Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-08-10
Making Skinned Milk Cheese.

Skim-milk cheese of a vcrv good
quality may be made as follows: The
milk is warmed to 500 by heating a
portion up to 100 and adding it to about
three times as much of the milk as it
comes from the coolers. 1t would not
be advisable to let the milk stand. as
1t sours- rapidly in warm air, after
coming from the cooler. A wooden tub
is the best for setting the cHrd. as it re-
tains the heat of the milk and hastens
the action of the rennet. The tub should
have a spigOt at the bottom with a
strainer over the hole inside to let out
the whey. The temperature should not
90 over so, and if n soft cheese is de-
sired 72o would be better. When the
milk has been thoroughly stirred and
evenly warmed through, the rennet is
well stirred into it. This is made by
sleeping the sailed and dried stomach
of an unweaned calf in warm water for
twelve hours previously For one hun
dred quarts of milk at 500 half an
ounce of rennet stepped in pint and
half of tepid water for twelve hours
should be sufficient. The curd
should come in about thirty min
utes; when the curd breaks as the
finger is. drawn through it, it is
cut with q long blade; piece of
thin, straight hoop iron ground to an
edge and put in handle makes a good
cHrd knife The eHfd is cut ;a lines an
inch apart both ways and is left for
the whey to separate. After standing
twenty or twenty-five minutes, some of
the whey is drawn off and heated to
100 or 100 degrees and enough of it
poured over the curd, which is well
stirred with the hot whey to bring it UP
to 100 degrees or until it is hot enough
Tor the hand to bear comfortably. The
tub is ,covered to keep in the heat and
the curd left for twenty-five or thirty
minutes. The whey is again drawn of
and the curd broken up finely with the
hand: then the hot whey is returned;
the whole stirred again and brought up
to the former heat once more. The
curd should be stirred now and then to
prevent it adhering together. The tub
is then covered and the curd left until
it is hard enough to squeak when bitten
by the teeth. A better test is the hot
iron test: this is to take an iron rod, as
a stove poker, and make it black hot
and not red; when the curd touched TO
this hot iron adheres and makes strings
when drawn from it,the curd is cooked
enough. The whey is then drained off
and the curd cooled and broken up
fine. Salt is mixed with it at the
rate of an ounce for twenty pounds
of milk, or the salt may be added
afterwards by rubbing it on the cheese.
! The curd is evenly mixed and put
into the hoop. This is a Wooden ring
of the size the cheese is to be. The rino
is lined with cloth which is folded
down over the curd. The hoop is then
put under press and pressed for
tweve hours. It is then taken out care
fully, wrapped in fresh cloth, turned
and again put in the press for twenty
four hours. 1t is then taken from the
hoop, left to dry for an hour and then
well creased with lard or butter and
put on shelf and turned and rubbed
daily for forty or sixty DAYS. No band
age Is required for homemade cheese.
BY using hoop perforated at the sides
and with covers like those of box at
each end, the cheese may be made
without pressing if the curd is put in
warm and as soon as it is drained from
the whey. The curd is dipped into the
hoop, the bottom cover being first put
on; the tap cover is then put on. Alter
the eurd has stood a few minutes the
hoop. IS reversed and the curd falls to
the bottom, and by so reversing it sew
eral times after short intervals, the curd
soon becomes firm enough to be taken
from the hoop. If not sailed before il
IS now rubbed and turned daily R,zral
NcsO Yorker.