The Chemistry of Cookery

of animals a substance could be produced which closely resembled butter. So close, indeed, is the resemblance of imitation butter to the real article that the skill of the chemist must be invoked to render detection positive, if the artificial butter is good of its kind. So recondite, indeed, is the test of the chemist that it depends upon the percentage of volatile oils in butter-fat and in caul-fat respectively. ‘Artificial butter is the result of several processes. The internal fat of cattle is first chopped into small pieces, and then passed through a huge and somewhat modified sausage-machine. The finely-divided suet is afterwards placed in suitable vessels, and heated up to 122° Fahr., but a higher temperature must be avoided, otherwise a portion of the stearine, or true tallow of the suet, becomes inextricably mixed with the oleomargarine. It need scarcely be added that the tallow taste would be fatal to the manufacture of a first-class article. The melted fat is transferred to casks and left to cool; afterwards it is put in small quantities into coarse bags, several of which are made into a pile with iron plates between them, and placed in a hydraulic press. The result is the expression of the pure oleomargarine as a clear yellow oil, the solid stearine remaining in the bags. ‘The next step is the manufacture of this oleomargarine into the substance which has been designated “butterine,” and which is quoted on the London market as “bosch.” The “oleo” is remelted at the lowest possible temperature, mixed with a certain proportion of milk and of butter, and then churned. The result is the production of a material closely resembling butter, in fact practically identical so far as appearance is concerned. It is washed, worked, and otherwise treated like real butter, and packed to simulate the kinds of butter which are most in demand on the market to which it is sent. In London all kinds of butter are sold, and we believe that they are all more or less imitated. ‘Unfortunately for the consumer of butterine, not all that is sold,