Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1897-01-02
FLAVOR OF BUTTER.

Why the Choice of Food Is an Important
Part of Dairy Practice.
1t is a matter of surprise among all
intelligent, practical dairymen, that
the scientific experts should differ so
directly on SO many important points
of the dairy work with practical ex-
perts, men who have been engaged for
as many years. in many instances, as
the scientists have weeks, in gaining in
formation in their special line. One
of these differences is the cause of the
favor of butter. And this is of really
primary Importance, for flavor is, of
course, the first point of value in any
article of food. Flavor, we may be sure,
e>ccites the appetite and has much to
do with digestion, for it induces that
flow of saliva which is the first agent OF
tie digestion of food. This is of the
greatest Importance in the preparation
OF food, for, as it's flavor is pleasant it
is eaten with relish, and the indispens-
able saliva flows all the more profusely
as the flavor is savory and sipid. Thus
we very properly place the quality of
the flavor of butter at the top of the
scale of points of excellence of this
distinguished article of our food.
Now, the practical expert is very sure
that it is from the food that flavor is
developed in the butter. This should
go without saying, for if i'll favors are
derived from the foods, why not the
good favors? Who of us do not know
that the fresh June grass gives more
desirable flavor to the butter than cab
bagcs or turnips; and who doubts that
the wild onions, rag-weed and other
highly favored weeds do really give n
flavor to the butter of cows which feed
in pastures infested by them? So 1T
is with the other foods; linseed meal
gives quite a different flavor from that
Of cottonseed meal, and cornmeal from
oatmeal or bran. Buckwheat has its
special effect, not only on the flavor,
but even on the color and texture of the
butter. And that this must be so we
know, because it is also known that it
is from the oils in the food that the
chief f1avors of the butter is made from
them are derived. Thus it is that but
ter made from cottonseed meal not only
has the flavor of this special oil, but
it has also precisely the same chemical
reaction in the hands of the analyst.
If, then, the dairyman whose expert
ence goes back for score or two of
years of intelligent practical work diff
fers from the scientist, whose work is
only of few weeks or months stand
ing, whose testimony should we accept,
or whose advice should we follow?
There is no doubt on this point, we
think.
1t is now the fashion to give too much
Importance to those organisms which
we know affect milk and its products,
and too little to the influence of the food
of the COWS. Unquestionably these
have their effect on the milk, and on
the cream and the butter; but so far
afTa Ill 70,
vorable, and to be striveu against by the
buttcr-maser. They are all agents of
decomposition, which in the end are
destructive, but as far as they may be
isely controlled, they are useful. AS
to butter, it is quite certain that the
rea! natural butter flavor, that which
is inherent in the fats which make tue
butter, is product of incipient decom-
position, which, like the ripeness Of
fl uit, gives the exquisite flavor to a
pear or a grape, and which, if it goes
too far, is the beginning of a flavor
which disgusts instead of pleasing. So
it is with butter, and this process of
ripening is to be controlled, just as
the cheese-mal<er controls the ripening
of the cheese. But there are other
flavors which are clearly due to the
food, and these differ very much Is
the foods may vary, they are to be
studied by the butter-maker in such a
way as to avoid the undesirable ones
and encourage the useful ones. And
thus it is that the choice of foods for
the cows comes in one of the most inn
portant parts of dairy practice. 1t is
not all of this to get and use the foods
which will most increase the product
of butter, but to use those of which the
finest favored butter may be made.-H.
Stewart, in Ohio Farmer.