in filling the butter with pc
culiar odors, such as that of garlic.
The explanation is not positively
known, but it is probably due to vo-
latile products of the food passing di-
rectly into the milk. The food is the
source of the flavor indirectly, the flaw
or being directly the result of certain
decomposition products of tAe cream
These f1avors are produced by bacteria
which multiply in the cream when it
is ripening. Whether proper f1avors
are produced in the cream will depend
upon whether the proper species of bac-
Some species of bacteria produce very
good f1avors, some very poor fiavors,
and some will completely ruin the flaw
or and the resulting butter. The but
termaker has no method of determin-
ing what species are present, and will
get the proper flavor if he chance to
have the proper species. The various
starters and cults are supposed to
contain the proper species of bacteria 10
produce good flavor. Bacillus Al has
been demonstrated to be a bacteria
which will produce this flavor. The
use of these starters may be COM
pared to planting a fiel1 with seed. If
the field is left to itself ething will
grow, but we can not al what If
planted with clover we may depend
upon clover. So the cream, when inoc-
ulated with such starters as No. Al, may
be depended upon to develop the right
kind of bacteria and, therefore. the
proper flavor. This flavor comes, of
course indirectly from the food, but
directly from the products of bacterial
growth in the cream The conclusions
which | have given above are not mere
guesses, but are the results of long
series of most careful and rigid ex-
perimentS upon this matter | find it
possible to produce the butter flavor
from all sorts of cream, and under al
most any condition, provided / put the
right species of bacteria into the