350 THE RENNET. — SETTLING. 



of rennet is the proportion, taking more or less, accord 

 ing to the strength of the rennet. 



The milk in the tub to which the rennet has been 

 added is covered over and allowed to stand till it is 

 curdled, or become hard, which usually requires a 

 quarter of an hour. The curdled milk is then called 

 " glib." It is now slowly but regularly stirred, with a 

 shallow, long-handled cheese-spoon, in all directions. 



Some cheese-makers treat the milk in the following 

 manner : They stir the milk, thrusting an inverted 

 cheese-ladle into the curdling mass every two or three 

 minutes after adding the rennet, by which the curdling 

 is much hastened. Now they move the ladle or cheese- 

 stick three or four times with considerable force through 

 the thickening milk, and lay it, inverted, on the surface 

 of the milk, covering the vat for ten or twelve minutes, 

 when the mass is again set in motion, and then again 

 allowed to stand! By this means the cheese particles 

 settle to the bottom, and the whey rises to the top. 



When, after these alternate stirrings and rest of the 

 curdling milk, the solid particles have settled, and the 

 whey is collected on top, the latter is turned off, as care- 

 fully as possible, into the whey-tub. In order the better 

 to settle the cheesy parts, and to cause the whey to come 

 up, the cheese-stick is loaded with weights or stones, by 

 which the whey is separated in the pressure upon the 

 curd. Some minutes after, the whey is again turned 

 off, the whole mass is properly stirred, and the curd is 

 collected with the cheese-stick and worked with the 

 hands, and the whey is again carefully turned off. The 

 curd, now become thick, is taken out of the vat, piece 

 by piece, and broken with the hands as finely as pos- 

 sible, in order to fill as much into the cheese-moulds as 

 will just make a cheese. The moulds are set. into the 

 cheese-vat, and the curd is worked and pressed closely in 



