COMPOSITION OF CHEDDAR CHEESE 233 



allowed to mat. The whey is drawn off and the stirring 

 continued by hand. After stirring fifteen to twenty 

 minutes, the curd becomes so dry as not to mat easily. 

 As soon as the curd has reached this stage, the salt is 

 evenly and thoroughly mixed with it. More salt is added 

 than in the Cheddar process because the curd is more 

 moist than Cheddar curd at the time of salting. The 

 whey freely separating carries away much of the salt. 

 The quantity of salt to use depends on the amount of 

 whey draining from the curd. After salting, the curd is 

 allowed to cool, with occasional stirring to prevent the 

 formation of lumps. The advantage of the stirred-curd 

 practice lies in the shorter time required for making 

 cheese and in the greater yield due to increased water-con- 

 tent. It has several disadvantages, among them being : 

 (1) lack of control of undesirable fermentation; if gas 

 organisms are present, the cheeses more frequently huff 

 than with the Cheddar system; (2) there is more fat 

 lost while stirring the curd, hence quality and yield suffer ; 

 (3) the water is not so thoroughly incorporated, which 

 more frequently results in mottled cheeses; (4) the 

 body is commonly soft and " weak," shows mechanical 

 holes, and cures too rapidly. These faults are closely 

 correlated with the presence of higher percentages of 

 water than in cheeses made by the Cheddar process. In 

 other words, the stirred-curd process usually produces a 

 cheese with higher water-content, hence more subject 

 to the development of unfavorable fermentation than the 

 Cheddar cheeses. 



220. California Jack cheese 1 is very similar to the 

 stirred-curd or granular process. This cheese was orig- 

 inally made in Monterey County on the coast of Cali- 

 1 New York Prod. Review, Vol. 34, no. 2, page 66. 



