An Improvement in the Manufacture of Cheese.
Year: 1894

page_text: Dat: of Application, 10th Nov., 1894
Complete Specification Left, 7th Aug., 1895--Accepted, 26th Oct., 1895
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improvement in the Manufacture of Cheese.
I CHARLES FREDERICK HOPE, M.R.A.C., F.C.S. Ducie Gold Medallist of
Lindisfarne, Weymouth, in the County of Dorset, Agricultural Expert, Consulting
and Analytical Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of my invention to be:-
My invention relates in part to the process of manufacturing cheese, and in
part to the apparatus employed in carrying out that process.
:
The object of my invention is to produce a cheese conspicuous for its early
maturity, uniformity, and very high quality the invention is also useful when
applied to skim or separated cheese, the flavour and market value being improved
by its use. My invention avoids the long period of time necessary to mature a
Stilton or other blue cheese, hence decreased risk, and loss in total weight, an t
increased market value accrue.
I proceed as follows:-
The rennet is added in the ordinary way, except that I prefer to carry this out
at a somewhat lower temperature than is usual, say from 74° F. to 78° F.
according to the temperature of the dairy and the time of the year but I do
not claim or limit myself to these temperatures: cheesemaking is not and I fear
never can be an exact scientific process, procedure must vary with conditions
which are ever varying.
After operating and washing the curd as usual, I artificially inoculate the
curd with the proper fungi, and this is the main novelty I claim.
The inoculation may be carried out at any time between the whey being
removed, and the curd being vatted and put to press, if the curd were broken
up after it had been put in the vat it would be an unusual practice and if
inoculated at this stage I should deem it an infringement. The convenient time
to inoculate is when the curd has been milled once, the second milling and after
mixing with salt helping to distribute the fungi or their spores, an even dis-
tribution of these microscopic bodies being the principal practical difficulty in
the process, which however may be evercome by blowing the same off a piece
of paper over the curd, or the spores may be mixed with the salt and both
applied in the usual way through a sieve, the method of inoculation is not material
so that the spores are evenly distributed.
The fungi are many and may be obtained in any convenient way, for example:-
by special and pure cultivation grown in filtered air upon cheese or upon any other
substance or material, they may be swept with a brush or feather from any
substance, or shaken from any substance where they are growing directly upon the
new curd or upon paper from whence they may be stored for a great length of
time, again by simply pulverising a piece of blue cheese and adding the same to
the new curd the inoculation will be satisfactory.
The spores, or the fungi, or the spores fungi and old cheese being obtained it
only remains to distribute a suitable quantity evenly over the new curd before
vatting, no precise quantity can be stated, but a quantity that would lie on a
threepenny piece would be sufficient for one hundredweight of curd if it were
composed of pure spores, but when the inoculating material is contaminated with
old cheese a much larger quantity must be applied, the quantity must be governed
by the quality of the material to be used.

page_text: There are many varieties of fungi in a ripe cheese I do not limit myself to any
variety, and refrain from mentioning the one I prefer because it is not possible to
make a cheese without bringing it in contact with the air, which contains a very
large number of varieties of microbes or their spores, hence it is not possible to
make a cheese which shall contain only one kind of fungus and I do not claim to do
that which is not possible to accomplish.
The dairy-man is agreeably surprised when he finds a blue cheese in his loft, he
does not know how he made it blue, and could not with any certainty make a blue
cheese, this accident I have now reduced to a certainty.
The acidity is of the utmost importance, I am using uncommon means but I do
not think quite new means to express the quantity of lactic acid present during the
various stages, the curd is allowed to remain on the drainer much longer than in
any other process, in order to acquire a proper acidity, which is tested with the
hot iron in the usual way, pending my experiments with standard solutions of
carbonate and caustic soda and potash, delivered from a burette, and standardised
with lactic acid, using phenol-phthalein C₂HO, as indicator, and hope by this
means to make the process more certain.
20 14
In order to give the cheese made under my process a distinctive appearance in
the shops, I prefer to use a vat differing in shape from the ordinary cylindrical and
spherical kind in common use, this novel vat may be polygonal in shape or it may
be a multiple of angles or a combination of curves and angles, which will be decided
in the Complete Specification. It is further my intention to give the cheese a new
name to further distinguish it from other cheeses which is not decided upon but
may be "the Technical cheese oľ "the Hope cheese "I do not bind myself to
either shape or name.
AL
T
ILL
004
"
An Improvement in the Manufacture of Cheese.
I CHARLES FREDERICK HOPE, M.R.A.C., F.C.S., Ducic Gold Medallist, of
Lindisfarne, Weymouth, in the County of Dorset, Agricultural Expert, Consulting
and Analytical Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of this invention an 1 in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement:
My invention relates to the manufacture of cheese and ads a new and original
process thereto.
My object is to produce with certainty a blue cheese conspicuous for its early
maturity, uniformity, and very high quality, which is proved by the experimental
cheese having all sold for one hundred and twelve shillings per cwt. My invention
is also very useful when applied to the cheese of lower grade, such as skim or
separated milk cheese, the flavour and market value is improved thereby.
My invention reduces the period of time, twelve to fifteen months at present
necessary to mature a Stilton, one of my experimental cheeses became blue and
ripe in six weeks time, but two or three months will be nearer the average. The
prevailing climatic conditions will continue to cause considerable variations in the
time necessary for maturation. This large decrease of time in the cheese loft will
reduce the shrinkage in total weight, and enable the maker to market more cheese
from a given volume of milk, the decrease in storage accommodation is obvious,
while a quicker return, and a decreased risk are additional advantages.
I proceed as follows:-
"
The rennet is added to the milk in the usual way, but when I wish to make
"the Technical cheese now much appreciated, I prefer to do this at a lower
temperature than is usual say from 74° to 78° F. according to the acidity of the milk,

page_text: the time of the year, and the temperature of the dairy; but I do not claim, or
limit myself to these temperatures (every cheese-maker has his own,) the curd
produced by any process can be successfully inoculated, this artificial inoculation is
my novel and additional process in making cheese.
The artificial inoculation may be conveniently carried out at any time before the
curd is vatted, and consists in mixing the proper fungi and or their spores (seeds)
with the new curd, just as the yeast plant is mixed with dough to make leavened
bread.
The particular fungus I desire to introduce into the new curd is penicillium
glaucum which has at least three varieties, of which I prefer that which is blue.
This fungus is commonly met with in cheese and is the aeriel form of the yeast
plant (saccharomycetes cerevisiae). The blue colour which is so much appreciated
in cheese is an aggregation of these plants, the spores of which are always
present in the atmosphere and from thence find their way into certain cheeses
as commonly made, but as the spores do not always find their way into cheese,
or not in a sufficient number, and practically never enter the Cheddar cheese, I
simply propose to place them there artificially and thus produce a blue cheese with
absolute certainty.
It is obvious that in making cheese the curd must be exposed to the air which
always contains spores of a large variety of organisms, hence it is not possible
to make cheese which shall only contain penicillium, for this reason I do not
claim to be able to make cheese which shall contain only the fungus I desire,
but it is not difficult to attain all that can be desired for practical purposes.
The inoculating material may be obtained in a variety of methods, for
example :-Pure cultivations upon nutrient media in filtered air may easily be
grown by methods fully described in any good manual (e.g. Practical Bacteriology
by Dr. Migula translated by Campbell, published by Macmillan & Co.). The
penicillium which may be found naturally growing upon bread, leather or any
other substance or material may be used, and may be shaken from its natural
habitat directly upon the curd, or upon paper from which it may be blown upon
the curd or transferred to a bottle for future use. Again a piece of blue cheese
may be selected and rasped, the crumbs may when dry enough undergo further
pulverisation by rubbing through a sieve, the dust thus obtained may be blown
from a piece of writing paper in such a manner that they shall distribute them-
selves evenly and fall upon the new curd, the after milling and salting serving
the additional purpose of intimately mixing the same throughout the mass of curd.
The spores, or the spores fungi and old cheese being obtained it only remains to
apply a suitable quantity in the method indicated. The quantity which is suitable
must be governed by the quality of the inoculating medium, if it be of pure spores
as much as will lie on a threepenny-piece will be enough for one hundred-weight of
curd, but when diluted with old cheese the quantity must be proportionately
increased.
After inoculating the curd it may be vatted in the usual way, indeed all the
operations commonly practised by the dairy-man may be continued, the temperatures
suited to the general ripening of cheese are suited to the growth of the plant which
has been artificially placed in the curd simply to insure its being there in sufficient
quantity, instead of leaving it to chance.
I claim the artificial inoculation of curd intended for cheese, and the preservation
of inoculating material in bottles or otherwise as a commercial commodity convenient
for the artificial inoculation.
This Document is signed the Sixth day of August Eighteen hundred and
CHAS. F. HOPE.