Chapter I: Part 1

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HAND-BOOK

——ON——

CHEESE MAKING,

——BY——

GEO. E. NEWELL.

PUBLISHED BY
THE MICHIGAN DAIRYMAN,
GRAND RAPIDS.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT.

Thanks are due Messrs. Hunter, Walton & Co., of New York; Childs & Jones, of Utica, and D. H. Burrell & Co., of Little Falls, N. Y., for some statistical information contained in these pages.

COPYRIGHT 1889,
BY
E. A. STOWE & BRO.

PRESS OF
FULLER & STOWE CO.

PREFACE.

This little work on cheese manufacture is inscribed to makers, dealers and consumers, in the hope that its careful perusal may be of aid to one and all. The prestige that American cheese holds in the markets of the world has been threatened from many quarters, but we who inaugurated the Cheddar system on this side of the Atlantic are not prepared to succumb to competition, however sharp, or to prejudice, however strong. American cheese will hold its own as long as it has a square quality basis to stand upon. We possess the most natural and privileged dairy regions on earth. Let us utilize to their fullest extent the great advantages within our grasp. Dairymen have of late been struck with consternation by the ascendency of Canadian cheese over the States’ product. The dairy press have been pounding away at the gruesome situation so vigorously that many cheese men have been frightened into the belief that Canada has a corner on gilt-edged quality and fancy quotations that is liable to continue indefinitely. The writer has no such apprehension, however, and sees no reason why an American cheese should not always be a peer of the best. There has been unanimous action all over the dairy portions of the Dominion to effect the slight advantage they now hold. If, in a strenuous endeavor to improve the product, our friends across the border have succeeded and at the same time have stimulated us to a like movement, then thanks be to them. Legitimate competition aids all mankind.

As the caption indicates, this treatise is from the pen of a practical maker, who analyzes cheese manufacture from a standpoint of practice and experience, and not theory. In elucidating to my readers the fundamental and collateral fabric of milk manufacture, I write from the desk of a cheese factory, with milk, utensils and product under my immediate and daily supervision. In these pages, I shall discard everything theoretic, and base the whole value of the book on its practicability. In doing so my constant thought shall be the elevation and supremacy of American cheese to the highest standard attainable. To this manual I especially invite the criticism of the cheese profession in general, trusting that it may be a convenient book of reliable reference to the experienced and a work of utility to the novice.

GEO. E. NEWELL.

LEONARDSVILLE, N. Y.

THE FACTORY BUILDING AND SITE.

The site for a cheese factory should be a well-drained, slightly elevated location, convenient to a copious and perpetual flow of water. The size of the building is, of course, to be measured by the amount of milk to be manufactured therein, but the same internal arrangement is needed alike in both small and large factories. The building should rest on a substantial stone foundation, with a free circulation of air underneath, and a complete system of troughs be appendent to carry all slops and whey beyond contaminating distance. It is unnecessary that the building be more than a story and a half high, unless the upper apartment is required for something besides curing cheese. The make-room should be ceiled, and the curing-room plastered. The make-room should be in the front of the building, with the engine-room on one side of it and the milk delivery window on the other. The curing-room should be in the back. Cut off all superfluous space about the building and have just enough room to be nicely convenient. Put an awning roof over the delivery window, wide and long enough to cover wagon and team. Set the vats broadside to the milk scales, with ends towards the outer door. The platform for the weighing-can and scales should be on a level with the top of the vats. A small office desk should be hung to the wall near the weigh can, and close at hand, so that every patron can see them, should be arranged the cream tubes, and lactometer. Tin utensils can be hung on pegs in the wall, and a stout, low shelf in one corner will support rennet and annottoine jars. Have the aisle between the vats wide enough to permit of easy passage, and at the farther ends of the vats sink a trough into the floor to carry off the whey. Have similar troughs under the presses. The floor should be full enough in the center to gravitate all slop toward the drains. It is useless to have a factory floor wet all of the time; keep it dry by a system of neatness. The curing-room should have an outside door, from which cheese can be loaded. An adjoining lean-to shed, for storing empty cheese boxes and housing fuel, is also a needed addition to the building. For a one day milk delivery factory, no ice-house is required. Build substantially and paint neatly, aiming to have a model-looking factory.

Beginning of the Cheese Factory System in America.

About the year 1853, a gentleman residing near Rome, Oneida county, N. Y., Jesse Williams by name, conceived the idea of manufacturing his neighbors’ milk in common with his own. This is the first known instance of manufacture in this country by associated dairies, although the method was previously in vogue in Switzerland. I quote from an old report: “It required a long time to create the demand which now exists in England for American cheese, and to Herkimer county, New York, belongs the credit of creating it and securing the trade. It was mainly effected by bringing a high degree of skill to bear upon the manufacture generally, thus producing not only a good article, but uniformly good, or as near uniform as is possible when made in different families. Cheese had been sent abroad in small amounts for many years, but when once by good quality and uniformity it had secured a firm foothold, the amount exported increased with astonishing rapidity. By gradual growth it had come to nine million pounds in 1859, in 1860 it amounted to twenty-three millions, in 1861 to forty millions, and the demand and supply have steadily increased ever since. It is a noteworthy fact that systematic attempts to improve the manufacture of cheese began to be made both in Somersetshire, England, and in Herkimer county, New York, about the same time; and also, that with no knowledge on the part of either of the progress made by the other, after lengthened experiments, both should have adopted substantially the same method; for it is a fact that the Cheddar and Herkimer methods so closely resemble each other that the only differences of any consequence are such as necessarily grow out of the difference of climate. Their process differs from most methods mainly in two particulars; first, in employing milk which has attained a proximate degree of acidity, although never enough to be sensible to the taste, instead of such as is quite new; and, second, in the separation of the whey from the curd by causing its contraction and precipitation, instead of depending mainly on mechanical means. The improvements thus introduced within a comparatively recent period have resulted in several important advantages: First, a material reduction of labor; second, the production of a larger amount and a better quality of cheese from a given quantity of milk; and, lastly, the cheese made by this method requires less time for the ripening process, and thus is sooner ready for the market.

Utensils Necessary to Stock a Factory.

A boiler of moderate capacity, with fittings complete; milk vats with steam pipes and connections; patent galvanized iron cheese hoops; a gang press; weigh can with large gate; milk conductor to convey the lacteal fluid from the weigh can to the cloth strainer over the vat; common sized scales that will weigh at least 600 pounds; small sized scales for weighing cheese; two curd knives, one with horizontal and the other with perpendicular blades; large wheel with crank and endless rope for hoisting milk; two stone rennet jars of a capacity of ten gallons each; two thermometers, one for the make and the other for the curing-room; jar for keeping annottoine; syphon and tin strainer for drawing whey from the vat; a self-salting curd mill—a curd mill is now indispensable to a factory, and a self-salting one is indispensable where only one man is employed; rubber mop, curd broom and floor broom; milk book for keeping accurate account of all business transacted in the establishment, including daily receipts of milk from patrons; a set of glass tubes in a case, for testing milk as to the amount of cream it contains and comparing its state of maturity; two water pails and one curd pail; a heavy curd scoop; two dippers, one of three and the other of six quarts capacity; glass graduated jar and lactometer for testing milk to locate water—be sure and purchase a lactometer gauged for trying milk at 80° Fahrenheit, many being gauged for 60° Fahrenheit, and of little use in hot weather unless you have ice handy to chill the milk designed for the test; stencils, case and brush for dating cheese and branding boxes; tin funnel for conveying whey from the vat to the outside tank; curd rake for agitating the product when cooking; a cheese tryer; a curd sink is not now strictly essential, although some makers still prefer to use one.

In glancing over the above list we will mention some of the articles that can be supplemented by utensils of a more primitive and cheaper make. Such a retrograde change is not, however, desirable, although sometimes in a small factory where the receipts to the manufacturer are limited, strict economy has to be practiced in order to leave a margin of profit. With economists of necessity the boiler can be discarded and an old-fashioned under-heater vat, with a hot water tank attached, made to do service. I know of dozens of small factories throughout Central New York who get along admirably with such apparatus. In the matter of press and hoops you can do better without the gang press than you can without the patent hoops. Remember that it is no economy to go back to the primitive hoop that makes necessary the hand bandaging of every cheese. If obliged to go without the gang press, get hoops that can be bandaged before the curd is put in them, so that two cheese can be pressed under one screw in an old-fashioned press. In such a case wooden followers would be required. One pair of scales can be got along with at a pinch, although two pairs would save a great deal of transferring and extra work. Do not get along with one curd knife—you need both the horizontal and the perpendicular, in order to cut the raw curd evenly and economically. A crane can take the place of a large wheel for hoisting milk if you consider it more convenient. Keep rennet in nothing but stone jars or vessels and keep at least ten gallons always prepared ahead. Jugs are often used for annottoine, although an open jar admits of easy dipping and accurate measurement. Have your tinner make you a long, narrow gill cup, to which should be soldered an upright six-inch handle with a shepherd’s crook in the end. Use the cup for measuring out the coloring; the long handle, which can be hung by the crook on the inside of the jar, precludes soiling the hands, clothing and floor with the scarlet dye. A curd mill of some sort is positively necessary in order to facilitate good, even stock; do not leave one out of the list of apparati under any consideration. I prefer a self-salting mill, not only on account of the ease with which curd can be ground but also for its superior mechanism in thoroughly mixing the salt into the curd as fast as it is torn by the teeth. In grinding curd with a common machine, the torn shreds quickly re-amalgamate into an almost solid mass that often requires harsh manipulation to separate. Then, again, the salt being sprinkled by hand over the outer surface of the freshly-torn curd sears and burns it before it can be worked into the mass. With a self-salter, the saline condiment is equally distributed through all parts at the proper limit of acid formation, thus preventing the curd from packing solidly and making the quality even and fine.

MANUFACTURE OF CHEESE.

COAGULATION OF MILK.

If the milk you have in your vat is mature, or, in other words, slightly tending toward sour, heat it as rapidly as possible when preparing for the application of rennet. In the cool extremes of the season heat milk to 86° Fahrenheit and in warm weather to 85° before rennet is applied. If the milk is all right as to sweetness, as the bulk of milk is, heat it up to the desired point gradually, stirring it gently at frequent intervals with a long-handled dipper. You stir for the purpose of keeping down the cream and evenly distributing the warmth that is permeating the lacteal mass. You stir it with great gentleness and care because milk globules are eggs in miniature, and, like their large relatives of biped production, they must be handled with care. If you wish to heat to 85° and have an under-heater vat or fire flue beneath the milk, withdraw the fire before it has quite reached that point, as the after warmth will carry it up a degree or two. Be perfectly precise in all such little points, for on them hinge big results.

With milk in normal condition as to maturity, standing at a temperature of 85° in both ends of the vat, and with no cream visible on the surface, you are ready to take another step in the course of manufacture. If colored cheese are desired, now apply annottoine sufficient to give a rich, golden hue. Know exactly by experiment its strength as a dye, always know the quantity of milk to a pound and portion out accordingly. Work the coloring into the fluid with the same gentleness with which you have heretofore manipulated it while raising the temperature. When the milk is all of one even, yellow tinge, attesting that the annotto is represented equally in every part, it is ready for the real inceptor of cheese, rennet. The tendency of modern cheese making is toward quick coagulation of milk. The larger infusion of rennet necessary for this purpose begets cheese that can be quickly cured for a market where they are expected to be soon consumed. The old rule of coagulation in twenty minutes is now nearly obsolete, although it will always hold good for cheese of long keeping qualities. Fall made cheese that are expected to be consumed during the winter months should be strengthened for age by coagulation in from fifteen to eighteen minutes. When we are dealing with the average spring and summer make, trade demands more perishable stock and we must cater to it. If you do not know the strength of your rennet and you want the milk to thicken in eight or nine minutes, as it should do, previously test the lactic juice by putting a teaspoonful into a tumbler of milk kept warm at 85°. If the glass of fluid thickens in five minutes, you need one quart of such rennet juice for every 800 pounds of milk to effect coagulation, as stated above. If the tested quantity thickens in less or longer time, a proportionate less or greater amount is required for your purpose. Measure the rennet extract with exactness, so that there will be no miss in its proper adjustment to the milk, and then incorporate it into the vat of lacteal fluid. In infusing it into the milk structure, manipulate your dipper with the same caution that has characterized your former attitude toward the fragilely constructed fluid under your hand. After stirring for five minutes, withdraw the dipper and let the surface of the milk come to a calm. Then pass the bottom of the empty dipper lightly over the vat to drive back any particles of cream that may be struggling to the surface. The milk will soon begin to roll up in the wake of the tin utensil in your hand in a rapidly thickening wave. Immediately withdraw the dipper, for the rennet has accomplished its mission. Turning to your vat cover, stretch it tightly over the fermenting milk. The cover mentioned should consist of a strip of canvas cloth or sheeting running the entire length of the vat and lapping slightly over its width. The cloth should be tacked to lath or other light wooden strips the width of the vat, and these supports should be about two feet apart. When not in use, the cover can be rolled up like a section of carpeting and is not at all awkward to handle. Place the cover in a closed form on one end of the vat, and, unrolling it as fast as you walk, you can stretch it to the other end in half a minute, thus keeping your milk snug and close. I prefer to use such a cover every day during the season, and they are indispensable in spring and fall. Without some such device the crust of the rapidly forming curd is chilled, retarding the action of the rennet, and the temperature of the whole mass is perceptibly lowered, which is not only undesirable but positively detrimental to the natural and perfect formation of cheese.

In the course of twenty or thirty minutes after coagulation examine your crude cheese material and see if it is ready to cut up. Thrust the forefinger into the mass, and if the curd will split cleanly in front of it, it is ready for the knives. Milk should stand about forty-five minutes after the infusion of rennet before it is cut, but if the milk is very mature in quality rennet will act on the caseine more spontaneously. It may be firm enough to cut before that time; if, in such a case, the same amount of rennet had previously acted slowly on a proportionate quantity of milk, you can at once consider the quick action as a fair warning from nature that you must scald your curd in haste to keep ahead of the swiftly multiplying acid germs. As previously stated, as soon as the curd mass will cleave brittlely over the finger prepare your knives. First pick up the one with horizontal blade and hold it a second in hot water. This will warm the steel so that it will not chill the curd. Cut the mass lengthwise, turning corners deftly without lifting the instrument once until you are through. Then lay this knife aside for its work is done. Insert the perpendicular knife also in hot water and with it cut the curd first crosswise, then lengthwise, then crosswise again, being sure to lap over the course of each cut. The curd is now in small cubes that are fast discharging whey from their severed cellular system. They gravitate toward the bottom of the vat. If the curd has been cleft by the blades, gently and with great care, the rising whey has a clear, greenish cast, attesting that it is freed from most of the albuminous substances of the milk and will render a good ratio to the patrons.

SCALDING.

If the milk was mature, or too much rennet was incorporated with perfectly sweet milk, the whey will separate from the solids very rapidly. In either case it wants an immediate application of heat after cutting. Curd from fairly good milk, with a proper infusion of rennet, should stand for a few moments after cutting before heat is turned on. Never apply heat under any circumstances until the raw curd has all disappeared beneath the whey’s surface. As soon as the heat has warmed the bottom of the vat, bare your arms and with the hands gently lift the new cut mass to the surface. In this lifting give it a rolling motion, so that the cubes will all fall apart and exchange positions with one another.

Two dangers now arise and you must be prepared to steer straight between them. First, as the heat comes surging up from beneath against the tin bottom of the vat it makes it very hot below and cool on top. If the raw curd settles but a moment against the hot bottom it is liable to be blistered and seared over, to the subsequent detriment of the whole mass. Of course, it needs a slow application of heat on the start and almost constant agitation, and here comes danger number two. If you do not stir your curd sufficiently in heating, the quality of your goods is at stake, and if you do not stir judiciously, or stir too often and too harshly, your milk ratio is in jeopardy. By exercising good judgment, care and caution you can avoid the two extremes and make each danger your willing servant. If your milk on the start is sweet and pure, allow the heat to go up slowly until it touches the desired point. If, on the other hand, it is ripe, old or sour, push the heat with all vigor and scald as quickly as possible. With milk all right, about three-fourths of an hour’s time should be consumed in bringing up the heat to the scalding limit, but if otherwise get it there in fifteen minutes or half an hour, according to the exigency of the case.

But, to return to the subject of scalding a vat of curd in normal condition. On the start, using your hands as described, manipulate it with such care that the tender cubes are not bruised and yet are kept separate enough so that they will not form into a compact mass on the warm bottom. All this time the whey is percolating from the blocks and they are shrinking in size and becoming of tougher texture. As soon as the curd begins to assume a slightly elastic consistency begin operations with a rake. If you have an idea that curd wants to be stirred all of the time through the scalding period, at once disabuse your mind of it. Such a notion is antediluvian in its conception and disastrous in its results, but, strange to say, it is the predominating feature of the know-it-all young maker’s knowledge. Novices at the business are sure to stir too often and too violently. This knocks off the yield and also injures the quality of the cheese. For myself, above all patent devices in the shape of wire rakes for agitating curd, I prefer a simple wooden hand hay rake. Get one made of wood throughout and saw off the handle, leaving the stub about four feet long; this will insure convenient handling. When the moment arrives in the early cooking departure to use the rake, take the utensil described and, inserting it teeth up in the whey and curd midway of the vat at one end, push it gently from you to within two inches of the farther edge, letting the back of the rake head slide on the bottom of the vat. Be sure and do not let the teeth and head of the agitator hit the side of the vat, as curd is pushed before it which does not want the substance and nutriment crushed out of it that way. As the rake approaches the side of the vat give it an easy, undulating, upward swing, ending by a draw of the rake toward you. This will cause the curd that you have been pushing from you along the bottom of the vat to boil up with the whey in the wake of the retreating rake. If the motion has been gone through with easily and carefully, you will at once see that the curd within the rake’s sweep has been thoroughly agitated without bruising. After the manoeuvre described, do not change position but drawing the rake toward you, with its head scraping the bottom of the vat, produce a gentle ebullition of curd and whey in the same way as that just manifested. Step along, repeating the pushing and drawing of the rake until the farther end of the vat is reached. Then, push the curd with the rake up on one side and down on the other of the vat, changing ends, as it were, with the cooking cheese. Once over a vat in this way, if accomplished properly, thoroughly separates the curd particles and evens up the heat through the whole mass. Now, let the rake rest but have the heat go on for a few moments. When the curd begins to pack slightly (perhaps in five minutes, more or less, according to the previous maturity of the milk), again stir it up in the manner described and again let it rest, repeating the periods of agitation until it is scalded up to the desired temperature. In regard to the right temperature at which to scald cheese we cannot hope to give on paper much more than superficial information. Every phase of cheese making, to be thoroughly understood, requires practical experience, but hints and pointers on paper are often just what are needed to help puzzled ones out of awkward dilemmas encountered in the business. Hence, we shall, in the most clear and logical manner possible, give the reader our views, derived from experience, on scalding temperature.

RIGHT TEMPERATURE.

In the spring of the year, hay produced milk is comparatively poor and thin. When it reaches the manufacturer’s hands it is generally as sweet as a rose in regard to acid, although not always so in regard to stable tang. When it has been transformed into curd it must be scalded high enough to cook it, whether that takes a temperature of 98°, 100° or 110° Fahrenheit. Don’t think, as some do, that the curd is cooked when it has reached the temperature you are using—generally it is not more than half cooked then. We will say you began making cheese on the first day of April. You are not an expert at the business and, being anxious to make a good beginning, feel a trifle nervous over the situation. Keep cool and bring the temperature of the curd up to 100°. On reaching this heat immediately cover up the vat with the carpet-like canopy previously described. Be sure and give it a thorough rake stirring the last thing on reaching the scalding point. If the make-room is reasonably warm the canvas roof will keep the whey at a mercurial heat of 100° for a long while. After a few minutes examine the curd and see how it is progressing. Stir it up occasionally—once in fifteen minutes or so is sufficient—and after it has stood an hour and a half at 100°, if it does not squeak sharply between the teeth when chewed or immediately fall apart when squeezed dry of whey in a double-handful, you may be assured that 100° was too low a temperature at which to cook it. The object is to cook at the lowest temperature which will do the business within a reasonable time. The higher the temperature used, the quicker it will be cooked, but it will require more milk to make a pound of cheese. A good yield and a good quality must both be gotten out of the milk—these are fine points in cheese making. The curd we have spoken of has stood in the whey at 100° degrees for one hour and a half and is yet insufficiently cooked. An hour longer at the same temperature would probably cook it to the right degree, but there are objections to letting curd stand in the whey so long—it gets whey soaked and begins to disintegrate slightly, even when no acid is perceptible. So, after a ninety minute test, (or, better yet, before), raise the temperature two, four, six or ten degrees, as your judgment warrants, and bring it to a firm consistency as quickly as possible.

We are now supposed to be working spring or fall milk that is obstinately sweet and very hard to cook. In summer or warm weather, milk is, of course, mature; this aids and hastens the cooking process while sweetness retards it. In cool weather and with good milk, having found that a minimum of 100° will not cook the curd after standing at that temperature an hour and a half, fix your standard higher and bring it within the rule prescribed. Be sure that your curd is thoroughly cooked. Thousands of boxes of weak, half raw cheese are thrown on the market every spring that are deficient in quality through a lack of heat in the vat. The most convenient and sure test of which I am aware, to tell that the curd is “done,” so to speak, is to grasp a large double-handful and compress it dry of whey; if it quickly, after pressure is withdrawn, falls easily apart on the palm of the outstretched hand, you may be sure that your curd is thoroughly cooked in every way.

Now we come to acid.

ACID.

Acid microbes are inherent in the lacteal structure and come dormant in the milk from the udder. As soon as they feel the atmosphere they spring into spontaneous activity, however retarded by cold or fostered by heat. Acid in milk is a species of yeast fermentation and is the first step toward decomposition. It is the best servant the cheese maker has and is also his worst enemy when the relation is changed to that of master. In a temperate climate, in hay produced milk, in the spring of the year, acid is nearly dormant and there is but little use for it. Hay cheese are expected to be thrown on the market in cool weather when they will be quickly consumed; therefore, the additional firmness given by acid is not required to be applied as a safeguard against heat. If early hay cheese are cooked enough and salted about two pounds to the thousand, it is all that is desirable. On the border between hay and grass the weather is gradually moderating and there is torrid temperature in sight in the immediate future. Acid now begins to appear in the whey and curd you are working by the time you have it scalded. It has a right to be there for it is your friend and you now need its timely proffered assistance. If, through unusually good quality of milk, it does not come to the front, coax it a little in the following way: After the curd is cooked and before whey is drawn, turn on steam and re-warm the whole mass, then draw the whey and pack the curd in bulk as much as possible, covering it up with a cloth. This will soon set the acid to working in good shape. Always rely on the hot iron test to locate acid. It takes an expert to get the amount of acid even from mess to mess by an olfactory measurement. On March and the first half of April stock I do not care for any acid to show, but on later April and beginning of May goods acid should show on the hot iron clearly and perceptibly. When the curd is pressed to the metal, fine strings should just start from it immediately prior to salting. At this time you want just a little acid but not too much—too much will surely spoil spring made cheese.

The question arises, “How far must a cheese maker probe into the hidden mysteries that shroud the digestive assimilation of the product he manufactures?” We answer that he cannot probe too deeply or extend his researches too far into the minute. There are too many makers now with only a superficial knowledge of their craft, and before there can be any perceptible elevation of quality in American cheese the shoes of these novices must be filled by such men as we now term “experts.” Take, for example, the subject of acid which we are here discussing. A maker who can perceive it only as it is revealed by stringing on the iron is not competent to be in charge of a factory, for anybody could detect it there. The development of lactic acid is a species of fermentation induced by the spontaneous increase of inherent minute bacteria. It takes the same experience to perceive and govern it in milk and cheese as it does practice with square and compass to become a carpenter. We cannot _tell_ you all about it—it will take many days of careful observation and fine testing to understand its nature enough to make it your servant in the cheese making art. That is why makers without practical experience are always incompetent. Hold curd in the whey until it shows at least a quarter of an inch of acid by the hot iron and then draw off whey as quickly as possible. It is always a good plan where you have large vats and they are pretty well filled to have a third of the whey drawn off before acid develops, for then you can more quickly lay bare your curd. As the whey recedes, push the curd with the rake head toward the upper end of the vat and then tip the vat down, so that the whey will flow out from the lowest corner. Make a gutter with your hands through the center of the curd mass and distribute it in an even pack on each side of the vat. Now, take a knife and cut it into strips eight inches wide, drawing the knife from the center gutter toward the side of the vat. Flop these strips upside down and, to farther facilitate drainage, cut a longitudinal canal next to the sides of the vat. Examine by the iron and see how the curd is working as to acid; if it is maturing slowly and the curd is not hot, shut off all draughts of air, cut the curd into “bricks” or blocks the size of a brick, and scatter them over the bottom of the vat. Then cover the vat up with the same cloth that you used when scalding. If, on the other hand, the curd is hot and maturing rapidly, cut into small bricks, scatter well and give it all the air possible, frequently turning the bricks over. Unless positively unavoidable on account of overplus of acid never grind curd until you have cooled it down to a temperature of 80°. Above that heat the fine texture of the curd is torn and mutilated so that it will give out white whey, and, as a consequence, waste of quality and substance ensues.

The curd being first well drained and cooled to 80° by subdivision of pieces and having also developed acid sufficient for the season, it is ready for the mill. Grind with deliberation, and if you have a self-salter, so much the better. Incorporate the salt into the curd by thorough, although not violent, mixing and then air your curd. This is one of the most important processes of all and yet the one most neglected by negligent makers. A curd requires airing, not so much to expel heat as to expunge the gaseous odors that have followed it down from its animal origin. Stir it well at frequent intervals and spread it out well over the surface of the vat. So calculate that it can lay twenty minutes or half an hour before it has sunk to the temperature of 70°, when it is just right for the hoops. Allowing it to lay this length of time gives the salt an opportunity to strike into the pores and impregnate the product with its saline properties before being put under pressure.

HOOPING CURD.

On placing curd in the hoop measure it all in a pail and then you will get the cheese of nearly an exact weight. When spreading on the cap cloth wring it out of warm water, that last thing stirring up the surface curd from below, so that there will be warmth to form a good rind. Apply the pressure slowly at first, and as soon as the whey starts from the hoops with a “gush,” desist and let them rest for a few moments. The reason for this is to retain the salt and not expel it with the whey by an injudicious display of strength. You have, perhaps, considered two pounds or two and a half of salt per 1,000 pounds of milk just right for the curd and the season of the year, and it would be most unwise and foolish to let it dribble away to the detriment of the product. As soon as the whey ceases to start freely come down snugly on them with the lever and then turn your attention to washing up the vat and utensils.

CLEANING TIN UTENSILS.

This part of a maker’s duties has an important bearing on cheese manufacture, for if he is a sloven it does but little good for patrons to strive to furnish him with pure, sweet milk. Wash the vat and utensils through two waters and scald with that which is boiling. The vat and all utensils should be scoured at least once a week with salt, to prevent the propagation of a yellow and white fungus growth that is a persistent parasite of factories. Milk strainers should be hung out where the bright sunshine can reach them, and all the windows and outside doors to the make-room should be opened, to drive out the dampness that has accumulated during the forepart of the day.

PULLING UP THE BANDAGE CLOTH.

In from fifteen to twenty minutes after hooping curd turn your attention to them again. If the old style hoops are used you will be obliged to bandage them by hand; if not, to pull up the bandage cloth. As the former way is nearly obsolete, we will simply discuss the _modus operandi_ of the latter.

Set a pailful of clean warm water near you, and as you remove the cap cloths rinse them vigorously in this, to wash out all sour whey. Pull the margin of the bandage up and turn it neatly over the edge of the cheese; then, wringing the cap slightly, to remove only the surplus water, spread it over the surface, smoothing out all wrinkles. Apply, now, all the power that you have, that is, reasonable power. You do not want to press so hard that the butter will be crushed out of the cheese structure, but you want to press so as to expel all whey and permanently solidify the cheese. I examined 1888 made cheese this spring that were of fine quality but insufficiently pressed. The seams and cracks were mouldy and damp with whey, which damaged an otherwise fancy product 50 per cent.

CLEANING UP.

Cleaning up is the last duty of the cheese maker for the day. I use hot water freely on any portion of the floor with which whey has come in contact, and especially should it be used about the spouts and drains, for it is here that filth lurks and easily conceals itself. Boiling water will search it out and eradicate it; dash it on copiously all around. Sal-soda and potash are helpful aids to keep the make-room sweet, and a liberal supply should be counted among the necessities of every factory.

THE CURING ROOM.

It is just as easy to have a model curing room as one that is defective in structure. A cheese may be turned out of the hoop the acme of perfection in every detail of manufacture, and yet subsequently be damaged partly or wholly ruined by inhabiting a faulty curing apartment. The curing room should not be in a loft, or above the make-room. It should be on the ground floor, and for convenience it should open direct from the make-room, the door being easy of access to the press. The partition between the two rooms must be impervious to the steam arising from the cheese vats, as the animal vapor is detrimental to the maturing product on the shelves. The room should by all means be plastered, and have windows that can be lowered from the top when necessary for proper ventilation. In these times when cheese are frequently shipped when only ten days from the hoop, a large curing room is not necessary even for a large factory. The smaller you can have it without crowding, the better. If you want a room that will hold 300 cheese, lay shelves 2½ feet above the floor that will accommodate 100, put in stout uprights 7½ feet high, and on cross pieces above lay two more tiers of shelves of the same surface capacity as the bottom counter. When it is finished you have three tiers of shelves encircling the room, save for two doors, with space left in the center for a box stove. The object of arranging shelves one above another is not so much to utilize space as it is to scientifically cure the product. It, however, answers for both purposes. In a room, temperature rises with height, and the atmosphere is, of course, several degrees warmer near the ceiling than in the region of the floor. Hang a reliable thermometer on a range with the second tier of shelves, in a portion of the room where it will not be affected by direct heat from the stove. In this position the mercury should range from 65° to 70° Fahrenheit, the temperature on the top shelf at the same time rising to the vicinity of 75° Fahrenheit. We will be supposed to carry a day’s make of cheese into such a room when it is empty. Place them all on the top shelf in regular order, two deep. Continue to add from day to day until the top shelf is completely filled all around. Then begin at the end where you first started, and take down the first day’s make and place on the second shelf, arranging those fresh from the hoop in their place. Continue this process all around until the second tier is filled. Your next move will necessitate two removals, leaving the oldest on the bottom tier and the greenest on top. As soon as a cheese leaves the hoop a certain warmth of atmosphere is necessary to assist the process of fermentation that should at once begin. If this warmth is lacking green cheese will sour on the shelves before they can cure. Therefore, always place them in the most favorable position for assistance in the direction of maturity that you have at command.

CARE OF CHEESE.

Take cheese from the hoops after they have been under pressure about eighteen hours. If they have been properly made and thoroughly cooked, and the cap cloths are sweet and clean, the latter will peel from the ends without making an abrasion of the rind. Allow them to stand an hour or so on the shelves before greasing; the surface moisture will then have evaporated, and the rinds will deepen to a golden color and become crisp and slightly rough under the touch. Heat whey butter as hot as you can bear your hand in it, and, using a large piece of bandage cloth (no other cloth is as good), dip it in the hot grease and apply by a thorough rubbing-in to the cheese surface. The butter being hot will strike in and lend toughness and elasticity to the rind. Date the cheese after they have been on the shelves a day. The bandage cloth will then have become dry, and the dates can be made to show clear and distinct. Turn cheese over every day and rub them thoroughly with a sponge of bandage cloth, well oiled. Dealers, retailers and consumers insist on a good, perfect rind, and, as makers, we must give it to them. Appearance sometimes goes farther than quality, but we want both, and want them united. Sometimes cheese will mould on the sides during damp, muggy weather in summer. It will not do to drive out the dampness with fire, so establish a free circulation of air through the room and the mould will cease to accumulate. In a curing room it is easier to keep temperature where you want it during cool than in hot weather. If the mercury gets to running up above 75° Fahrenheit, sprinkle the floor vigorously with cold water, take out the window sashes, and on the south side keep the blinds closed, or a shade down. Good cheese can endure a temperature of 80° for a while without deteriorating, but such a heat is not desirable; keep it below that if possible during a hot wave. The shelves on which the cheese rest should be of sound lumber, smoothly planed basswood or pine, and each board a little wider than the diameter of the cheese. Care should be taken to have the bandages the exact circumference of the inside of the hoop. If the band is contracted, the cloth will split open under pressure and expose the cheese to the attack of skipper flies; if too large, the cheese will expand on the shelf and make it difficult to be jammed into a box for shipment. The reason the curing room should not be over the make apartment, or in a loft, is that in the former the vapor and odors generated below are not desirable curing factors, and in both cases excessive heat is unavoidable, due to the elevation and the direct rays of the sun on the roof. When cheese get so warmed up that the butter starts, the flavor is deteriorating also. While curing, cheese need ventilation, draughts of air should be avoided, as thereby the surfaces are dried up and checked. Too much light is not desirable in a curing room; shades should be used at the windows to regulate this. It is now customary to ship cheese as soon as they cease to be curdy, which occurs in from ten to fifteen days from the hoop.

EXPERIENCED HELP.

One great set-back to good cheese making is inexperienced and careless labor. This is another cog in the wheel that has been retrograding the reputation of our goods during the last few years. A medical student cannot obtain a diploma authorizing him to take under his charge the welfare of the sick without three years’ study aided by ocular demonstrations of his especial science. Then, he is expected not to have a dim idea of a patient’s condition when diagnosing his case, but to know and understand all about it. No cheese maker is fit for duty unless he can diagnose the condition of a vat of milk on a quick examination. The natural odor of pure milk has a peculiar animal smell, whose nature can be acquired by careful olfactory tests indulged in as the student draws the fluid from the cow’s teats. After an apprentice at the business can tell pure, sweet, untainted milk in any spot or place, he must learn to distinguish between that which is tainted and that which is verging on the sour. Tainted milk is radically different from sour milk, and infused in the product they each tend toward utterly diverse results. To pass a correct judgment on milk quality is thus essential No. 1 in a maker’s practical knowledge. Requirement No. 2, is to have a thorough understanding of the constituents and influence of all of the foreign ingredients that go into cheese. Rennet, the most potent auxiliary of the cheese maker’s craft, should never be handled or applied by ignorant hands. The amateur maker should gain a physiological insight into the lactic portion of animal anatomy, and have an intelligent comprehension of the active force of the peptic secretion. When such knowledge is acquired he will see the importance of never countenancing any coagulating fluid that is not immaculately pure in extraction and free from any subsequent taint. He will also understand its nature enough to always make a judicious application of it to the milk designed for manufacture. Here the necessity of step No. 1 joining hands with No. 2 is apparent, for he cannot make a judicious application unless his olfactory sense is trained to perceive and gauge every variation of the milk quality. Necessity No. 3, is in following the quality variation of milk into the cooking and maturing curd. It is a well-known fact with cheese makers that no two vats of curd will scarcely ever work exactly alike in succession. If one is to know absolutely just what to do and what to leave undone at certain moments of assimilation and maturity in curd, he must have gained that knowledge not from books but from continued practical experience. Here the necessity for previous learning arises. No pettifogger would be expected to argue legal points before the Supreme Court, because lack of advancement in the rudiments of his profession would make him as unfit for such a pleader as a farmer or merchant. Every man to his business, and no man to be trusted in any trade capacity until he has proved himself competent. So, if an amateur lawyer or doctor is not to be trusted, why should responsibility be placed on the shoulders of a green hand at cheese making? He is expected to properly prepare an important article of human food, and, inexperienced and ignorant of the rudiments of the trade, he stumbles along in the dark, doing, perhaps, the best that he can, and not so much to blame for the failures that accrue as are his employers.

Wide dispersion of training schools for both butter and cheese makers is not far off, and I, for one, hail that day with delight.

WHERE OUR CHEESE GOES TO.

After contemplating the immensity of our annual cheese output, the question naturally arises, “Where does it all go to?” The earliest shipments of American cheese were made from New York to England in 1835 and 1836. The beginning was very limited; shipments of cheese were made in casks; $60,000 would probably comprise the value of all shipments made in those years. As England still remains our principal foreign customer, we will come down to the year 1882 and give the official figures of the port of New York of the annual receipts and exports. We do not mean to intimate that England takes _all_ of our exports, but she absorbs the major portion of them.

Year. Receipts. Exports.
Receipts of Cheese in New York, 1882, 2,350,559 1,898,192
” ” ” 1883, 2,456,232 1,957,967
” ” ” 1884, 2,407,550 1,932,702
” ” ” 1885, 2,122,187 1,658,696
” ” ” 1886, 1,943,260 1,575,262
” ” ” 1887, 1,994,857 1,450,955
” ” ” 1888, 1,993,462

The 1888 export is not recorded yet. It is hard to get at the home trade quantity used throughout the country. There are many cheese distributed from factories to neighboring towns in Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and other states of which no account is kept, and there are no statistics covering the entire make, but at a guess we should say it was about 4,000,000 boxes annually. The cause of decline in receipts at the port of New York since 1882, is largely due to the fact that a good many cheese made in the northern part of this State (N. Y.) are bought by Canadians and shipped _via_ Montreal. It is said that Englishmen eat twelve pounds of cheese _per capita_ a year, while Americans eat three pounds. Cheese consumption is, however, on the increase here, as the healthy and nutritive qualities of the product are more and more appreciated. One of the most serious drawbacks to universal cheese consumption is the large profits exacted by middlemen when they dispense it to the public. If cheese could be had at the grocery for 9 or 10 cents per pound instead of 14 or 15 cents, it would be found in abundance on the poor man’s table, and a heavy decrease in the export trade would result. We believe that such a time is coming, and with it will come a vast improvement in the average quality of the national make. This is not a mere speculation, but a distinctive pointer of the times, and its verification is already at hand. Thirty-five years ago the innovation of the cheddar process gave cheese quality its first great advance. That advance remains yet to be perfected in detail, and then a cheese millennium will reign.

MOISTURE IN CHEESE.