COMPARISON OF WOODS FOR BUTTER BOXES By G. D. TURNBOW
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA
COMPARISON OF WOODS FOR BUTTER BOXES
By G. D. TURNBOW
BULLETIN No. 369
August, 1923
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
BERKELEY
1923
COMPARISON OF WOODS FOR BUTTER BOXES
by
G. D. TURNBOW
Butter boxes used in shipping and storing butter in California,are usually made of spruce which is largely shipped in from otherstates particularly from Washington and Oregon.
With the recent war, however, there came an acute shortage ofspruce on the Pacific Coast with a corresponding increase in price.The commercial manufacturers did some work in an attempt to finda substitute for spruce, but the trade did not readily accept a change.There was a demand from both the lumber and the butter interestsfor investigation to find a suitable substitute for spruce.
The production of spruce is somewhat limited in California, butthere is an abundance of white fir and a limited amount of cottonwoodavailable. However, the creamerymen have not used white fir andcottonwood to any extent for butter containers, on account of thebelief that these materials would impart a wood flavor to the butter.
Inasmuch as nearly all of the butter made in this State is shippedor stored in wooden containers, the use of white fir or cottonwood,would mean first, a material saving to the butter manufacturers inmarketing expense, and second, an opportunity for the lumber intereststo use a large amount of raw material already available inCalifornia, which heretofore had been of little commercial valueor use.
BUTTER ABSORBS ODOR
The volatile fats in butter have the property of absorbing odors,which often results in an undesirable flavor. Great care then mustbe exercised in keeping butter from coming in contact with materialsthat will impart a foreign flavor. Butter need be exposed to foreignodors only a short length of time before the flavor is permanentlyaffected.
Experiments[1] were conducted, therefore, to determine whetherwhite fir or cottonwood would impart a flavor to the butter and alsoto determine the possibility of storing butter in cubes and marketingit in 60-pound cases when these woods were used.
CUBE BUTTER IN COLD STORAGE
The butter for cold storage was packed in white fir, cottonwood,and spruce containers holding ten pounds each. Both seasoned andunseasoned woods were used in each of the three methods of packing.