proper sourness when churned, the buttermilk will be of a pleasing taste and flavor. Its thickness will of course depend upon the amount of water, if any, added to the cream in the churn during the buttermaking. If the buttermilk is to be used for human food care must be taken not to dilute it too much.
Cooling Essential.—If buttermilk is left to stand for
hours in a warm room, fermentation goes on and may
soon spoil the buttermilk by making it sloppy or bitter.
It should therefore be cooled at once when drawn from
the churn; if kept in ice water it may remain in fine
flavor for several days. Well taken care of it is not
only a pleasing and refreshing drink but eminently
healthful. In cooking, too, it can be used to advantage.
Commercial Buttermilk or Cultured Milk is simply carefully
soured milk. It can be made at home from fresh
milk either whole or skimmed or partly skimmed. Partially
skimmed milk containing from 1% to 2% butterfat
is plenty rich enough and even better for most purposes
than whole milk. The essential qualities of good
buttermilk depend upon the proper ripening of the
cream or milk, the development of a pure "breed" of
healthful bacteria in a clean field free from weeds. Such
a plantation or "culture" may be grown in milk as
well as in cream. Its function is to turn the sugar of
milk into lactic acid under the development of pleasing
flavors and whether the butter-fat is removed by the
separator or by churning makes little difference. In
natural buttermilk there is always a little butter-fat—at
least 1/2%—left, mostly in the form of fine granules,
too small to be retained in the butter. If the same
amount of butter-fat is left in skim milk and that is
