There is another advantage in using the air as a cooling medium. In
shallow setting, more surface is exposed and the air, coming in contact
with the surface, imparts to it a portion of its oxygen, which mingles
with the oils and develops that fine butter flavor so much relished by
most and which is a peculiarity of fine butter. Again, slow cooling
gives more time for this oxydation to go on, and thus "ripen" the cream
for churning without souring it. This leaves all the fine flavor in
it, unmixed with flavors resulting from acidification. But, where milk
is set deep for creaming--and especially where there is no exposure to
the air, as is the case in submerging--no butter flavor is developed,
and the cream has to be kept until sour before it is properly
oxydized. There is not a full development of butter flavor proper, but
development of flavor resulting from the mingling of lactic acid with
the oils. But without this exposure and acidification, the butter is
insipid and comparatively flavorless. Any subsequent exposure to the
air soon throws the butter off flavor, the oxygen mingling with the
fats alone while the cream is rising and still sweet. This development
of flavor by oxydation is not mere theory; it has been scientifically
demonstrated at Cornell University, New York, if not elsewhere, and
must sooner or later be generally accepted and butter making proceed on
a more rational and certain basis. But it is hard work to get people
out of old ruts, or to overcome fixed habits and prejudices. Really
scientific butter making, in which every step will be thoroughly
understood and deliberately taken, is a thing of the future. It will
come in time, and then our descendants will wonder why we were so
stupid and slow as not to see and adopt the simplest principles when
they were thrust into our very faces. But mind and judgment are matters
of growth, the same as everything else in this universe of being.