8 May, 1907.] Cheddar Cheese in Great Britain. 283 



centre with a long knife, rolled to the upper end of the vat and the racks 

 and weights placed on as before. When the curd shows about g to :^ inch 

 threads on a hot iron the whe}- is drawn off, weights rernoved, and the 

 curd cut into small blocks and spread over the bottom of the \at, where 

 it is reweighted and allowed to lie ten minutes. It is then placed on the 

 curd sink and weighted again, opened and turned every twenty minutes. 

 When the curd is firm and tough it is cut into 2 -inch cubes, tied intO' a 

 bundle like a plum pudding and weighted ; opened out and separated every 

 half-hour until ready to grind when it shows i|-2 inch threads on the 

 iron. It is claimed that this method of manufacture crives a more open 

 and meaty cheese than that obtained by the Canadian system. A close 

 mvestigation of the industry reveals the fact that the methods of manu- 

 facturing Cheddar cheese are asi numerous as are the localities in which 

 it is made. The various methods differ so much that it seems quite im- 

 possible that practically identical results can be obtained by such divergent 

 means. Yet in all cases the result is Cheddar cheese. There is however 

 this difference between the cheeses made on the various systems : Some 

 will ripen more quickly than others made on another system, while a third 

 system may produce a. cheese taking still longer to ripen. Thus a rapidly 

 ripening cheese will be ready for the market three months after it is made, 

 others will take six months to ripen, while formerly it was the custom 

 to keep a Cheddar cheese twelve months before it was considered ripe. 

 Hence the extreme methods have become known as rapid and slow-ripening 

 systems. In flavour there is not much variety due to the differences in 

 the systems of make. The texture of a Cheddar cheese should be abso- 

 lutely uniform and solid. Some methods tend to produce this result far 

 more than others. Some systems tend to produce a bad cheese, others 

 a soft and mellow product which is considered of importance as regards 

 quality. The Candy, the Cannon, the Joseph Harding, and the Canadian 

 systems, or modifications of them, are the principal methods practised 

 throughout Britain. 



The Candy System. 



The evening's milk is not allowed to become cold before coming into 

 the dairy. It is then placed in deep vessels so that it will not fall below 

 68 degrees Fahr. by morning. If the milk has been properly kept and 

 ripened overnight it is not considered advisable to further carry on this 

 ripening where the two milkings are mixed together. The desired tem- 

 perature for renneting is obtained by heating the morning's milk only and 

 then mixing with that of the evening. The rennet is added at 84 degrees 

 Fahr. — about one teaspoonful to 8 gallons of milk. The rennet is stirred 

 in for about six minutes, the who'le being allowed to rest and covered over 

 to maintain the temperature. To facilitate testing whether the milk is 

 sufficiently set or not a bowl is left floating upon the top of the milk, 

 and when the curd is firm enough it will come away quite clean when the 

 bowl is slightly raised on one side. If it does not the curd must be left 

 until sufficiently firm, which should take about 45 minutes from the time 

 of adding rennet. The top of the curd is now turned over by the use of 

 the skimmer, the surface being cut to a depth of about 2 inches. The 

 vat is covered over with a cloth and allowed to remain until the whey 

 rises. This should not take more than about fifteen minutes. The break- 

 ing of the curd is done either with the American knives or by the old- 

 fashioned breaker. The makers on this system like the curd when breaking 



