Gloucester County Democrat., 1898-02-24
CREAM RlPENlNG.
Various Tests Used In Determining Acidi-
ty and Other Conditions.


pure, sweet milk is not nearly SO ripe
after standing 20 hours at a tempera-
ture Of 56 degrees f. as cream from
slightly sour milk will be if it is kept
at the same temperature for the same
length Of time. Creameries have to deal
with milk of many varieties between
these two extremes, consequently the.
should test the ripeness of each lot Of
cream and govern the ripening accord
ingly in order to secure a uniformity in
the ripeness of each lot of cream when
it is churned.
have received many requests to ex-
plain the use of alkaline tablets for test
ing the acidity of either milk or cream
and show how they can be used to aid
the butter maker in obtaining uniformity
in the ripeness of cream. Each one OF
the tablets contains standard amount
Of alkali, and by dissolying definite
number of them i'll a certain amount Of
water the solution thus obtained will be
of standard strength. When this coll
ored liquid is poured into certain
amount OF cream in a white cup, the
cream remains uncolored until all its
acid is neutralized. As soon as the acid
ity of the cream is completely neutral
lied by the tablet solution the cream in
the cup becomes pink colored, and the
operator notes how much tablet solution
is required to produce this pink color in
the cream. The process is something
like measuring the sourness of lemonade
by finding out how many Jumps Of sugar
of certain size it is necessary to add to
the lemon juice in order to make it
sweet. Tho sourer the lemonade the
more sugar is required to sweeten it,
and SO the ripe cream takes moro tablet
solution to produce the pink color than
a sweet cream. The amount of acidity
in the cream is indicated by the amount
of tablet solution used in each test.
The standard tablet solution is easily
made CT a convenient strength by dis
solving five tablets in 80 centimeters Of
water in a graduated cylinder. A 90
centimeter pipette is used for measuring
the cream, and the per cent of acidity
in the cream is found by multiplying by
two the number Of centimeters of tablet
solution required to produce the pink
color in the 90 centimeters of cream.
Each centimeter Of tablet solution is ap
proximately equal to -hundredths OF
per cent Of acidity, so that 10 cent?
meters tablet solution represents about
3 per cent acid, 20 centimeters A per
cent, 20 centimeters 5 per cent acid,
and so on.
Cream that is sweet to the taste and
smell may contain from .l5 to 80
per cent acidity. This is quite wide
range in the acidity which cannot be
measured by taste or smell, but the
sweet cream which contains 3 per
cent acid will ripen much faster in a
given time than one having only 10
per cent acidity, if both be kept at the
same temperature This shows the ad-
vantage of testing the acidity of each
lot Of cream when it is first put into the
cream vat. The cream with 3 per cent
acid will ripen SO much faster than one
with only 10 per cent acid that they
must be kept at different temperatures
if it is desired to have the same amount
of acid developed at churning time,
which is usually about the same mum !.
ber of hours from the time the cream is
put into the ripening vat.
The great majority of butter makers
ripen cream about 20 hours and then
churn it. Very few practice holding the
cream 40 hours before it is churned.
During its ripening an acid test should
occasionally be made Of the thoroughly
mixed cream. This will show whether
the ripening should be checked by cool
ing the cream or hastened by warming
it. Since the butter maker can easily
check or hasten the cream ripening by
either cooling or warming the cream he
can use starter or ripen the cream
without one for either 90 or 40 hours if
he will test the acidity every few hours
and find how fast the ripening is pro-
crossing.
If cream is allowed to ripen much be-
yond 6 per cent Of acidity, the butter
will often have sour flavor from over
ripe cream. When cream has reached
this point of g per cent acid, it should
be cooled at once and kept as cold as
possible-50 degrees F. or lower-until
it is churned. Very little acidity will
develop in cream which is cooled to so
degrees F., but it will ripen very fast at
70 degrees f.
The efforts of the butter maker should
be directed toward ripening the cream
up to about g per cent acid and no
further, and this amount of acidity
should be attained few hours before
churning time in order that the cream
may be cooled during these few hours
and reduced to a low churning tempera-
ture. If the cream has not been srffi-
GENTLY ripened, there will be lack of
flavor in the butter, and if it is over
ripened the butter will have sour
flavor The acid test is an aid to uni-
form butter favor by showing when the
cream has developed certain amount
of aeidity Professor E. H. Harrington
Of the Wisconsin Dairy School in Rural
New Yorker