76 THE BOOK OF CHEESE 



into the curd and not break it. The horizontal knife 

 is used lengthwise of the vat and cuts the curd into layers 

 of uniform thickness. The perpendicular knife then is 

 used lengthwise and crosswise of the vat. It first cuts 

 the curd into, strips and then into cubes. The knives 

 may have wire blades or steel blades, some operators 

 preferring one and some the other. Whichever is used, 

 the blades should be close enough together to give the 

 fineness of curd desired. 



After the knife passes through, the cut faces quickly 

 become covered with a smooth coating, continuous 

 over all exposed areas. This surface has the ap- 

 pearance of a smooth elastic coating or film. This 

 can be seen by carefully breaking a piece in the 

 hand. It is this film which holds the fat within the 

 pieces of curd. If the film is broken, some of the fat 

 globules are lost because the rennet extract acts only 

 on the casein and that in turn holds the fat. All the 

 fat globules which come in contact with the knives as 

 they pass through the curd will be left between the 

 pieces of curd and will pass off in the whey. If care is 

 exercised in cutting, the loss of fat will be confined to what 

 may be called a mechanical loss. This is similar to the 

 loss of the sawdust when sawing a board. This loss in 

 American Cheddar is about 0.3 per cent and cannot be 

 avoided. If it is greater than this, it is due to negligence 

 on the part of the cheese-maker or the poor condition of 

 the milk. The cutting of the curd into small pieces may 

 be considered a necessary evil. If the moisture could 

 be expelled from the whole mass without disturbing it, 

 this fat loss could be prevented. The cutting, breaking 

 or turning should be done with the greatest care, that 

 the loss may be as small as possible. 



