Chapter III: Part 3

And as to the proper time of churning, there is an equal divergence of opinion and practice. One churns his cream sweet, another wants it slightly changed, a third wants positive acidity in the cream, and a fourth loppers the cream, while a fifth lets the cream stand even twelve hours after loppering--and this extremely sour cream butter sells for the very highest market price. So we are left all at sea, so far as acidity is an element in butter making. Again, to further illustrate these extremes, while a gentleman in Vermont is setting his neighbors agog by raising cream in a vacuum, a Canada gentleman is experimenting with an invention to raise cream by hydrostatic pressure and get the fat of the milk so pure as to dispense with churning. We hope both will succeed.

TEMPERATURES.

There is not so wide a difference in opinion and practice as regards the temperature at which churning should be done in order to secure the best results; yet there is quite a wide range--from 55 degrees to 65 degrees--or 10 degrees Fahrenheit. But only a few go as high as 65 degrees or as low as 55 degrees. The great majority favor 60 degrees to 63 degrees as the proper range of temperature for different seasons and conditions. Some favor 58 degrees to 60 degrees, and all appear satisfied with results. It is not improbable that different degrees of acidity in the cream require different degrees of temperature for churning, and that sweet cream requires still another variation of temperature. So the breed, condition of the cows, kind of feed, quality of feed, character of the water drank, length of time the cows have been in milk, and other considerations, require variations in the temperature. Sure we are that the difference in conditions and surroundings must explain some of the differences of opinions and practices among butter makers.

WHAT MAKES THE BUTTER COME.

It is not known whether concussion or friction, or both, cause the separation of the butter from the buttermilk in churning. But we suspect that concussion is the real agent that produces the separation, as we have really seen no churn that did not in some way produce more or less concussion. All the churns we have seen used appeared to produce good results, and we find every dairyman is satisfied with the work of the churn he uses, whatever the kind, style or patent. We cannot, therefore, recommend any style of churn as superior to another, but we prefer the simple and less expensive forms, as not only costing less but being easier to keep clean.

The churning should be steady and not violent. A too rapid or sudden separation of the butter from the buttermilk is not desirable. It is no recommend for a churn that it churns quick. Such a churn is apt to injure the so-called grain of the butter and make it salvy and greasy. The least churning that will separate the butter from the buttermilk is the best.

WHEN TO STOP CHURNING.

The improved modern method, now in practice by the best butter makers generally, is to stop the churn as soon as the butter is collected in particles the size of wheat kernels. Just before this, when the first signs of the separation of the butter is seen, the sides of the churn are washed down with cold water--usually below 60 degrees, or about 55 degrees--to not only prevent waste, but to harden the butter and make it easier to handle. When the granules are the size of wheat kernels, the butter is drawn off or the butter taken out of the buttermilk, as the case may be. If the butter is left in the churn, water is poured in to float the butter, which is then gently agitated a moment and the water drawn off. This operation is repeated until the water runs clear. Sometimes one of the washings is in brine, which coagulates the caseine into a soluble form and prepares it to be washed out afterward. In this way, it is believed that purer, longer-keeping butter can be made. In some cases, however, butter makers have customers who want a buttermilk flavor in their butter. They, therefore, do not wash the butter, or wash it very little. Such butter must be consumed at once, as it will not keep.

WORKING.

By this method of retaining the butter in a granulated form, only sufficient working is required to evenly work in the salt. The less working the better.

SALTING.

The salt, after the butter is properly drained, can be carefully mixed with the butter by stirring. When thoroughly incorporated, barely pressing the butter together into a solid mass is all that is needed. If one does not want butter very salty to the taste, it can be evenly and nicely salted by completely wetting it with saturated brine, then carefully pressing the granulated butter together and leaving in it as much of the strong brine as will remain. We have seen butter salted in this way, and it was very evenly and completely salted, having in it no undissolved grains of salt, but it was not as salt to the taste as some like.

About an ounce to the pound is good salting; but more or less salt must be used to suit the taste of customers. None but refined salt should be put into butter. No salt is better for this purpose than the Onondaga F.F., which is American, and the cheapest salt fit for dairy use that can be obtained.

The principal office of the salt in butter is to impart an agreeable flavor, in conjunction with the natural aroma of fine butter; but it is a fact that too much salt injures good flavor, and it may, to some extent, be used to cover up or neutralize bad flavors. We do not recommend its use for this latter purpose, preferring that the natural flavor of butter from pure cream should be preserved.

SALT AS A PRESERVATIVE.

Salt does very little to preserve butter. It retards the decomposition of the caseous and albuminous materials left in it; but if butter is properly made of cream not mixed with loppered milk and is completely washed with pure water, it is a fair question if butter will not keep longer without salt than with it. There are instances on record where butter has been kept sweet without salt for a long time. We half suspect that, though salt at first retards decomposition, the salt itself, in time, decomposes and becomes sodium and chlorine gas, or enters into new combinations with the constituents of the butter, and thus makes new compounds that do not in the least improve the flavor. We have no positive evidence of this, but have had this suspicion awakened by facts related about the keeping of butter and by a process of general reasoning. It is true that salt is one of the most stable compounds known, but we have proof that it can be resolved into its original elements, when stronger affinities are presented for one or both of them to unite with. It would not, therefore, be strange if such decomposition sometimes follows when used in our food preparations.

PACKING BUTTER.

It is quite a knack to properly pack butter in large packages, and the work needs to be carefully done. Some use it too violently, by pounding it down, and thus making the butter greasy or oily. It should be gently pressed together in the package in such a way as to leave no spaces filled with air, for the air will surely mingle with the surrounding butter and injure its flavor. A good way is to begin the pressure at the center and work carefully toward the circumference, so that all air may escape at the sides. In this way, perfect solidity of the mass is secured, and it is left in the best condition for keeping, so far as the packing is concerned.

PREPARING THE PACKAGE.

Before putting the butter in the package, the package should be soaked in water, so as to remove the taste of the wood, and then thoroughly soaked in saturated brine, so that the wood will not draw the salt from the butter which comes in contact with it. If it does, the butter thus deprived of salt will turn white, have a sickish flavor, and soon turn rancid. It is a good idea to not only sprinkle a thin layer of salt over the bottom of the package, but to rub the moist inner sides with dairy salt, and thus make sure that there is salt enough in contact with the wood to prevent its absorbing the salt from the butter.

CLOSING THE PACKAGE.

When a package is filled, a piece of thin muslin, cut so as to just fit into the top of the package and completely cover the butter, should be wet in cold water and carefully placed over the top, having the edges pressed down close to the sides of the tub. Then the cloth should be completely covered with a thin layer of salt; and if the salt is moistened, so as to form of it a thick paste that will become air-tight when it dries, it will do much to keep the top of the butter clean and sweet--for the more nearly air tight the package is when completed the better it is for the preservation of the butter. Then put on the cover, and seal the whole as tightly as possible.

STORING.

Remove the package to a cool, sweet place, not above the temperature of 60 degrees, and set it so that it will absorb no moisture or odors from the ground. Much butter is spoiled by keeping, because of neglecting the temperature, and setting the bottom of the package directly on the cellar bottom. If kept at a temperature above 60 degrees, butter will surely go off flavor, and wood will as surely draw moisture from the ground, if in contact with it, and become sour and musty, sooner or later affecting the flavor of the butter within the package. Nothing is to be lost, but all to be gained, by paying attention to these little things.

STYLE OF PACKAGE.

Of course, where a maker has a special market for his butter, he will put it up in such style and form of package as suits his customers. He needs no other guide and would injure his business if he followed one. But, for general market purposes, the 50 lb. tub is the best form. The New York and Boston dealers like this because it is convenient for the retailer, who can readily slip the tub off from the butter for either weighing or cutting up for his customers. But aside from these considerations, the Welsh tub is a very bad form of package for keeping butter, as it is by no means air-tight nor anything approaching it. Hence, butter sent to market in these tubs must soon be sold and go into consumption, or there is material depreciation in quality and a corresponding loss in price. The old-fashioned firkin, which could be headed up and the butter covered with brine, is a much better package for keeping butter. But, where butter is consumed as fast as it is made, and fresh winter made butter supplies the demand through the cold season, the keeping of butter for any considerable length of time is not of so much consideration. We think it fortunate that this is so.

CHEESE MAKING.

So much has been written and said, and so little understood, about cheese making, that it seems almost a hopeless task, as well as a thankless one, to attempt to say anything more on the subject. Sour ignoramuses and floating charlatans have spoiled more curds than have been spoiled by any defect in the milk. Sour, whey-soaked cheese has been the rage, and it is generally supposed that acid alone makes a firm cheese, when the experience of every cheese maker is that it is very difficult, by the ordinary processes, to make a firm curd out of sour milk--which, of course, no one ought to be asked to make into cheese--unless it be pot-cheese. Acid may make a curd solid, but not until it has cut out a large share of the goodness of the curd, and the cheese resulting will be about as digestible as so much putty.

DUTY OF PATRONS.

It is the duty of every patron of a cheese factory to send good milk to it, and to send the milk in good condition. It is not only his duty, but his interest to do this. A bad mess of milk may spoil a whole vat-full. This not only entails loss on his neighbor, where the factory is run on the _pro rata_ plan, but the patron must stand his share of the loss. Aside from the loss entailed on others and himself, he ought to be ashamed to deliver milk in a bad condition. There is no valid excuse for it. It ought to be his pride to deliver milk in as good condition as anybody does. If he cannot, he should leave the business, and go into something in which he has the ability to excel. Care and cleanliness, if the cows are healthy and have proper food, will insure good milk always.

UNREASONABLE EXPECTATION.

It is unreasonable to expect a cheese maker to turn a prime article of cheese out of poor milk. If one carries shoddy cloth to the tailor, he expects a shoddy suit in return, not a broadcloth one. So, if he carries bad milk to the factory, he must expect bad cheese. If he takes sour apples to the cider mill, he does not expect sweet-flavored cider, but sour. So, if he carries sour milk to the cheese factory, he must expect sour cheese. These defects, when they exist in a small degree, may be overcome, or nearly so, and a passable cheese made. But, is the cheese made from imperfect milk really a fit article of food? Who would work rotten eggs into custard, or sour meal into bread? Yet this is just as consistent as working sour or tainted milk into cheese, and the product is just as wholesome. That which makes stinking eggs makes stinking milk--decayed albumen--which is just as wholesome in the one as in the other.

GUARANTEES.

The cheese maker who guarantees his cheese is very foolish if he does not insist on a guarantee of good milk, nor should he be compelled to rely on his judgment formed in the haste of receiving the milk. A tricky man may juggle a bad mess of milk on to the best expert. How can the cheese maker tell whether the milk is from a gargetty udder, or the first milk after calving--both of which may develop in a very offensive way when the milk is heated up? So the milk may be so nearly tainted or so nearly sour that it will not stand the process of heating up and cooking. The law ought to be very severe on the man who delivers bad milk at a factory, or sells it to anyone. The factoryman who pays the price of good milk for sour or tainted milk is certainly very short-sighted, and cannot long maintain the respect of the man who sells it to him, nor sustain himself pecuniarily. The man who pays cash for milk has the right, above all others, to demand that the milk shall be sweet and wholesome. This is one point that should be insisted upon--the delivery of good milk in good condition.

HEATING.

After the milk is all in, or the requisite amount is in the vat, the heat may at once be started and raised to some point between 80 and 86 degrees. If we set below this, the rennet works too slow; if we set above, it is thought to work too fast--so custom has fixed upon this range of temperature for setting, and there appears to be no valid objection to it. But while the temperature of the milk is being raised, and before, it should receive frequent stirrings to keep the cream from rising, and thus becoming partially or wholly wasted. The rennet should by no means be added until the temperature stops rising--or so nearly so that by the time the rennet is stirred in and the stirring stopped, because the milk begins to coagulate, a stationary temperature will have been reached.

COLORING.

The coloring fluid should be added just before the rennet is--unless white cheese is made. There is a limited demand for white cheese for the London market. But do not make the color too high--as there is a limited demand for high-colored goods, and this mainly from the South, in spring and fall. Nor should the color be too pale, as there is really no demand for pale cheese. It should be either white or of a medium hue--a bright, golden yellow. There is a demand for uniformity of color, as buyers often want large lots, all of the same hue or shade. In selecting such a lot, they may rule out first-class cheese that is too pale or too high-colored. The universal use of the same manufacture of coloring extract guaranteed of uniform strength, might secure uniformity in coloring. But this is doubtful and difficult. A better, and we think, a feasible way, would be to have a standard color--like those accompanying paints--furnished to every cheese maker as a guide, and let him color to it as nearly as possible. In this way, a close approximate to uniformity of color might be secured. He could then use whatever coloring fluid he chose, and his eye would be his guide. Coloring does not improve the product. If it does no harm, it does no good beyond gratifying the eye and deceiving the palate through the common notion that high color and high flavor go together.

SETTING.

Theoretically, 98 degrees or blood heat would seem to be the temperature for setting, as rennet is the most active at this point. Usually, 82 degrees in warm weather, and 86 degrees in cool weather, are the points at which the rennet is added in setting. But there is no reason for a different temperature at different seasons, except that in cool weather the temperature is liable to run down a little--which should not and would not be the case, if the make room were so constructed that the temperature could be controlled and kept at summer heat.

OTHER DETAILS.

Enough rennet should be added, as a rule, to cause thickening of the milk to begin in 20 minutes, at 82 degrees. More or less rennet may be used, as it is designed to have cheese cure more or less rapidly. As a rule, the more rennet is used, the lower should be the temperature at which the milk is set and the curd worked. Agitation of the milk should be kept up for at least 15 minutes, where coagulation begins in 20 minutes, or as long as it can be and not prevent a solid coagulation. The stirring after the rennet is incorporated is merely to keep the cream from rising. The less cream gets to the surface, the less waste there will be. In a cool room, where the surface cools quickly and there is a falling of the temperature of the milk, there will be a thin cream on the surface. This will form a soft cream curd, which will adhere to the sides of the vat, to the rake, and to the hands, and be quite annoying. The amount is trifling, but the annoyance of the thing is enough of itself to make it desirable to keep the cream down; and a summer temperature of the room is useful for this purpose, aside from the comfort and the better handling of the curd, from first to last.

KEEP THE TEMPERATURE EVEN.

After the milk begins to thicken, a cloth should be thrown over the vat to keep the surface warm. A convenient way is to tack a cloth to slats a little longer than the vat is wide, putting the slats a foot or eighteen inches apart. This is easily rolled up and set aside, when not wanted, and is easily unrolled over the vat when needed. There should be no raising of the temperature after the rennet is added and the mass comes to a standstill. If there is, the portion next to the sides and in the bottom of the vat will get the most heat, and there the rennet will work the fastest and the curd will become tough before it is firm enough on the surface. Therefore, let the heat be stationary after the rennet is added and until the curd is cut fine, and keep the heat as even as possible all this time.

CUTTING.

The coagulum should be cut as soon as it will break clean across the finger when placed in it and lifted gently upward. This early cutting is essential. There is seldom, if ever, any waste from cutting a curd too soon. The clearest whey will always be obtained by cutting early. The whey exudes from the curd much more freely when it is yet young and tender--and the only object in cutting the curd at all is to get out the whey. When cutting is begun, let it be continued as expeditiously as possible until it is finished. Do not stop and let the curd stand and toughen. It cuts more easily, with less friction and less waste by loosening fine particles of curd, when it is tender and parts easily before the knife. The more it toughens, the harder it cuts, the more friction there is, the more the curd is torn and bruised, and the more the waste. If we could cut early and cut instantaneously, it would be all the better.

CUT FINE.

Cut the curd very fine. Seldom, if ever, is a curd cut too fine. As the object is to get rid of the whey, the finer it is cut, the more easily we achieve our object. It is not as far from the center of a small piece of curd for the whey to run out as it is from the center of a large piece. By cutting fine, we expose more surface for the whey to run out of, and we have smaller pieces to heat up. Curd is a bad conductor of heat. If the pieces are large, it takes a long time for the heat to slowly penetrate them when we want to increase it. The small pieces, therefore, absorb the heat more evenly, and this gives an evener action of the rennet.

"COOKING."

After the cutting is done, if the whey is separating rapidly, the heat may be started at once. If the action of the rennet is rather slow, it is better to wait a few minutes for the curd to harden a little, while with your hand you carefully rub down the side of the vat, thus removing all the curd that may be adhering to it. Not over five minutes waiting, as a usual thing, is necessary, and generally there need be no waiting. But as soon as the heat is started, begin to gently stir the curd with a rake, by passing it down into the middle of the vat and gently raising the curd on each side. If uncut pieces appear, carefully separate them with the teeth of the rake. Keep up this stirring, which may be more violent after the curd hardens, until the whole is heated up to 98 or 100 degrees--or to blood heat. The reason for constant agitation is to keep an even temperature throughout the mass and prevent the curd from packing. This secures even action of the rennet. The reason for going to blood heat is because rennet is most active at this point. It is the temperature indicated by Nature. It is the one at which we digest our food, and the one at which the calf's stomach forms curd and afterwards digests it. The pepsin or gastric juice is more potent at blood heat, and this pepsin or rennet is what does the work. The heat does not cook the curd in the vat any more than it cooks the milk in the cow's udder. We choose 98 degrees as the proper temperature because the digestive or cheesing process of the rennet goes on faster at this point. To go above or below it is to lose instead of gain. This temperature should therefore be maintained until the curd is "cooked"--that is, until the action of the rennet has expelled the proper amount of whey and the curd is as firm as we want it. Anent the stirring of curds, use the hands as little as possible. There is nothing better for this purpose than the common hay rake with the handle shortened and one tooth cut off from each end by severing the rake-head within three quarters of an inch of the next tooth.

DRAWING THE WHEY.

We next draw the whey down to the curd--leaving enough to stir it in easily, and cool the whole mass down to 90 degrees, to avoid too much packing, and draw off the balance of the whey. The whey should be run off before the acid develops, because acid, formed from the milk in the sugar, dissolves the minerals and cuts some of the oils in the curd, and these run off in the whey. Many curds, by remaining in the whey too long, become whey-soaked, and make cheese that is soggy and hard, with a sour flavor. This kind of firmness is not desirable, notwithstanding it is called for by buyers, who seldom know anything about cheese making. If the acid develops before the whey is properly expelled, or the curd is "cooked," it carries off the minerals, which are in the form of phosphates, and this makes the cheese poor indeed. These phosphates are of lime, iron, magnesium, etc., but the principal is phosphate of lime. The affinity of these minerals for lactic acid is stronger than for phosphoric acid; so they let go of the latter and unite with the lactic acid, forming lactates and leaving the phosphoric acid free. But if we get all of the whey out of the curd that we desire, and then get the curd out of the whey--that is, draw off the whey--before the acid comes on, we retain the phosphates and fats in the cheese--all the goodness that belongs in it. The acid will come on afterward, but we have reduced the sugar to a minimum, and the amount of acid developed does no serious injury. As the whey is already expelled, of course it cannot wash out the minerals that are dissolved. These remain, and in the process of curing recombine with the phosphoric acid. We have left in the curd about 3-1/2 parts of the 87 parts in 100 parts of milk. The whey left in the curd contains, we will say, 1-10th of the sugar that was in the milk. The acid formed from this, though too small to do any known injury, is large enough to do all the good required, if it does any good at all. We are, therefore, safe when we get the whey out of the curd and the curd out of the whey before the development of the lactic acid.

SALTING.

When the whey is well out of the curd, so as not to waste the salt, the salt may be applied and stirred in. The salt does not stop the development of acid, as is popularly supposed. When applied, it aids in keeping the curd loose. Then the curd may stand, with occasional stirring, almost any length of time for the purpose of airing and cooling, of getting rid of any bad odors, of developing flavor by oxydation from contact with the atmosphere, and of letting the acid come on. It is safest not to put the curd to press until it has a positively clean sour smell. This shows that certain chemical changes have taken place, freeing the curd of the gases generated by this process, and prevents any huffing of the cheese on the shelf in the curing room. Where cheddaring and grinding are practiced, the salt is of course applied after the curd is ground. Cheddaring is the easier and safer method, as the whey can be drawn early, and there is no danger from the acid. Salting at the rate of 2-1/2 lbs. of salt to 1,000 lbs. of milk is the usual practice and not far from right. For long keeping, 3 lbs. of salt are not too much. Use none but the best dairy salt--the best of all the dairy salts, as well as the cheapest, being the Onondaga, F.F.

PUTTING TO PRESS.

After the acid fermentation is properly progressed, the curd should be put to press at a temperature not much below 80 degrees, nor much above 85. If higher, it is liable to heat and taint the cheese at the center; if lower it is difficult to face the cheese and press the curd together properly. But in warm weather, there is not much danger of getting the curd too cool.

ACID IN CHEESE MAKING.

This has been written on so much that the subject has become hackneyed. The acid seems to have eaten into the souls of some and turned them sour; but notwithstanding, the so-called "sweet curd" idea has made steady progress. Much of the opposition has come from buyers for export, who do not appear to be able to distinguish between a firm cheese and a hard cheese, and who ignore quality if they get a cheese hard enough to ship, without danger of breaking, by the time it is ten days old. This has been demonstrated by the fact that cheese condemned when green as too soft has been pronounced by the same buyers fine and all right, even endorsed with enthusiasm, when it was two or three months old, which is about as young as a first-class cheese should be shipped.

ANALYSIS OF MILK.

Of course, there would be no acid in milk if there were no sugar in it. The proportion of sugar is shown by the following analysis of an average sample of good milk made by Dr. Voelcker, the late chemist of the Royal Agricultural Society of Great Britain:

Water 87.30
Butter 3.75
Caseine 3.31
Milk-sugar and extractive matter 4.86
Mineral matter (ash) 0.78
------
Total 100.00

It will be seen by this that the per cent. of sugar is at least 4.50, if we deduct the extractive matter, the proportion of which is not given. Numerous German analyses show it to range from 3.50 to 5.75 per cent. Henry and Chevalier put the average at 4.77, and Prof. L.B. Arnold says milk from cows in perfect health should contain, during the month of August, 4.30 to 5.50 per cent. We will call it 4.50 per cent. There is 87.30 per cent of water.

WHAT THE CHEESE MAKER DOES.

In separating the solids from the liquids, by the action of rennet, at the proper temperature, we expel, say 83.30 parts of the water, leaving 4 parts. We get rid of, say 4.20 parts of the sugar, which is held in perfect solution in the water. We lose, say .50 of one part of butter, .31 of one part of the caseine or albuminoids, and .13 of one part of ash. This leaves--

Water 4.00
Butter 3.25
Caseine 3.00
Sugar .30
Ash .65
-----
Total 11.20

We thus have 11.20 per cent. of the 100 parts out of which to get our cured cheese. A fair average is 10 lbs. of cheese for 100 pounds of milk. Some of the water evaporates in curing, say 1 part, leaving 3 parts. Our 10.20 parts of cheese is then composed of the following:

Water 3.00
Butter 3.25
Caseine 3.00
Sugar, or what results from decomposition .30
Ash .65
-----
Total 10.20

This is a little in excess of the general yield. The waste is usually in the greater amount of ash, sometimes nearly the whole of it, when the acid develops before the whey is expelled. In that case, the lactic acid dissolves the phosphates and they run out with the whey. This is so much loss of ingredients absolutely essential to digestion and assimilation.

WHAT OUGHT TO BE.

So far from this, there ought to be less loss of ingredients than we have supposed in our illustrative figures. But more of the butter is cut and runs off with the whey when the acid is developed before drawing the whey. The aim of the "sweet curd" system is to avoid this waste as much as possible, especially that of the butter and ash. To effect this, the whey is drawn sweet and the acid allowed to develop after the curd is cooked and the whey expelled. There need be no more water left in the curd, but more butter and ash, both of which tend to make the cheese softer. But with proper curing rooms, there is no trouble in making the cheese firm enough for all practical purposes, including shipping. It is better to use less rennet and not have coagulation begin under 25 minutes, cutting the curd about 15 or 20 minutes later, and to take more time for curing, at a lower temperature. We then have a firmer, more buttery, and better flavored cheese, which is a desideratum. But, with high and changing temperature in the curing room, no certain or satisfactory results can be counted on.

THEORY AND PRACTICE.

In theory, we ought to prevent the waste of butter and caseous matter altogether; but in practice, there is always a little loss of butter, and there are certain albuminous ingredients, called by the Germans _ziega_, which rennet will not coagulate. There is, of course, no means of saving this. The sugar we cannot and do not want to save in the cheese. If retained, it would be injurious and probably spoil the cheese, as the lactic acid in the small amount of sugar retained in the water is all that we can well manage. But all matter coagulable by rennet, all the butter, and all the ash, we ought to retain; and we cannot really call ourselves scientific cheese makers until we can do this. When accomplished, a greater weight of cheese will be the result.

There is no avoiding the acid resulting from the small amount of sugar retained in the curd; but, having expelled sufficient whey, if we keep the curd warm enough, and hold it in the vat or the sink long enough, the lactic acid will come on and we shall get rid of the bad results of putting a curd to press sweet. This acidity is absolutely necessary with the generality of curing rooms. But with low and steady temperature in the curing room, we can do about as we please.

RENNET.

Our recent observations more than ever convince us of the importance of good rennet in cheese making. Great evils and losses result from the use of bad rennet; and the great trouble is that many cheese makers do not know when rennet is bad. There is not only the evil of diseased and tainted rennets, to begin with, but the preparation from good rennets is often spoiled in the preparing. Frequently, in hot weather, they are allowed to taint while soaking; and when the liquid is prepared sweet, it is often allowed to ferment and taint for want of sufficient salt and from exposure in a high temperature.

SOAKING IN WHEY.

Soaking in whey, containing all its taints and impurities, is the source of a vast amount of foul rennet and off-flavored cheese. If whey is used, it should be boiled to kill taints and precipitate, as far as possible, the solids remaining in it. But, do the best that can be done with it, and still whey is objectionable for soaking rennets, because of the acid that develops in it from the presence of sugar. This acid neutralizes a corresponding amount of rennet and helps to impoverish the cheese. Indeed, if carried far enough before the curd is removed from it, the finer flavoring oils are cut by it, the phosphates are dissolved, and these pass out with the whey, leaving the cheese but little better than an indigestible mass. If the acid adds solidity to the cheese, it does it by removing from it valuable ingredients.

TAINTED RENNET.

Frequently, we have encountered rennet preparations that were not only very sour, but also tainted and having a strong smell of carrion. Nothing but huffy, porous, stinking and rotten cheese can result from the use of such rennet preparation. Yet it is used, and the result is attributed to bad milk, or to the presence of some inscrutable taint or ferment, so prone are mankind to attribute effects to wrong causes. It has been to us unaccountable that cheese makers should use such horrid broth as we have seen them use, if they have any sense of smell whatever, and utterly astonishing that they should expect good cheese to be made from using it. With good milk, the cheese may appear fairly good for several days--especially if put to curing at a low temperature. But sooner or later, the taint must make its appearance. Possibly, it may not show ten days from the hoops, but the cheese can never become a mellow mass without also becoming a stinking one. It will soon be ripe and soon rotten.

CURING RENNETS.

It is usually understood that rennets are calves' stomachs salted and dried, or otherwise prepared; but it is not so certain that all the rennets in market are of this kind. The stomachs of the young of all milk-eating animals may be used for curding milk. We are not so sure but that among "Bavarian" rennets we get the stomachs of the young of every animal known under the sun. They are of all sizes and all degrees of strength, but are generally liked by those who use them. They are cured by tying the two ends, and blowing the rennets up, like bladders. A better way, we think, is to rub them well with pure dairy salt, stretch them on a hoop or crotched stick, and hang them in a cool dry place. Some simply fill them with salt, tie them, and hang them up to dry. A great objection to this is, that the salt is likely to draw moisture from the atmosphere, and in wet weather the rennets are liable to drip and thus lose strength. Salting rennets down in a barrel, as we do meat, is considered objectionable--for what reason, we know not. The writer had excellent "luck," one season, with rennets preserved in this way. In whatever way preserved, rennets should, by all means, be kept cool. Heat is found to be very injurious, while cold--even freezing and thawing--appears advantageous. Possibly because the freezing and thawing loosen the fiber and set the rennet spores free.

AGE AN ADVANTAGE.

No rennets less than a year old should be used, if it can possibly be avoided. The old rennets, other things being equal, are stronger and make a firmer curd than new ones. Any one who has experimented with both will always aim to have a supply of good old rennets on hand.

SAVING RENNETS.

In saving rennets, great care should be taken to have them right. The fourth stomach of the calf is what is saved. Cut it from the adjoining stomach, at the point of junction, and do not leave a piece of intestine on the other end, but cut close to the opening of the rennet. Remove straws and dirt of all kinds carefully, but be sure to not rub off the delicate lining of the stomach, which is the digestive or coagulative part and very much inclined to adhere to your hands, especially if they are dry. Do not try to rinse off anything more than the loose dirt, and that without rubbing, for you cannot rub without waste. What is better, avoid having dirt or any thing else in the stomach to remove. This you can do by letting the calf go sixteen or eighteen hours without eating, and placed where it can get hold of nothing to swallow before killing. Say, feed it at night and slay it the next day about noon. The stomach will then be empty and clean and well stored with pepsin for the digestion of the next meal. This secretion, is just what you want. The rennet is best when the calf is six or eight days old. But, in any case, digestion should be well established before killing. If the calf should go too long without food--as is often the case with veal calves--the stomach will get inflamed. This is objectionable.

SELECTING RENNETS.

In selecting rennets to soak, all discolored and bad smelling ones should be scrupulously rejected. But rubbing rennets is a disagreeable and disgusting business, and it is somewhat difficult to keep your rennet of uniform strength. Therefore, if good rennet extract can be bought at a reasonable price, we would recommend its use. It ought to be made better and cheaper in a wholesale way than in little batches at each factory. To guard against imposition, one should buy only of known reputable dealers. Preparing your own rennet is much like doing your own shoe making. It doesn't pay, if you have got anything else remunerative to do.

WHOLESALE PREPARATION.

If one must prepare his own rennet, the better way is to do it in a lump before the cheese-making season begins. Get a strong barrel and a pounder--such as used by washerwomen; also a wringer. Take old rennets and cut them into strips. Make a weak brine of pure water, by using one pound of salt to twenty pounds of water, and in this, soak, pound and wring your rennets. Hang them up and freeze them; then soak, pound and wring them again; and so on as long as you can get any strength. When done, carefully settle, skim, and strain your liquid. Put it in a clean barrel or stone jars, put in all the salt that it will dissolve, so that a little will settle on the bottom, then stop or cover tight; put in a cool place and take from it as wanted for use. There is nothing better than saturated brine for keeping animal products. Be sure, however, that you use only the purest dairy salt in preparing brine. Some say that only stone jars should be used for keeping rennet. We have used an ash tub for the amount prepared weekly. To keep the wood from tainting, we invariably, every time we dipped out rennet and exposed new surface, rubbed it with salt.

EXCLUDING AIR.

Rennet could be much more easily kept sweet if put in an air-tight vessel. The "American Dispensatory" says: "When gastric juice is completely protected from the air it may be kept unchanged for a longtime; but on exposure it speedily undergoes decomposition, acquires a very offensive odor, and loses its characteristic digestive property." We think that the Dispensatory is right. The composition of pure gastric juice is as follows: Water, 97.00; salts, 1.75; pepsin, 1.25; total, 100.00. There is also a small amount of free acid. Both rennet extract and pepsin are used as medicine.

CURING ROOMS.

It is hard to determine which is of the greater importance, good rennet or properly constructed curing-rooms; for both are necessary to the production of the best cheese, while the want of either is sure to injure if not to spoil it. The importance of controlling the temperature in curing has not yet taken hold of the popular mind. The best milk in the world may be spoiled by bad rennet, and the best curd in the world may be spoiled by a bad curing-room.

TEMPERATURE.

In a large majority of the curing-rooms of the country, the temperature ranges from 60 degrees Fahrenheit to 90 degrees and even above. Sometimes these extremes are realized within a few days. Think of setting a curd to fermenting at 80 to 90 degrees, when it ought to start at 60 to 65 degrees! Yet, this is frequently done; and to prevent the cheese from huffing and crawling it is proposed by some to make the curd so dry and sour in the beginning that heat will not soften it. In this way, is made what some buyers style a "firm" cheese. The best English Cheddars, according to the American Encyclopedia, are set to curing at a temperature of 60 degrees, and are never allowed to go above 70 degrees. Our observation and experience are that the range of temperature should never go above 75 degrees. Curing should begin as low as 65 degrees, and no cheese should be marketed under thirty days from the hoops. When the curing is slow, as it ought to be, the cheese will not be ripe in less than that time. If sixty days old before ready for market, the better. The hurrying process is everywhere bad for the product, and no amount of souring helps the matter, however hard it may make the cheese and however well it may stand up in hot weather. We want something else besides standing-up quality. With a low and even temperature for curing, we do not need to work all the goodness out of the curd to make a firm cheese. We do not have to cut the fats and phosphates out with acid, nor to dry all the moisture out by fine cutting and high scalding or long scalding. We can stop the cooking when the curd is evenly cooked through so as to be springy when pressed together by the hands, take it out of the whey before the acid develops, and put it to press without unnecessary delay.

AN EXAMPLE.

In the fall of 1884, we ate some cheese at Mr. N.L. Brown's, Gurnee, Ill., which was dipped sweeter and put to press softer than we ever thought of doing; yet the cheese was close-grained and fine-flavored, and one that would pass muster as a first-class cheese anywhere. But it was not cured in a hot curing room, nor in one where the temperature went up and down the same as it did on the outside of the building. It was placed in his cellar, at a temperature of 64 degrees, and there remained until it was fit to cut. Nor was it even rubbed, but occasionally turned over. When out, it looked like a cheese that had been kept in a box a year, covered with mold and mites. The superfluous moisture was dried out but the butter was all left. It demonstrated what can be done by temperature. Had this cheese been cured in an ordinary curing-room, it would have gone all out of shape in a few days--as soon as rapid fermentation set in--and been off flavor by the time it was ten days old. Several other cheeses were cured in the same cellar, in the same way, but none of them were put to press so soft or sweet, but all sweet-curd cheeses, and all buttery and fine. This particular one was the result of hurry, as other matters than the curd demanded attention. But the thought came that it would be a good experiment, as it was, and the result was satisfactory, though not different from what was expected. Cheeses made in the same way as the others that were cured in the cellar, and some cooked more and soured more, were made by the same gentleman and cured in an ordinary curing-room. In hot weather, they swelled and some of them got out of shape, while the flavor was sharp and rough. But those in the cellar, at 64 degrees, apparently never moved a hair's breadth out of shape, were as solid as old butter, yet firm enough for shipping even, and of the finest flavor. It is hardly necessary to say that the cellar was exceedingly clean and sweet, and was well ventilated. These cheeses were a demonstration, if not a revelation.

MOISTURE IN CURING.

It should be remarked, by the way, that a curing-room does not want to be a dry room. We do not want to dry cheese; we want to cure it; that is, let it go through the proper chemical change. This it does best in a somewhat moist room, in which the surface does not dry and become hard and impervious, so that the gases cannot escape. It is better to contend with a little mold than a dry atmosphere.

BETTER CHEESE CAN BE MADE.

We see, on turning to Prof. Arnold's "American Dairying," that he says: "The temperature of a curing-room for whole milk should be 65 to 70 degrees; for part skims, 75 to 80 degrees." It is thus seen that fat plays an important part in curing. "The more fat," he says, "the cooler may be the room; and the less fat, the warmer may it be." Again: "Under the present state of things, a cheese that will stand a voyage of 4,000 miles can hardly be called a fancy cheese. * * * But a much fancier cheese than we are now producing, one that will stand shipping, can be made. To do this will require milk to be free from some of the imperfections which are now quite common; it must be transported to the factories in much better ventilated cans; _it must be made with less rennet and less acidity; and it must be cured in an even and lower temperature_." We mark the conclusion in _italics_, because we believe these are vital points. We insist that we cannot do ourselves credit nor realize the best financial results in cheese making until we build better curing rooms--rooms in which we can control the temperature without fail. We have not yet settled down to cheese making. We are still trying experiments and resorting to temporary expedients. We must build far more deliberately and for permanency. It is not necessary that we should point out just how a building may be erected so as to give control of the inside temperature. Architects know how to do it. When our cheese makers get to the point where they demand such buildings, they will get them without much trouble and at moderate expense. It is only necessary that they should have the "will." The "way" will speedily open.

WHEY.

We notice that, in some localities, the patrons of the cheese factory are very much interested in the question of the value of whey for feeding purposes--some going so far as to assert that what is left of milk in cheese making is as valuable as what is removed! This is a startling assertion, and, if true, would convict our dairymen of a vast amount of stupid waste. Is it true? Let us try to get at the facts of the case by a direct, common-sense investigation of it.

COMPOSITION OF MILK.

We will begin with the composition of milk. From hundreds of German analyses, ranging from 81.30 to 91.50 parts of water, we take a fair average analysis, which we think will do justice to the mixed milk of our best cheese factories:

Water 87.18
Caseine 4.21
Albumen .55
Fat 3.24
Sugar 4.21
Ash .60
-----
Total 99.99

WHAT IS TAKEN OUT BY CHEESE MAKING.

Now, in making cheese, what follows? We ought to secure all the caseine, but we do not quite. There is a small waste. We loose all, or nearly all, of the albumen. We leave in the whey most of the sugar, if we do not convert it into acid before getting rid of the whey, in which case we may have an injurious amount of the acid in the curd, besides dissolving and washing out nearly all the ash, which is composed of phosphates, principally of iron, magnesia and lime. These are changed into lactates, leaving the phosphoric acid free--not a very good food for anything but rats. We ought to save nearly or quite all the ash--the phosphates. But by the ordinary process of cheese making, these are nearly all lost, as is shown by the analyses of whey, which probably accounts for the low estimate in the popular mind of the value of cheese as food, it being rated at one-half the value that it would have were the phosphates all retained. But, four-fifths of the nitrogenous and muscle-making material has been removed, and also nine-tenths of the fat, which is heat producing and some say furnishes motor power. We have retained in the cheese 5.84 of the 12.82 parts of solids, leaving 5.98 parts, 4.21 parts of which are sugar and not wanted in the cheese, or, at most, only a fraction of it. We leave less than one part of the albuminous and caseous matter, which is the most valuable, and only one-third of one part of fat. So there is less than one part of solids left besides sugar, and the rest of the whey is water.

COMPOSITION OF WHEY.