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Introduction
Butter, a fat rich dairy product obtained by churning cream and working the granules thus
obtained into a compact mass, has been a staple item of diet in many countries of the world.
Butter and other fat spreads can be characterized by the type of emulsion.
In milk or cream, fat is dispersed in the continuous phase of serum while in butter, there is a
reversal of phase i.e. fat becomes the continuous phase with serum dispersed in it.
This phase reversal is carried out by churning cream in butter churns.
Steps involved in the conventional process of butter making which comprises preparation of
cream and churning and working are given in Figs. 1 and 2 and described below.
Churning
Churning is the process of converting cream into butter through appropriate mechanical
manipulations leading to the conversion of oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion of cream into water-
in-oil (W/O) emulsion desired in butter.
The emulsion change accompanied by removal of buttermilk and working of butter yields the
desired structure and texture in the product.
Theories of Churning
The conversion of oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion of cream into water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion to
form butter has been explained by various theories of churning.
These are discussed below:
3. King’s Theory
King’s theory was proposed in 1930 and 1953 and it is regarded as the modern theory.
According to this theory, what happens during churning is mid-way between the ‘Phase
Reversal theory’ and Foam theory.
The modern concept has been summarized by Mc Dowall as follows:
i. The fat in the cooled cream, at churning temperature, is present as clusters of fat
globules. And within each globule it is present partly in solid and partly in liquid form.
ii. Agitation (churning) breaks up the clusters and causes foam formation. The globules
become concentrated to some extent in the film around the air babble in the foam and
thus are brought into close contact of each other.
iii. The movement of the globules over one another in the foam film and the direct
concussion between them causes a gradual wearing away of the emulsion protecting
surface layer (of phospholipid protein complex). The globules then adhere together to
form larger and larger particles. Eventually these particles become visible as butter
grains. The grains enclose some of the air from the foam. The fat still mainly remains in
globular form.
iv. The working of the butter grains causes the globules to move over one another. Some of
them, under the effect of friction and pressure cause some yields out a portion of the
liquid fat, others are broken during working. Finally there is enough free liquid fat
present to enclose the water droplets, air bubbles and intact fat globules.
Factors related to the initial character of the cream includes chemical composition of the butter fat,
size of fat globules, richness of cream and viscosity of cream while factors related to processing
conditions are churning temperature, fullness of churn, speed of churn, design of churn etc. All these
factors are discusses in the following sections.
a. Churning temperature
The temperature is one of the most influential factors in determining the churnability of
cream.
The higher the temperature of cream, the sooner the churning process will be completed.
Too high a churning temperature is however not desirable because:
i. It causes the butter to contain soft lumps instead of in a flaky granular form. This is
deleterious to the quality of the butter.
ii. It causes first a greasy texture of butter, and secondly, it causes the incorporation of
too much butter milk in the butter.
iii. This butter milk contains lactose, curd, and water, which when present together in
butter, are likely to sour and in other ways deteriorate the butter.
iv. Curd and lactose should be excluded from butter as much as possible, in order to
eliminate food for bacteria which may be present.
Too low temperature is also undesirable although it is better to have the temperature a
little low rather than too high. This is because:
i. Cream at low temperature becomes more viscous.
ii. On agitation in the churn such cream if it is very thick will adhere to the sides of the
churn and rotate with it without agitating; consequently no churning will take place.
iii. Too low a temperature brings the butter in such a firm condition that it takes up salt
with difficulty, and when this hard butter is being worked, a large portion of the
water in the butter is expressed, and the overrun will be lessened to a great extent
without increasing the commercial value of the butter.
The degree of hardness of the fat in cream is the governing factor in deciding the
temperature during churning. The hardness of the fat depends upon:
i. The season of the year.
ii. The individuality of the cow.
iii. The stage of lactation period.
iv. The kind of food fed for the cows.
All these factors influence the melting point of butter fat- The higher the melting point of
butter fat, higher is the churning temperature and the lower the melting point of the fat; the
lower is the churning temperature.
It can be concluded that the churning temperature may vary between wide limits, but the
average desirable churning temperature according to the season is
Winter 10-13°C
Summer 7-9°C
Here,
n = revolution of churn per second
Thus,
1 𝑔
𝑛< √ … … … . . (2)
2𝜋 𝑅
1
𝑛< … … … . . (3)
2√𝑅
Assume, if the furthest point of the interior of the churn from axis of rotation is 1m, then n < 0.5
per second or 30 per minute.
Churning Difficulties
The causes of churning difficulties are usually associated with the peculiar character of the cream and
particularly where the source of cream is confined to a single herd. Usual causes of prolonged
churning time and difficulty in formation of butter are:
1. Excessive hardness of fat: Winter cream usually contains more hard fats. Use of such cream
for butter making prolongs churning time because it diminishes the ability of fat globules to
coalesce during churning.
2. Small fat globules: cream that contains small fat globules takes more time for churning as the
ratio of membrane material to fat increases and thus provides increased protection to fat
globules.
3. High protein content: such cream delays butter formation because of increased viscosity that
minimizes the force of concussion between the globules.
4. Use of thin cream: Such cream also have increased protection due to higher membrane
protein to fat ratio and also due to intervening serum that keeps globules apart during
churning.