Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1886-07-08

Some Points in Cheese Making.
We condense the following directions
from an address on the subject recently
given before the Ontario Dairymen's
Association by a dairyman of extended
experiences
For summer and fall cheese rennet
should be used in sufficient quantity to
produce coagulation in fifty minutes,
with the milk at temperature of from
Sc to So degrees. In the spring, while
making fodder cheese, use one-third
more rennet and less salt The purpose
of this is to facilitate the ripening rro.
cess, in order that the product may be
ready for the market at the earliest day
possible. To accomplish this result,
four ounces of rennet for summer, and
six for spring, with salt in proportion,
will be sufficient. The cheesemaker
learns from experience that in two
messes of milk, produced on different
soils, the conditions of heat and mani
pulatiOn being the same, the cheese pro-
duced by the one, when ready for market
will be found to be more moist than the
other. This must be attributed to a con
stitutional difference in the food and
water The experienced maker may reg
ulate the matter by variations in cutting,
scalding and stirring Having ascertain
ed that moisture predominates in the
milk of a given dairy he will cut finer
scald more slowly, and stir longer, for the
smaller the cubes the more thorough will
re the operation of heat upon them and
the more thoroughly we stir the more
certain we shall be 30 expel the moisture.
Immediately after cutting, stirring
should begin. The curd cubes should be
stirred about fifteen minutes, then put
over the fire and stirred half an hour con
tinuously, then stirred several minutes
after taking from the fire, TO prevent
their baking to the bottom of the hot
vessel. Heating should proceed slowly at
first but gradually increase as the why
separates. Ninety eight degrees is the
usual temperature in summer, but as the
season advances the milk becomes richer.
and il is necessary to have the tempera-
ture higher. She heat must be kept up
until the curd is matured, and then cook
ed and aired wei before sailing.
At the first indication of acidity the
whey should be drawn; here is the great
secret of cheese-making the absolute OK
pulsion Of the whey at the nick of time
when acidity is known to be near and yet
has not appeared. After the whey has
been removed, and while the subsequent
stirring proceeds, a new acid makes its
appearance in the body Of the curd which
seems to depend for its development
upon the action of the air, and the pres
sence of which experience has shown TO
be an essential element in the makeup of
cheese. This acid should be allowed to
develop properly before the addition of
salt, as the presence of that substance
will preclude its appearance.
Curd should contain about 80 per cent.
moisture when pressed, and dry out down
to 33 per cent when cured. To deter
mine and retain this proper proportion
of moisture in cheese, is one point which
requires good judgment in the operator,
and cannot be determined readily by any
means now known of a practical nature.
Observation and practice are the only
guides at present known, and cheese
maker must rely on his experience and
common sense.
An important point in cheese-makiug
is TO know exactly how long the milk
should stand before the introduction Of
the reunet.
Cheese-makers know that freshly drawn
milk is not always susceptible to the &C
ton of rennet test for this is to take
an ordinary sized teacup holding one
gill. and into this full Of milk introduce
a dram, or a teaspoonful of rennet of
which you know the strength, and the
time employed to per act coagulation.
This will furnish you with unerring GER
tainty with knowledge of that which you
are in search.
BY the use of this test it is possible TO
determine TO a minute the time which
would be consumed before cutting should
begin If the milk does not curdle well,
sour whey should not be used, but the
milk sub ected TO the natural action Of
heat, by which the change is hastened
without detriment 70 the quality Of the
milk.