The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-09-21
SOME BUTTER TESTS
METHODS BY WHICH TO DISTINGUISH
THE GENUINE ARTICLE.
The Use of Personalities with Fresh
Meat-CoIorfng Matter IN Many SaH-
sages-How to Detect Boric Acid "
Meat Products.


Meat Products.
1t is a matter of common informa-
ton that oleomargarine is sometimes
substituted for butter and that rancid
and badly made butter is frequently
melted, washed with o and churned
with milk for the preparation of
waited or process butter.
Methods are available which, with a
little practice, may be employed TO dis
tinguish between fresh butter, removal
ed or process butter Il oleomarga-
rine.
The spoon" test has been suggested
as a household test and is commonly
used by analytical chemists for distin-
gushing fresh butter from renovated
butter or oleomargarine. A lump of
butter two or three times b size of a
pea is placed in a large spoon and
it is then heated owe an alcohol burn
er. If more convenient, the spoon may
be held above the chimney of an /
nary kerosene lamp, or it may even be
held over m ordinary Illuminating gas
burner. If the sample in question be
fresh butter it will boil quietly with
tAS VI " ASN
small bubbles throughout the mass
which produce a large mount of foam.
Oleomargarine and process butter, on
the other hand, sputter and crackle,
making a noise similar to that heard
when a green stick is placed in a fire.
Another point of distinction is noted II
a small portion of the sample Is placed
in a small bottle and set in a vessel Of
water sufficiently warm to melt the
sample. The sample is kept melted
from half an hour to al hour, when it
is examined. If renovated butter or
oleomargarine, the fat will be turbid,
while if genuine, fresh butter the fat
will almost certainly be entirely clear.
To manipulate what is known as the
Warehouse, or milk, test about two
ounces of sweet milk is placed in q
wide mouthed bottle, which is set in
a vessel Of boiling water. When the
milk is thoroughly heated a teaspoon
full of butter is added and he mix
ture stirred with a splinter of wood
until the fat is melted. The bottle Is
then placed in a dish of ice water and
the stirring continued until the fat
solidifes. Now, if the sample be but
ter, either fresh Or renovated, it will
be solidiied in a granular condition
and distributed through the milk in
small particles. If, on the other hand,
the sample consists of oleomargarine
it solidiies practically n n piece and
may be lifted by the stirrer from the
milk.
Many persons believe that the great
mass of the fresh meat sold o n the
market is preserved chemically. This
impression is entirely unfounded. The
cold storage facilities of the present
day a the use of preservatives
with fresh meat unnecessary, and the
larger packing houses do not employ
them. 1t sometimes happens that local
butchers sprinkle personalities over
a cut of meat in order that they may
keep it exposed on the block or hang
ing in a show window y an adver-
tisement. The use of chemical pre-
servatives with fresh meat is confined
to this practice alone.
Personalities are very commonly
used with chopped meats n sausages.
especially fresh sausage. They are al
Ways employed with canned Vienna
and Frankfurter sausages inclosed in
castings with the ends tied. Where the
ends are cut ~preservatives may be alb
sent. The reason for this is that the
temperature required for the complete
sterilization Of sausages will either
burst or distort the skins when the
ends are tied, whereas sausages with
cut ends afford al opportunity for the
escape Of the water n steam.
With many varieties of sausages,
both fresh and smoked, and with chop
ped meats of all descriptions, coloring
matter is sometimes employed. This is
done partly for the purpose of satisfy
ing an unnatural demand for a high
colored article and partly sometimes to
conceal the grayish color characteristic
of old meat, which should not be used
at all.
The preservatives employed with
meat products are boric acid, borax
and 'sulphites. To detect boric acid
about a tablespoonful Of the chopped
meat is thoroughly macerated with a
little water. pressed through a bag n
two or three tablespoonfuls Of the
liquid placed in a dish with ff-
teen 6r twenty drops of strong hydro
chloric acid for each tablespoonful. The
liquid is then filtered through filter pa
per and a piece of tumeric paper dip
ped into it and dried neal a lamp or
stove. If boric acid or borax were used
for preserving the sample the tumeric
paper should be changed to a bright
cherry red color. If too much hydro
chloric acid has been employed a dirty
brownish red color is obtained, which
interferes with b color due to the
presence of boric acid. Now, if a drop
of household ammonia be added to the
colored tumeric paper and it turns a
dark green, almost black color, then
boric acid is present. If the reddish
color, however, was caused by the use
of too much hydrochloric acid, this
green color does not form.
The corrosive nature of ~hydrochloric
acid must not be lost sight of. 1t must
not be allowed to touch the flesh,
clothes or any metal.-New York Trib-
une.
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