Butter constitutes one of the most wholesome and palatable of all animal
fats, and is probably one of the most extensively used articles of food
of animal origin.
When the pure butter-fat has been separated from the casein of milk
it can be kept sweet and wholesome for a length of time sufficient to
transport it, and to pass it through the various links in the chain of
commerce, so that it can reach the family table a long distance from
its source of production. This, in addition to man's instinctive relish
for dairy products, makes butter the most popular fat in the diet of
civilized man.
[Sidenote: Fresh butter made in the home]
In prescribing butter-fat, however, it is advisable to nominate fresh,
unsalted, or what is commonly termed "sweet" butter. It is also
advisable for the practitioner to suggest that this can be made daily,
merely by whipping either sweet or soured cream with an ordinary rotary
egg beater until the fat globules have separated from the whey.
Pure butter contains about 3,600 heat-calories to the pound, and
therefore constitutes one of the most important and readily convertible
of all winter foods.
If no other fat is used, about two ounces of butter each twenty-four
hours is sufficient to give the ordinary body, under a temperature
ranging from forty to sixty degrees above zero, the required amount of
heat.