264 CHEESE IN THE SCOTCH DAIRIES. 



the same caution is necessary. Precipitation, or hand- 

 ling the curd too roughly, would add to its toughness, 

 and expel still more of the oily matter ; and, as has been 

 already mentioned, hot water or whey should be put on 

 the curd when it is soft and cold, and cold water when 

 the curd is set too hot. 



Undue delay, however, in any of these operations, 

 from the time the milk is taken out of the coolers until 

 the curd is under the press in the shape of a cheese / 

 is most improper, as the curd in all these stages is, 

 when neglected for even a few minutes, very apt to 

 become ill-flavored. If it is allowed to remain tco 

 long in the curd-vat, or in the dripper over it, before 

 the whey is completely extracted, the curd becomes 

 too cold, and acquires a pungent or acrid taste ; or, it 

 softens so much that the cheese is not sufficiently adhe- 

 sive, and does not easily part with the serum. Whenever 

 the curd is completely set, the whey should be taken off 

 without delay ; and the dairymaid should never leave 

 the curd-boyn until the curd is ready for the dripper or 

 cheese-vat. The salt is mixed into the curd. 



After the cheese is put into the press, it remains for 

 the first time about an hour, or less than two hours, 

 until it is taken out, turned upside down in the cheese- 

 vat, and a new cloth put around it every four or six 

 hours until the cheese is completed, which is generally 

 in the course of a day and a half, two, or at most in 

 three days after it was first put under the press. 



Some have shortened the process of pressing by 

 placing the cheese — after it has been under the press 

 for two hours or so for the first time — into water 

 heated to about one hundred or one hundred and ten 

 degrees, and allowing the cheese to remain in the water 

 about the space of half an hour, and thereafter drying 

 it with a cloth, and putting it again under the press. 



