winterizing

chemical process
Also known as: destearinating, wintering

Learn about this topic in these articles:

fixed oils

  • butter
    In fat and oil processing: Destearinating or winterizing

    It is often desirable to remove the traces of waxes (e.g., cuticle wax from seed coats) and the higher-melting glycerides from fats. Waxes can generally be removed by rapid chilling and filtering. Separation of high-melting glycerides, or stearine, usually requires very slow cooling in…

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spermaceti

  • In spermaceti

    …in a process whalers called wintering; it congealed as a white crystalline, waxy solid. Chemically, pure spermaceti consists principally of cetyl palmitate and other esters of fatty acids with fatty alcohols and melts at about 44 °C (111 °F). The former official unit of illumination, the candlepower, was defined as…

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