CHEESE-MAKING. 



95 



where cheese is made at all, and has attained an unequalled 

 popularity everywhere. 



Cheddar Cheese. 



The leading feature in the Cheddar method is the direct and 

 intentional employment of acidity, and this is the result of 

 carefully regulated temperature. In all well-managed Cheddar 

 dairies nothing whatever is done by " rule of thumb." The 

 degrees of temperature are regulated to meet the state of the 

 weather and the season of the year, and they are extended in 

 order to develop acidity. 

 The condition of the milk 

 calls for modifications in 

 the process, its alkalinity 

 being a factor not to be 

 overlooked, and its in- 

 cipient acidity a condition 

 to be met. The " ripe- 

 ness " of the milk is a point 

 which turns on the tem- 

 perature of the atmosphere 

 and on the presence or 

 absence of electrical storms. 

 The quantity of milk to 

 be operated upon being 

 known, the rennet required 



is easily ascertained. The period required for coagulation is 

 shortened or lengthened as circumstances require it to be, and 

 the subsequent part of the process harmonises with that which 

 has gone before. The heating of the mass of curd and whey, 

 and the withdrawal of the latter, are points well known to the 

 maker. The development of acidity in the whey is merely 

 incipient, but in the curd when the whey has been lifted it is 

 advanced. This is the oxidation or ripening of the curd, which 

 properly supplements the ripening of the milk, and oxidation 

 means the development of ferments which afterwards ripen the 

 cheese , 



FIG. 19. CHEESE HOOP. 



