i8O SCIENCE AND PRACTICE OF CHEESE-MAKING 



the .desirable firmness of body becomes objectionable 

 hardness, unless the conditions of manufacture are 

 so modified as to hold more whey in cheese, in which 

 case objectionable properties of another kind are apt 

 to result. 



WATER 



As we shall see later, when we come to study 

 the composition of cheese, water is one of the most 

 prominent constituents in amount. We have al- 

 ready indicated why the amount of water in normal 

 milk has little interest in connection with cheese- 

 making, but its presence in cheese is of great 

 interest and the problem of its control in the cheese- 

 making process is one of the highest importance. 

 Water performs two chief functions in cheese: 

 (i) Somewhat like fat, but in a much less satisfactory 

 way, it influences the character of the body in cheese, 

 imparting smoothness and a certain degree of mellow- 

 ness, and (2) it furnishes suitable conditions for the 

 work of those agents which change insoluble cheese 

 proteins into soluble forms (p. 353). 



In performing the first of these functions, water, 

 therefore, supplements the work of fat, but cannot 

 take its place in imparting richness and delicacy of 

 taste. In the manufacture of skim-milk cheese, an 

 effort is usually made to imitate the mellowness of 

 body characteristic of a cheese made from normal milk, 

 which is due to fat, by holding in the cheese a large 

 amount of moisture. In illustration of this fact, 

 we have examined cheese containing over 50 per 

 cent of water, the cheese having been made from 

 separator skim-milk. Unless this large amount of 



