CHEDDAR CHEESE-MAKING 



195 



One set of knives has horizontal and the other per- 

 pendicular blades or wires. The curd is cut the long way 

 of the vat with the horizontal knife and lengthwise and 

 crosswise with the perpendicular knife so that the result 

 is small cubes or oblongs of curd. Some cheese-makers 

 prefer to use one knife first and some the other, but the 

 result should be a curd cut into pieces of uniform size. 

 The smaller the particles of curd or cubes are cut, the 

 quicker the curd will firm up or cook. If not cut uniformly, 

 the changes taking place later in the curd particles will 

 not be uniform, the small pieces will be hard and dry 

 while the large ones will be soft and mushy. 



Care should be taken to let the knife cut its way into 

 the curd (Fig. 32). If the knife is pushed into the curd, 



FIG. 32. ^The proper way to put the knife into the curd. 



it will break it and cause a large loss of fat. The same 

 is true when taking the knives out of the curd. The loss 

 of fat due to cutting is very similar to the loss of sawdust 

 when sawing a board. It may be considered a necessary 

 evil. The loss due to cutting is about 0.3 of 1 per cent 

 of fat in the whey and the loss of casein about 0.1 of 1 

 per cent in the whey. 



197. Heating or "cooking" the curd. After the 

 curd is cut, the pieces (cubes) rapidly settle to the bottom 



