More butter info

[Guest guest]

I thought this was interesting. It's from

http://www.sacofoods.com/realculbuttermilk.html

" The traditional method of making butter differs both in method and the

product produced. Once the milk has been separated, the 40% cream is put

into holding tanks for a day before it is churned to butter. This allows the

cream to settle from the agitation of the separation process, and gives the

butter maker time to " culture " his cream. The culturing of the cream before

churning has two practical benefits. First, the acidification of the cream

with the addition of a lactic acid producing culture aids in the separation

of the butterfat in the churning process (remember, the cream is 40%

butterfat and 60% skim milk). Secondly, the added live cultures consume milk

proteins to produce this lactic acid, and thus yields a more " pure " butter

that has a longer storage life. It is the milk proteins that " spoil " or

ferment, rancidifying the butter. Other than these practical benefits,

culturing the cream before churning gives the butter a very unique flavor;

different from that which is in the grocer's dairy cases today.

This " cultured " cream is then batch churned for about 30 minutes. It is only

in the last two minutes of the churning process that the butter starts to

form in the churn. The agitation of the churning process breaks down an

emulsifying membrane around the droplets of butterfat, allowing the

butterfat to solidify as butter. These now " free " emulsifiers are then

skimmed off with the lowfat buttermilk. After the buttermilk is removed from

the churn, the butter is then washed with water to remove any residual milk

solids to eliminate the proteins that might accelerate the spoilage of the

butter.

This is the way that butter used to be made in the USA, and is how it is

still produced in much of Europe. Before the advent of the large commercial

dairies, Minnesota and Wisconsin used to be dotted with small creameries;

each with its own particular " flavor " of butter made from closely guarded

family cultures. These cultures were carried into the churned buttermilk

during the butter-making process as well. Although buttermilk is a very thin

liquid (resembling skim milk) as it is removed from the butter churn, it is

the continuing action of the live cultures that create the tart, thick

beverage that we know as buttermilk. However, with the demise of " cultured "

butter with the modernization of Americas dairy industry in the 40's and

50's, and the fact that it takes a lot of milk to make a small amount of

real buttermilk, modern buttermilk (cultured skim milk) was created by

artificially adding lactic acid producing cultures to skim milk. The

resulting beverage had similar taste and textural characteristics to the

real buttermilk, but lacked the emulsifying properties that made the old

fashioned buttermilk such a prized ingredient for cooking and baking.

One gallon of milk yields about 3/4 pint of 40% cream (heavy cream), which

can be churned into 1/3 lb. of butter (1 1/2 sticks) and about 1/2 pint (1

glass) of buttermilk. So 1 gallon of milk can yield only about 1/2 pint of

real buttermilk, but 7 1/4 pints of skim milk that can be artificially

cultured into today's buttermilk. It is only that, decades ago, the term

'buttermilk' became the generic term for cultured skim milk that the name

was " grandfathered " into today's dairy laws. It could not have passed our

current labeling requirements. "