254 Milk and Its Products 



might be at hand, or simply with the lingers, no 

 care being taken that the pieces of curd should be 

 of uniform shape or size, but now gangs of steel 

 knives, in one of which the blades are arranged 

 horizontally and the other perpendicularly, are used 

 to cut the mass of curd into cubes of about % of 

 an inch in diameter. The fat is retained in the 

 cheese by being enclosed in the meshes of the casein, 

 and in breaking up the mass of casein, a certain 

 number of fat globules is always set free. The 

 care with which the cutting and subsequent hand- 

 ling of the curd is done controls the loss of fat 

 through this source. Formerly, the mass of curd 

 was allowed to become very firm before cutting, but 

 the more recent practice has shown that the best 

 results in expelling the whey from the curd are 

 reached when the curd is cut, so soon as it has 

 sufficiently coagulated to maintain its form. The 

 curd is cut by passing the horizontal knife through 

 the vat, usually in a longitudinal direction, and then 

 by passing the perpendicular knife both longitudi- 

 nally and crosswise of the vat. It is immaterial 

 whether the horizontal or perpendicular knives are 

 used first. Some skilled cheese -makers prefer the 

 one practice and some the other. The object to be 

 attained is to break up the curd into as uniform 

 a mass of kernels as possible, or, in the language 

 of the cheese -maker, to secure an "even cut." After 

 the curd is cut, the whey begins to escape, and the 

 curd sinks to the bottom of the vat. If allowed to 

 remain undisturbed, the cut surfaces of the particles 



