322 THE FERMENTATION OF CHEESE. 



this aerobic assistant, some 60 to 100 fine holes are pierced by a 

 needle in each cylinder of ripening cheese. 



The coatings of mould appearing and tolerated in Gorgonzola, 

 Brie, and Stilton cheese seem to have a similar action. In other 

 cheeses, again, such as Emmenthal and Gouda cheese, the forma- 

 tion of a mould coating in the ripening chee?e is prevented as far 

 as possible, since it would unfavourably influence their specific 

 flavour. For this purpose the surface of the cheese is repeatedly 

 wiped over with salt water or strewn with dry salt. A comparison 

 of the surface of Gouda cheese with that of Brie cheese will show 

 the remarkable difference between them. 



In the above-mentioned instance a thread fungus is employed, 

 whereas in the case of Edam cheese a bacterium is mixed with the 

 milk to be made into cheese. This is the Streptococcus hollandicus, 

 whose acquaintance we have already made in 163, as a microbe 

 capable of making milk or whey ropy. It is employed by adding 

 2 per cent, by volume of ropy whey to the milk to be set for cheese. 



179. Natto and Miso. 



The process of fermentation known as the ripening of cheese 

 both improves the flavour and increases the digestibility of the 

 -albuminoids by degrading them into more readily assimilable pro- 

 ducts. On this account the ripening of cheese might be termed a 

 preliminary digestion of the casein. 



Similar to fresh whole milk curd in the nature and proportional 

 ratio of its chief constituents is the Soja bean, i.e. the seed which 

 replaces a meat diet among the natives of Eastern Asia. This bean 

 was first introduced into Europe at the Vienna Universal Exhibi- 

 tion in 1873, an( i was shortly afterwards more minutely described 

 l>y FR. HABERLANDT (I.). It contains 35-40 per cent, of albu- 

 minoids and about 1 5 per cent, of fat ; and, consequently, a dish of 

 soja beans prepared in the ordinary manner forms a heavy, tough 

 food-stuff. However, it can be made more attractive to the palate, 

 and better suitable to the stomach, by boiling the beans for five 

 hours in salt water, then forming the mass into balls from 4 to 1 8 

 ounces in weight, packing these in straw, and leaving them in 

 a warmed cellar for a few days. Under these conditions they 

 undergo a fermentation which loosens the cellular tissue, and 

 effects a partial conversion of the protein into amides, peptones, 

 guanine, xanthine, and tyrosine. The mass is then sold (in Japan) 

 under the name of natto. The nature of the species of bacteria 

 taking part in this fermentation has been studied by K. YABK (I.) 

 and 0. LOBW (IV.). 



In the preparation of the second kind of vegetable cheese, viz., 

 Miso, recourse is had to a substance known as Koji (described in 

 vol. ii.), which is added to the boiled bean pulp before allowing 

 the latter to ferment. Full particulars respecting the production 



