232 THE BOOK OF CHEESE 



out, care should be taken not to work the cheese so much 

 that it will become salvy and sticky. 



Usually a little pepper is added, to give the cheese a 

 biting taste. Some manufacturers add a great variety 

 of substances, but these are not necessary and destroy 

 the flavor of the cheese. 



Club cheese may be wrapped in tin-foil or put up in 

 air-tight glass jars. The latter practice, while more 

 expensive, has the advantage of making the cheese keep 

 longer; but for local trade tin-foil is just as satisfactory 

 as glass. In filling the glass, care must be taken not to 

 leave any air spaces between the cheese and the glass, 

 as this is likely to permit the cheese to mold. A glass jar 

 can be filled and air spaces prevented by first smearing 

 a very thin layer of cheese over the glass. 



219. The stirred-curd or granular process. The 

 original practice as brought from England and followed 

 in the farm dairies before the development of the factory 

 system is now known variously as the " stirred-curd " 

 or " granular curd " process. With the introduction of 

 the cheese factory, as known to-day, this system was re- 

 placed by the Cheddar cheese. The old farm process is 

 still used on some farms and in a few factories. As the 

 name indicates, the curd for such cheeses is kept stirred 

 so that it remains in granular condition instead of being 

 allowed to mat as in the Cheddar process. 



The early steps of the two processes are identical. They 

 diverge at the point at which in the factory Cheddar 

 process the whey is drawn and the curd is allowed to mat. 

 In some factories the curd and part of the whey are dipped 

 into a curd sink. This allows the whey to escape more 

 easily and quickly. In the stirred-curd process, the 

 pieces of curd are kept separated by stirring and not 



