312 THE BOOK OF CHEESE 



and the cheeses were made in a more or less haphazard 

 way. The milk of the evening was placed in a cheese 

 tub in the dairy room and cooled to a temperature that 

 would prevent souring. In most cases the cream that 

 had raised to the surface of the night's milk was removed 

 in the morning. This was considered an act of economy, 

 for it was thought that in the process of manufacture 

 it would all pass off in the whey and be lost. The morn- 

 ing's milk was then mixed with that of the evening and 

 warmed to the setting temperature by placing a portion 

 in a tin pail and suspending it in a kettle of hot water. 

 When hot, it was emptied into the tub of cold milk. 

 By transferring back and forth, the setting temperature 

 was finally reached. Few of these settlers owned ther- 

 mometers. Consequently, cheese-makers were obliged 

 to depend on the sense of feeling to determine temperature. 

 One of the serious difficulties of the early manufac- 

 ture was the production of rennet of a uniform strength. 

 After the addition of the rennet and as soon as the coagu- 

 lated milk became firm enough, it was broken into as 

 small pieces as could be conveniently made, a wooden 

 knife being used for the purpose. After standing ten 

 minutes it was stirred by hand, breaking the pieces finer, 

 and the temperature was gradually brought to 98 F., 

 aiming as near blood heat as could be judged by the 

 sense of feeling. It was kept at this temperature until 

 the moisture was out of the curd and it would squeak 

 between the teeth. The whey was drawn off and the 

 curd stirred until dry, salted and put to press. All the 

 curd of one day was made into a cheese. This resulted 

 in small uneven-sized cheese. Since such cheeses were 

 made from the milk of single dairies with all the surround- 

 ings clean, the flavor was usually good but the texture 



