IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL BUTTER
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Hall at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 16th July 1877. A communication from
abroad by Hippolyte Mége, of 70, Boulevard de Strasbourg, in the City of
Paris, France.
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WILLIAM HALL, of Hibernia Chambers, London Bridge. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL BUTTER." A communication from abroad by
Hippolyte Mège, of 70, Boulevart de Strasbourg, in the City of Paris, France.
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of artificial
butter, and is founded on a prior Invention for which Letters Patent have been
granted to Hippolyte Mège, dated the 17th July, 1869, No. 2157.
The following are the several processes of the manufacture as at present con-
ducted.
Breaking down the Fats.-The perfectly fresh fat is broken down with rollers,
and as during the breaking down some of the fat sticks to the rollers, and as fat
decomposes rapidly, the rollers are made hollow, so that every quarter of an hour
at the longest steam may be passed through them to remove the adhering fat.
Artificial Digestion.-The fat, when broken down, falls into a vat containing
water, to which is added for every 200 kilo. of fat the stomach of a sheep cut up
small, and the quantity of hydrochloric acid and of biphosphate of lime required to
form an artificial gastric juice. This mixture is raised to a temperature of 45° to
50° centigrade, so that the fatty matters being disengaged at a temperature
approaching the animal heat do not form grease, properly so called, or tallow; for
it is well known that the fatty matter of herbiverous animals is in a butter-like
state up to the temperature of 50 degrees, it becomes grease at a temperature of
about 80 degrees, and tallow when above 100 degrees.
In this manner the butter-like material of the cow, and which naturally passes
into butter, is retained with all its original properties.
Purification or Cleansing-The fatty principle thus separated by an artificial
digestion, which lasts for about an hour, more or less, according to the degree to
which the mixture is stirred, rises to the surface in the state of a yellow liquid,
which should have an almond-like flavor like butter newly churned. This yellow
[Rios 2dl

page_text: liquid is drawn off into a bain marie at the temperature of 45 to 50° centigrade;
there is then added a per cent. of salt in powder, which is stirred carefully in;
the salt lays hold of fermentable matter, which is to be found in the liquid fat; it
is allowed to settle, and when the liquid is quite clear, it is poured into the
crystallizers.
Crystallization. The crystallizers are vats of convenient size; the most suitable
is a rectangular vat of 20 litres capacity; they are placed in a room heated to 25 to
30° centigrade, so that at the end of 24 hours about, the crystallization will be com-
pleted, that is to say, that on pressing the mass with the finger the liquid oleo
margerine will rise under the pressure; then the crystallized mass is turned out
and cut into cakes of 1 to 2 centimetres in thickness, and so it is put into the press
and submitted to pressure.
Transformation of the Margerine into Butter.-The oleo margerine, which is
commonly called margerine, as it comes out of the press is of the same composition
as butter, but it differs therefrom, in that by cooling it remains clotted, and it has
not the peculiar bouquet of natural butter which has passed through the udder of
the cow.
To obtain as exact a resemblance as possible to the natural product, the
oleo margerine is cooled to a temperature of 20 to 22° centigrade, at which it has
(like light butter) the property of remaining a long time in a liquid state. In this
state it is mixed in a churn with 12 to 20 per cent. of the cream of milk, to which
has been added a thousandth part of bicarbonate of soda, and a hundredth part of
cow's udder, fresh or salted, but in either case finely minced, so that it may yield all
its mammary pepsine and the cream. The insoluble tissue should be separated by
the aid of a sieve or fine cloth. This cream thus prepared is added to the oleo
margerine in the churn at a temperature of 22 degrees, and the churn is at once
put into rapid motion; at the end of half an hour, or one hour, the operation is
finished, the oleo margerine is in a globular state, and forms a very thick cream,
having the same flavor as cream obtained from farms. In case cream is not to be
obtained, milk is taken instead, and employed in the same way as cream, adding to
it bicarbonate of soda and mammary pepsine, then there is added 40 per cent. of
butter, having a fine odour, and the whole is mixed in a small churn, and this
artificial cream is used in the same way as the natural cream as stated above.
Finishing. Either way the cream produced in the large churn containing oleo
margerine in a globular state is poured into a vessel surrounded with cold water, so
that rapid cooling may prevent all crystallization. As soon as it is hardened the
mass is cut up into cakes and grated by means of a rasp similar to that used by
perfumers in grating soap, and it is passed between rollers which compress the
molecules and aggregate them, pressing out the small quantity of milk which is in
excess, and giving all the unctuous properties of ordinary butter. In this state it
is treated like ordinary butter to prepare it for the market.
As for the stearine which in nature is separated from the butter by the natural
action of the mammary glands, it is recovered in this process in the form of press
residues between the press cloths, and it is employed in making candles. Either it is
bleached with permanganate of potash, or it is transformed into stearic acid with all
the precautions its hardness renders necessary.