MANUFACTUEE OF CHEESE. 391 



particulars : first, in employing milk which has attained a proximate degree of 

 acidity, although never enough to be sensible to the taste, instead of such as is 

 quite ueAv ; and secondly, iu the separation of the whey from the curd by 

 means of the chemical effect of heat applied to the curd in the whey, thereby 

 causing its contraction and precipitation, instead of depending mainly on me- 

 chanicid means. The improvements thus introduced within a comparatively 

 recent period have resulted in several important advantages. First, a 

 material reduction of labor ; secondly, the production of a larger amount 

 and a better quality of cheese from a given quantity of milk ; and lastly, 

 the cheese made by this method requires less time for the ripening proccvss, and 

 thus is sooner ready for the market. 



How these results have been attained, and can be made available to all, will 

 be most fully comprehended by a statement of so much of the theory of the 

 manufacture as has been demonstrated by experience to be correct ; and next, 

 by a relation of the details of practice. It may not be easy nor desirable to 

 keep theory and practice wholly apart, but Ave will proceed to mention 



THE IMPORTANT POINTS OF CHEESE MAKING. 



1st. The first to be noticed is cleanlinrss, and this, it may be observed, is 

 quite as important in the butter as in the cheese dairy. 



2d. That the milk be rid of animal odor, and be in the proper state both as 

 to temperature and proximate acidity. 



3d. That the rennet be properly prepared, and a suitable quantity, and no 

 more, be added. 



4th. That the whey be completely separated from the curd. 



5th. The maintenance of a suitable and even temperature in ripening. 



First, cleanliness, absolute cleanliness; and by this is meant a great deal 

 more than exemption from visible dirtiness. The inferior character of a con- 

 siderable portion of the dairy products manufactured anywhere and evei'3' wnere, 

 and especially the bad flavor which, although not perceptible Avhen new, de- 

 velops in an unmistakable manner with age in both butter and cheese, is chiefly 

 owing to lack of proper care and cleanliness in the full sense of the latter term. 

 To understand this better, let me say that cream or the curdy portion of milk 

 is a nitrogenous body, and, like all nitrogenous animal substances, is inclined to 

 run into putrefaction. This liability to putrefy is developed with greatest 

 rapidity when under the iufluence of other substances in which decay has al- 

 ready begun. For instance, a piece of fresh meat placed in a perfectly clean 

 vessel, and the air about it pure also, may keep good many days, some weeks 

 perhaps ; Avhile if it be placed in one apparently clean, but which has had 

 tainted meat in it previously, it will begin to putrefy in a short time. The ex- 

 citing cause, although iu this case invisible, is as really operative as a A'isible 

 amount of filth would be. Its action is that of a ferment, not unlike that of 

 }'east, a little leaven leavening the whole lump. Any decaying emanations, 

 whether from spilled milk, or from any other source, communicates a tendency 

 to the same decay, and, the change once begun, it is very difhcult to arrest it. 

 Its effects may not be apparent at once, but the leaven is working. Butter 

 possessing the tendency may not, while fresh, offend the most delicate taste, 

 but it will most surely develop so as to be plainly perceptible after being kept. 

 Ferments are destroyed at the heat of boiling water, 212". Boiling water will 

 readily cleanse vessels in which milk has been kept if they be of tin or other 

 metal. Possibly a slightly lower temperature may suffice for metallic vessels, 

 but certainly not for wood; and it is safer in all cases not only to have the 

 kettle "sing," but the water "dance." Wood is porous, and absorbs more or 

 less milk, and be it ever so little which finds a lodgement in it, there is no 

 security against the propagation of the peculiar ferment. In a note from a 

 friend is related his experience on this point thus : 



