The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1897-07-31
FARMER AND PLANTER.
cHEEsE-MAkINo.

4 Texas woman Tells How She Disposed of
Surplus MIX When Butter Was Twelve
and Ons-Half Cents . Pound.
When butter was in demand 1T Is
cents per pound 1 thought very little
Of cheese making, but when it dropped
to 19x cents thought very seriously
of finding some other way of using the
milk and labor necessary TO produce
good butter.
had saved up number of clippings
from various journals on the subject.
Indeed, the one which has been of the
most practical benefit to me was from
Texas Farm and Ranch of August Is,
1895, which was clipped from the Ma
tional Stockman.
All my clippings, however, were
more or less indefinite, and after many
efforts l failed to find any rennet, 20
was almost In despair-no, only cast
down-when l wrote to you for help
sometime last February. Your reply
came promptly with an address where
rennet might be procured. BY the
next mail / sent for price list, and
on March Q made a small cheese by
directions furnished me with the rem
net.
For my first experiments used only
Is pounds of milk, and my. first was as
good cheese as any have made since,
though it cost me very much more time
and study than it does now. As a
money-making enterprise do not
think many farmers wives will find
1t profitable to make cheese, but to
furnish variety for their own table,
it is certainly worth while to make a
supply for home use.
The smallest package of rennet tab
let's costs 90 cents, the smallest case of
cheese color costs 80 cents, SO you be-
gin with an expense of SI.20, though
this, according to directions, should
make 500 pounds of cheese. My first
hoop was diminutive affair from a
toy ''tambourine." now have a good
Y. A. timed iron, IKE inches, and a
press made by boy with a good idea
of the use of tools.
Now, for the process: use half
nights and half mornings milk, weigh
it. mix in zinc tub, place on the cook
stove and stir till it reaches SO degrees,
then dissolve cheese color in cold
water; pour in and stir till your Their
mometer registers IS. Then dissolve
rennet in cold water and stir into the
milk. The milk should be heated very
slowly, and at least ten minutes should
elapse between adding the color and
the rennet After stirring in the rem
net remove the milk from the fire, set
in cool place, stir ten minutes, then
cover and let alone for 20 minutes
or half hour. At the end of this
time your milk is, or should be, firm,
glossy curd. Now cut cross-ways, and
every other way till it is in small
Jumps, but it should beNdone quickly
Then place your milk over the fire and
heat slowly, stirring constantly till it
reaches temperature of 1O2 degrees.
Remove from the fire, placing some
object under one side of the tub SO
that the whey will flow away from the
curd as you pile 1T (the curd) in the
higher side of the tub. Have vessel
large enough to hold the whey near
by with square of cheese cloth tied
over the top. Now, dip out your whey
and curd, pour on the cloth till all your
curd is ON the cloth. Now cover and
let remain few minutes, then YOU
will find it matted together, and it
must be cut or pulled apart and replied
SO Is to facilitate the dripping of the
whey. Let it gradually cool to so de-
grees, cut, or work it very fine with
your hands, stir in salt about as you
would salt butter, perhaps a little
more; then your cheese is ready to
press.
This seems very simple, and like il
might be done very quickly, but the
books say it should occupy five or six
hours. l generally get cheese in
press in three hours, but always lose
some of the cream and white whey
| which is wrong, and may be because
make too much haste.
If the firm from which / procured
my rennet and hoop advertise in Texas
Farm and Ranch, will you please give
their address with this letter, that the
| sisters of the household may get theil
| price list and directions for cheese
making.
Nothing IS more wholesome thar
cheese, and toasted, or as Welsh rare
bit, 1t is just the thing for breakfast
dish. There are all sorts of improved
/ fixtures and tools for cheese-making
but if one spends $40 or SIS to be
gin with it might be just as well t.
| buy that much cheese and sit on the
| gallery and read while the pigs ant
chickens enjoyed the milk.-Mrs. L. H
| Till, in Texas Farm and Ranch.
Relative Profits of Cotton and Grain.