RENNET. 103 



ilia, are set to curing at a temperature of 60 degrees, and 

 are never allowed to go above 70 degrees. Our observa- 

 tion and experience are that the range of temperature 

 should never go above 75 degrees. Curing should begin 

 as low as 05 degrees, and no cheese should be marketed 

 under thirty days from the hoops. When the curing is 

 slow, as it ought to be, the cheese will not be ripe in less 

 than that time. If sixty days old before ready for mar- 

 ket, the better. The hurrying process is everywhere bad 

 for the product, and no amount of souring helps the mat- 

 ter, however hard it may make the cheese and however 

 well it may stand up in hot weather. We want some- 

 thing else besides standing-up quality. With a low r 

 and even temperature for curing, we do not need to 

 work all 'he goodness out of the curd to make a firm 

 cheese. We do not have to cut the fats and phosphates 

 out with acid, nor to dry all the moisture out by fine cut- 

 ting and high scalding or long scalding. We can stop 

 the cooking when the curd is evenly cooked through so 

 as to be springy when pressed together by the hands, 

 take it out of the whey before the acid develops, and put 

 it to press without unnecessary delay. 



AN EXAMPLE. 



In the fall of 1884, we ate some cheese at Mr. N. L. 

 Brown's, Gurnee, 111., which was dipped sweeter and 

 put to press softer than we ever thought of doing; yet 

 the cheese was c! .)se-grained and fine-flavored, and one 

 that would pass muster as a first-class cheese anywhere. 

 But it was not cured in a hot curing room, nor in one 

 where the temperature went up and down the same as 



