THE NORMAL PITTING OF CHEESE. 323 



of this and several other Japanese articles of diet (e.g. Shojou 

 prepared from soja beans) have been published by 0. KELLNER (II.) ; 

 and a few details of the last-named sauce, also highly appreciated in 

 England under the name of soy or shoyn, have been furnished by 

 A. BELOHOUBEK (I.). For the preparation of Tofu and Nukamiso 

 reference should be made to two treatises by M. INOUYE (I. and II.); 

 and H. C. PRINSEN-GEERLIGS (I.) has reported, inter alia, on the 

 preparation (by the aid of fungoid ferments) of other dishes from 

 soja beans in Chinese cookery, such as Taohu or bean-cheese, the 

 sauce Tao-yu, &c. 



180. The Normal Pitting 1 of Cheese. 



The ripening process does not always progress satisfactorily, 

 but very often results in a defective, or spoiled, inferior, or quite 

 unsaleable product. Thus E. VON FREUDEN REICH (Y.) reports that 

 about 40 per cent, of Emmenthal cheeses ripen imperfectly. The 

 pecuniary loss accruing to cheese-makers from this cause is esti- 

 mated to amount, in Switzerland alone, to about a quarter of a 

 million of francs (; 10,000) per annum. 



The defects here in question are of various kinds. L. ADAMETZ 

 (III.), in his comprehensive monograph on the subject, enumerates 

 the following: (i.) Defects caused by the unfavourable constitu- 

 tion of the milk employed. (2.) Inflation (" blown " cheese). (3.) 

 Bitter cheese. (4.) Discolorations. (5.) Poisonous cheese. Of 

 these, the first named is beyond the scope of the present work, 

 the fourth has already been discussed in 89, 95, and 98, and the 

 fifth in 171. More frequent, however, than any of these is the 

 malady known as inflation, pumness, or "blown" cheese (Fr. 

 boursouflement ; Ger. Blahen), which will now be briefly mentioned. 



In addition to the constituents detailed in 144, the curd 

 from sweet milk contains a certain quantity of lactose. This 

 is dissolved in the whey remaining in the coagulum, and which 

 cannot be entirely removed by pressing. Consequently, sugar is 

 always present, and is decomposed in various ways by the organisms 

 existing in the curd. Some of them, for example, form lactic 

 acid ; whilst others consume it and liberate an abundance of gas. 

 This causes holes (bubbles or eyes) in the mass of the ripening 

 cheese, and these holes manifest themselves as pittings in the cut 

 surface of the ripe product. Both the dimensions of these holes 

 and the manner of their distribution throughout the mass are 

 very characteristically developed in individual classes of cheese. 

 In order to render this clear by examples, reference may be made 

 to two main types, Emmenthal cheese on the one hand, and Edam 

 cheese on the other ; the former exhibiting a few holes of large 

 size, and the latter a greater number, but of small dimensions. 

 The appearance of small holes, regarded as indispensable in the 

 said Dutch fatty cheese, is looked upon as a defect in the Swiss 



