CHEESE. 183 



comes from the cow. The management of the curd de- 

 pends on the kind of cheese : thin cheese requires the 

 least labor and attention. Breaking the curd is done 

 with the hand and dish. The finer the curd is broken 

 the better, particularly in thick cheeses. Turning the 

 milk differs in different dairies ; no two dairy women 

 conduct exactly alike. Setting the milk too hot inclines 

 the cheese to heave, and cooling it with cold water pro- 

 duces a similar effect. The degree of heat is varied ac- 

 cording to the weather. The curd, when formed, is 

 broken with what is called a triple cheese knife. The 

 use of this is to keep the fat in the cheese ; it is drawn 

 the depth of the curd two or three times across the tub, 

 to give the whey an opportunity of running off clear ; 

 after a few minutes the knife is more freely used, and 

 the curd is cut into small pieces like chequers, and is 

 broken fine in the whey, with the hand and a wooden 

 dish. The curd being, allowed about half an hour to 

 settle, the whey is Inded off with the dish, after it is 

 pretty well separated from the curd. It is almost an in- 

 variable practice to scald the curd. The mass is first 

 broken very fine, and then the scalding whey is added 

 to it, and stirred^ a i'ew minutes ; some make use of the 

 hot water in preference to the whey, and it is in both cases 

 treated according to the nature of the curd; if it is soft, 

 the whey or water is used nearly boiling; but if hard, 

 it is used only a little hotter than the hand. After the 

 curd is thoroughly mixed with the hot stuff, it is suffered 

 to stand a few minutes to settle and is then separated, 

 as at the first cj oration. After the scaldiug liquor is 

 separated, a vat, or what is often called a cheese hoop, 

 is laid across the cheese ladder over the tub, and the 

 curd is crumbled into it with the hand and pressed 

 into the vat, to squeeze out the whey. 



The vat being filled as full and firmly as the hand can 

 fill it, and rounded up in the middle, a cheese cloth iai 

 spread over it, and the curd is turned out of the hoop 

 into the cloth ; the vat is then washed, and the inverted 

 mass of curd, with the cloth under it, is turned into the 

 vat and put into the press ; after standing two or three 

 hours in the press, the vat is taken out and the cloth is 

 taken off, washed, and put round the cheese, and it is 

 replaced in the vat and in t'ae press. In about seven or 



