314 SCIENCE AND PRACTICE OF CHEESE-MAKING 



place the cheese in some room in the factory where 

 are provided no means of controlHng temperature and 

 moisture and where the variations in these factors 

 closely follow, up and down, the conditions existing 

 out of doors. It has come to be realized that a cheese, 

 perfect when it leaves the press, may easily be ruined 

 for market by lack of care during the ripening process. 

 It is appreciated now more than ever before that the 

 ripening of cheese is a part of the manufacturing proc- 

 ess, that it is the" real finishing of the product, and 

 must not be slighted any more than any other impor- 

 tant step. 



CHANGES RESULTING FROM RIPENING 



PROCESS 



Several different changes take place in cheese dur- 

 ing the ripening period. These may be divided into 

 two general classes, (i) loss of weight and (2) 

 chemical changes in the cheese constituents. We 

 shall now take up for consideration a somewhat de- 

 tailed study of (i) the extent to which these 

 changes take place, (2) the various conditions under 

 which they occur, (3) their relations to the character 

 of the cheese and (4) the commercial relations of 

 cheese-ripening. 



LOSS OF WEIGHT IN CHEESE-RIPENING 



The loss of weight in the cheese-ripening process, 

 when the conditions are normal, may be regarded for 

 practical purposes as being due entirely to the evapora- 

 tion of water from the cheese. Of course, there is 

 some mechanical lo^s of fat by exudation ("leak:ing") 

 from cheese kept at high temperatures, but such ccm- 

 ditions are abnormal. The small amount of loss due 



