Читать книгу The Story of Milk - Johan Ditlev Frederiksen - Страница 7

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Milk may be adulterated or decreased in value either by skimming or by watering. In either case the percentage of the most valuable constituent, the butter-fat, is diminished. It is upon this fact that the most practical test, the Babcock, is based.

Babcock test outfit

The Babcock Test.^[2]—By treating a sample of milk with strong sulphuric acid the butter-fat is liberated as an oil. By subjecting the mixture to centrifugal force the light butter oil is separated from the rest of the milk and the percentage can be easily determined. Centrifugal force had already been used in the Fjord Cream Test, but it remained for Dr. Babcock to work out the splendid practical and reliable test which bears his name and in which he has given to the world an invention of incalculable value.

A two-bottle machine

Sampling.—Whether it is new milk or skim milk or buttermilk or cream that is to be tested the first thing to observe is to take a truly representative sample. The liquid must be thoroughly mixed by pouring it several times from one vessel to another, or stirring vigorously.

It may not always be convenient to make a test immediately when the sample is taken. In the creamery where the milk is paid for according to its fat contents, samples are taken every day from every patron’s milk and it would take too much time for the butter maker to test all of these samples before they would spoil. A preservative, corrosive sublimate,—poisonous but all right for the purpose,—is therefore added and all the samples of one farmer’s milk for several days or a whole week are put together in one glass to be kept and tested at one time. This is called a composite test and has proven entirely satisfactory.

The Lactometer has been used to discover adulterations, depending upon the difference in specific gravity of the various constituents. The specific gravity of whole milk is about 1.032 which means that, if a certain volume of water weighs 1.000 weight units, the same volume of whole milk weighs 1.032, the same volume of butter-fat weighs, say, .900, or of cream about 1.000, and of skim milk 1.036 units. If the Lactometer shows a sample of milk to have a higher specific gravity than 1.032 it may therefore be suspected of having been skimmed. But it will readily be seen that by removing from whole milk some of the cream and adding water, the specific gravity can easily be brought back to normal for whole milk. This test is therefore unreliable and has been discarded with the advent of the Babcock.

The acidemeter

Acidity Test.^[3]—The acidity, or sourness, of milk or cream, which depends upon the amount of lactic acid developed in it, may be tested by a liquid normal alkali or by the Farrington Alkaline Tablets, a solution of which added to sour milk neutralizes the acid. A few drops of an indicator, Phenolpthalein, added to the milk, turns it pink when all the acid has been neutralized, and the amount of alkali solution used shows the percentage of acid in the milk. This is quite important in preparing “starters” for ripening the cream in butter making or milk in cheese making, and in the manufacture of “Commercial Buttermilk,” etc.

There are other tests used in scientific dairying as the Fermentation Test to ascertain the relative purity of milk, the Casein Test, etc., but the above are those mostly used besides the Bacterial Count which is mentioned under the chapter on “Milk Supply,” and the Rennet Test described under “Cheese Making.”