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BUTTER AND BUTTER SUBSTITUTES (PART 2)

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BUTTER

1. BUTTER is the fatty constituent of milk. It is obtained by skimming
or separating the cream from milk and churning it in order to make the
particles of fat adhere to one another. Butter is used largely in the
household as an article of food, for it is one of the most appetizing
and digestible forms of fat.

To supply the demand for butter, it is produced domestically in the home
and on farms and commercially in dairies and large establishments. The
principle of all churns used for butter making is practically the same.
They simply agitate the cream so that the butter-fat globules in it are
brought together in masses of such size as to enable the butter maker to
separate them from the buttermilk. Butter is seasoned, or salted, to
give it a desirable flavor and to improve its keeping qualities; it is
washed, or worked, in order to distribute the salt evenly, to separate
from it as much of the curd and other non-fatty constituents of the
cream as can be conveniently removed, to bring it into a compact, waxy
mass, and to give it texture. The United States authorities have set a
standard for the composition of butter, which allows this product to
contain not more than 16 per cent. of water and requires it to have at
least 82.5 per cent. of butter fat.