244 AMERICAN CHEESE. 



strained into a tub or pans, and cooled to prevent 

 souring. The proper mode of cooling is to strain the 

 milk into the tin tub set in a wooden vat, described in 

 the dairy-house, and cool by filling the wooden vat with 

 ice-water from the ice-house, or ice in small lumps, and 

 water from the pump. The little cream that rises over 

 night is taken off in the morning, and kept till the 

 morning and evening milk are put together, and the 

 cream is warmed to receive the rennet. It is mixed 

 with about twice its quantity of new milk, and warm 

 water added to raise its temperature to ninety-eight 

 degrees : stir it till perfectly limpid, put in rennet 

 enough to curdle the milk in forty minutes, and mix it 

 with the mass of milk by thorough stirring; the milk 

 having been previously raised to eighty-eight or ninety 

 degrees, by passing steam from the steam generator to 

 the water in the wooden vat. In case no double vat is 

 to be had, the milk may be safely heated to the right 

 temperature, by setting a tin pail of hot water into the 

 milk in the tubs. It may be cooled in like manner by 

 filling the pail with ice-water, or cold spring-water 

 where ice is not to be had. It is not safe to heat milk 

 in a kettle exposed directly to the fire, as a slight 

 scorching will communicate its taint to the whole 

 cheese and spoil it. If milk is curdled below eighty- 

 four degrees, the cream is more liable to work off with 

 the whey. An extreme of heat will have a like effect. 

 The curdling heat is varied with the temperature of 

 the air, or the liability of the milk to cool after adding 

 rennet. The thermometer is the only safe guide in 

 determining the temperature ; for, if the dairyman 

 depends upon the sensation of the hand, a great liability 

 to error will render the operation uncertain. If, for 

 instance, the hands have previously been immersed in 

 cold water, the milk will feel warmer than it really is ; 



