Temperature and Moisture in Relation to 



Cheese-Ripening. 



By L. L. Van Sltke, Ph.D., Chemist, New York Agricultural Experiment 



Station, Geneva. N. Y. 



Read at the meeting of the New York State Dairymen's Association at Watertowa. 



Under the general term of " ripening," as relating to cheese, 

 we include all those physical and chemical changes occurring in 

 cheese that tend to bring it into a marketable condition, or rather 

 into a condition suitable for consumption as food. 



I do not propose to consider here any of the details involved in 

 cheese-ripening, except those relating to loss of weight and in a 

 limited way to commercial quality. While we have been studying 

 other important changes, time permits for presentation here a 

 choice of only one phase of work, and of the information in hand 

 I know of nothing that would be so timely to our New York 

 cheesemakers as the consideration of the limited topio I have 

 chosen. 



Over two years ago our legislature generously gave us a new 

 dairy building, and in its equipment our director, Dr. Jordan, 

 saw to it that more attention was bestowed upon cheese-curing 

 rooms than upon all other details put together. The object was not 

 to secure rooms that would be available only for everyday cheese- 

 factory work, but to have rooms, without regard to cost, in which 

 conditions could be controlled as closely as possible, in order that 

 we might learn what would take place under the exact conditions 

 desired. 



We have a block of six distinct curing-rooms, separated from the 

 outer walls of the building by a passage four feet wide. The 

 rooms are farther insulated by double walls and air spaces on every 

 side of each room. Each of the rooms is 9x10 feet and about 8 

 feet high, and the wall space on three sides is provided with shelves 

 12 inches apart. 



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