RIANUFACTLTIE OF CHEESE. 397 



ness fit to cut in from forty-five to fifty minutes. To judge when tliis is obtained, 

 introduce the finger, and if the curd breaks with a clean fracture as it is lifted, 

 it will answer. If it has a pasty appearance, let it stand a while longer. 



SEPARATION OF THE WHEY FROM THE CURD. 



Fourth. It is well understood by all cheese makers that unless the whey be 

 properly separated from the curd the product wiU be imperfect. If much whey 

 remains within it is liable to leak, and the lactose or milk sugar being converted 

 into lactic acid, a sour taste is early induced. It is liable also to undue fermen- 

 tation, especially in warm weather, during Avhich fermentation gases are engen- 

 dered, rendering the cheese porous. If in a warm place it swells, and when the 

 gas escapes it emits an oftensive smell. As the fermentation subsides, the 

 cheese is liable to careen and become unshapely. The flavor is injured ; a 

 sharp, pungent, amraoniacal taste being acquired, and the putrefactive decom- 

 position thus having begun, the cheese ere long spoils and becomes utterly 

 worthless. 



Numerous methods have been employed to effect a due separation of the 

 whey, mo.st of which depend for their efficacy upon mechanical manipulation, 

 and involve considerable and protracted labor. It is in this part of the manu- 

 facture that the greatest improvements of modern times have been made. It 

 has been found that heat, gently and properly applied, has the effect to contract 

 the curd and expel the whey. In its proper application lies much of the art of 

 manufacture, for it is as capable of producing injury as good. "What is tech- 

 nically called " scalding the curd" is common to several methods, but what is 

 done under this name differs very much. In some the curd, when solid enough, 

 is sliced or cut up in a curd mill, and warm water or whey is poured over it to 

 remain a short time. This is doubtless beneficial so far as it goes, but it is 

 ineffectual to accomplish the ends which may be secured by a proper cooking 

 of the curd in the whey, an attempt to describe Avhich will be made when we 

 come to speak of practice. For the present our statement is simply this : that 

 by a suitable application of heat to the curd while yet in the whey, the latter 

 may be so thoroughly separated from the former that it will nearly all drain off, 

 so nearly that scarcely anything remains for the press to accomplish except to 

 expel the whey which remains upon the surface of the particles of curd to cause 

 them to adhere to each other in a solid mass, and to shape the mass into the 

 desired form. 



Fifth. The last point of importance in the manufacture of cheese is the main- 

 tenance of a suitable and even temperature in ripening. 



The lump of curd as it comes from the press is not yet a cheese. It is fit 

 neither for the table nor for market until it has undergone the process of curing 

 or ripening, a more important item in the manufacture of cheese than many 

 suppose it to be. The chief feature of this ripening process is a sort of fermen- 

 tation, somewhat analogous to what takes place in tlie ripening of a pear after 

 it is plucked from the tree, by means of which are developed the good or bad 

 qualities, particularly flavor and odor, which the materials and the process em- 

 ployed are calculated to produce. What the precise nature of the changes 

 which take place during this fermentation may be is but imperfectly understood 

 by the best chemists. There seems reason, however, to believe that the fatty 

 elements react upon the moist casein, which reaction causes ? change from its 

 original curdy state to a different one which may distinctively be called cheesy. 

 It is also believed that while this change is going on certain flavoring principles 

 are generated from the glycerine which is j^resent in the buttery portion, and 

 which impart, accordingly as the process is skilfully or badly managed, an 

 agreeable or disagreeable taste, and the characteristic odor of cheese. 



What we do know beyond a peradventure is, that for the production of a 

 choice article a moderately warm and even temperature is desirable, nay, is iu- 



