......................... 4.0
Sugar...................................................... 3.8
Fat........................................................ 1.8
Mineral matter............................................. 0.8
Water......................................................88.0

BUTTERMILK

Nitrogenous matter..........................................4.1
Sugar.......................................................3.6
Fat.........................................................0.7
Mineral matter..............................................0.8
Water......................................................88.0

Skim-milk and buttermilk, when the butter is made from sweet cream and
taken fresh, are both excellent foods, although lacking the fat of new
milk.

Cream is more easily digested than butter, and since it contains other
elements besides fat, is likewise more nutritious. In cream the fat is
held in the form of an emulsion which allows it to mingle freely with
water. As previously stated, each atom of fat is surrounded with a film
of casein. The gastric juice has no more power to digest casein than it
has free fat, and the little particles of fat thus protected are carried
to the small intestines, where the pancreatic juice digests them, and on
their way they do not interfere with the stomach digestion of other
foods, as the presence of butter and other free fats may do.

It is because of its greater wholesomeness that in the directions for
the preparation of foods given in this work we have given preference to
the use of cream over that of butter and other free fats. The usual
objection to its use is its expense, and the difficulty of obtaining it
from city dealers. The law of supply and cost generally corresponds with
that of demand, and doubtless cream would prove no exception if its use
were more general.

[Illustration: Creamery.]

Cream may be sterilized and preserved in a pure state for some time, the
same as milk.

Milk requires especial care to secure a good quality and quantity of
cream. Scrupulous cleanliness, good ventilation, and an unvarying
temperature are absolute essentials. The common custom of setting milk
in pans is objectionable, not only because of the dust and germs always
liable to fall into the milk, but also from the difficulty of keeping
milk thus set at the proper temperature for cream-rising. Every family
using milk in any quantity ought to