Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 August 1896 — SOME BUTTER MYSTERIES. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SOME BUTTER MYSTERIES.

Improvine the Flavor of Setter by Certain Kindi of Bacteria. Among the moat remarkable of recent discoveries is the fact that bacteria are responsible for the flavor of butter and .-•heese. After all, the popular notion that these organisms are enemies ot mankind is a mistake. Nearly all ot them are harmless, and some are exceedingly benefletaL It is only a few eccentric species that have adopted pan asitic habits, and, feeding on the body tissues of mankihd and other anlmals v produce thereby unpleasant diseases. The United States Patent Office has just issued to Vilhelm Storch. a citizen

of Denmark, a patent for certain bacteria “cultures,” which are designed for use in the artificial flavor of butter. Added to fresh cream, these microscopic organisms multiply In iuealcula-, lde numbere, and give to the substance,the peculiar taste quality that is desired hy people who eat butter. I u Denmark dairying Is conducted on scien'lftc principles, and in that country bacterial cultures have come into genera) use in the creameries. Already such cultures have been placed on the market in the United States, and small quantities of them are obtainable by farmers, put up In bottles and hermetically sealed. Among them perhaps the best known is Prof. Conn’s culture of “Bacillus No. 41,” the original germs for which were obtained by that scientist from a jar of preserved cream from South America, sent to the World’s Fair at Chicago.

The notion that Philadelphia butter may be made to order out of any sort of cream merely by the addition of a few microbes of a particular species seems surprising; yet it is a fact. It used to be imagined that the pure aromatic flavor peculiar to fresh butter of specially fine flavor resulted chiefly from the feed consumed by the cows, and that the great difference in quality between winter butter and summer butter was due to the difference between the winter feed and the fresh grass feed of the summer. This idea proves to be wholly a mistake. The difference is due to the varying species of bacteria that find their way into the cream. There are a good many kinds of bacteria which are foes of the dairyman. They get into his cream and spoil his product in the shape of butt,er or cheese. Did you ever taste milk that was sour? Probably you have. Well, the souring Is the work of a certain species of bacterium. But there are ever so many

other species which give a bad taste to the cream, even causing the butter made front It to smell badly. Two of these are represented In figures 4 and 5 accompanying this article. Figures 1, 2 and 3 are the sort of bacteria which make first-rate butter. Without such as they you would probably forsako *kat agreeable edible and take to oleomargarine.

BACTERIA THAT MAKE GOOD BUTTER.

BACTERIA THAT SPOIL BUTTER.