TEMPERATURE AND IIKATINQ OE THE MILK. 575 



pound of sour milk is mixed with five pounds of boiled potatoes and a 

 little- salt, and the whole is beat into a pulj), which, after standing five or 

 six days, is worked up again, and then dried in the usual way. Others 

 mix three parts of drie.l boiled potatoes with two of fresh curd, or equal 

 weights, or more curd than potato according to the quality required. 

 Such cheeses are made in Thuringia, in Saxony, and in other parts of 

 Germany. In Savoy, an excellent cheese is made by mixing one of the 

 pulp of potatoes with three of ewe milk curd, and in Westphalia a po- 

 tato cheese is made with skimmed milk. This Weslphalian cheese, 

 while in the pasty state, is allowed to undergo a certain extent of fer- 

 mentation before it is finally worked up with butter and salt, made into 

 shapes and dried. The extent to vvhicli thisferij^entation is permitted to 

 go determines tUe flavour of the cheese. 



§ 21. Circumstances under ivhich cheese of different quqlities may he 



obtained from the same milk. 

 But from the same milk, in the same state, dilTe rent kinds or qualities 

 of clieese may be prepared according to tlie way in which the milk or 

 the curd is treated. Let us consider also a few of the circumstances by 

 which this result may be brought about. 



1°. Temperature to which the milk is heated. — The temperature of new 

 or entire milk, when the rennet is added, should be raised to about 95*^ F. 

 — that of skimme.l milk need not be quite so high. If the milk be 

 warmer the curd is hard and tough, if colder, it is soft and difficult to ob- 

 tain free from the whey. When the former happens to be the case, a 

 portion of the first whey that sepaiates may be taken out into another 

 vessel, allowed to cool, and then poured in again. If it prove to have 

 been too cold, hot milk or water may be added to it — or a vessel contain- 

 ing hot water may be put into it before the curdling commences — or 'the 

 first portion of whey that separates may be heated and poured again 

 upon the curd. The quality of the cheese, however, will always be 

 more or less affected when it happens to be necessary to adopt any of 

 these remedies. To make the best cheese, the true temperature should 

 always be attained as nearly as possible, before the rennet is added. 



2". Mode in which the milk is warmed. — If, as Is the case in some 

 dairies, the milk be warmed in an iron pot upon the naked fire, great care 

 must be taken that it is not singed or jire-fanged. A very slight inat- 

 tention may cause this to be the case, and the taste of the cheese is sure 

 to be more or less atfected by it. In Cheshire the milk is put into a large 

 tin pail, which is plunged into a boiler of hot water, and frequently stir- 

 red till it is raised to the proper temperature. In large dairy establish- 

 ments, however, the safest method is to have a pot with a double bottom, 

 consisting of one pot within anodier-^after the manner of a glue-pot — the 

 space between the two being filled with water. The fire applied be- 

 neath thus acts only upon the water, and can never, by any ordinary 

 neglect, do injury to the milk. It is desirable in this heating, not to raise 

 the temperature higher than is necessary, as a great heat is apt to give 

 an oiliness to the fatty matter of the milk. 



3*^. The time during which the curd stands is also of importance. It 

 shot. Id be broken up as soon as the milk is fully coagulated. The longer 

 it stands after this the harder and tougher it w? become. 



