The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1875-12-14
Oleomargarine Cheese.

The manufacture OF oleomargarine
cheese has provoked very animated. if
not acrimonious, discussion mong dairy.
men. Three or four years ago Mr. Hen.
ry o. Freeman was making butter and
skim-milk cheese in Chcnango County,
N. Y He made several experiments
with different materials to supply the
specific elements that had been removed
from the milk in the form Of cream He
first tried understandable or inferior
butter from the New York mark ct, which
he melted and purified of its disagreed.
BILE taste and odor. This was mixed with
skinned milk, and the mixture submit.
ted to the cheese.making process. The
product was not unpalatable, but differed
from cream cheese in being oily and soft
instead Of hard and tough. Mr.. Free
man secured patent for this process of
making cheese from skim.mik
The discovery of oleomsrgarine sug.
gested to Mr.. Freeman another material
for enriching the depleted elements of
skim.milk This aroused strong feel
ing among the regular cheese dealers,
who denounced the new cheese as filthy
and noxious compound. Agricultural
chemists, however, after a careful analy.
sis, have shown that tho oils combined
III tne uiuvmargariuo aio iaon.,v..i "a..-
those of butter minus certain subtle odor
giving elements in tho latter which chem.
ical analysis has not yet been able to de.
tect. In the manufacture of cheese, how.
ever, these fine cream oils, which give to
butter Its peculiar flavor, are mostly dis.
sipated, and hence cheese can be made
Of oleomargarine, of composition so
nearly identical with cream. cheese that
no appreciable difference can be detected
by analysis.
An American correspondent of the
English Agricultural Gazette hos SUP.
jected both kinds Of cheese to the test of
the microscope. Placing in focus thin
transparent scale of the material, he
found that the cream cheese was of an
even, close structure, and the tiny round
oil globules were held closely together in
the curd In the oleomargarine cheese
the oil was observed in considerable
masses in irregular cavities or "long
slots" This method will readily detect
the difference between the two kinds Of
cheese.
About dozen factories have already
been established in this country for the
manufacture OF oleomargarine cheese, and
equipped 10 the best style. The men en-.
gagged in the business have considera-
Bile capita, and cvince a respectable share
of energy and business tact. This method
combines cheese and butter making. The
new milk is first subjected to conditions
which will abstract as large proportion
Of cream as possible, which is used in
making the finest grades Of creamery but.
ter. The skim.milk in then placed in
watts and heated to 90 deg. Fahrenheit
when the oleomargarine, heated few de.
grees higher, is poured through a cloth
strainer. The latter is brought in bar
rels,in which it appears to be an opaque,
odorless fat with on oily taste, but no
specific odor, but in heating, it assumes
a clear, rich gold color,a at first floods
the surface Of the milk with bright vel.
low coating. The mixture is then thor
oughly agitatcd with large wooden pad.
dies, and the rennet poured in The ag.
itation continues for about eight minutes,
in order to drive the oil through the
milk during the curdling process. The
cprd is allowed to stand ten minutes
longer, when it is cut with a curd-knife
and pressed in the usual way. The un.
appropriated oil then comes upon the
surface of the whey, and is skinned off.
The process is quite similar to that Of
croam cheese manufacture, the elements
Of the oleomargarne undergoing changes
analogous to those Of the cream, except
that nature. in the udder Of the COW,
more perfectly performs The necessary
emulsion Of the oily materials OF the
milk than man cau do BY any meehsni-
cal process.