CHAP. vi. CHEDDAR CHEESE CANADIAN SYSTEM. 827 



scarcely any two makers used the same quantity to a given quantity of 

 milk. Instead of having a graduated measure for measuring the 

 rennet, a common tea cup was used for this purpose, and 1 have found 

 in some dairies as low as 3 oz. of rennet was used to 100 gallons of 

 milk, where in others as high as 6 oz. was used to the same quantity. 

 This of itself would cause a difference in the quality of the cheese. 



" Coagulation and breaking completed, the second heating was effected 

 by dipping the whey from the curd into the can already mentioned, 

 and heated to a temperature of 140 F., and returned to the curd, and 

 thus the process was carried on till the desired temperature was 

 reached. This mode of heating I considered very laborious, and, at 

 the same time, very unsatisfactory, as it is impossible to distribute 

 the heat as evenly through the curd in this way as by heating either 

 with hot water or steam. The other general features of the method do 

 not differ from our own very materially, with the exception that in the 

 old method the curd was allowed to mature in the bottom of the tub, 

 where at the same stage we remove the curd from the vat to what we 

 call a curd-cooler made with a sparred bottom, so as to allow the whey 

 to separate from' the curd during the maturing or ripening process. 

 In regard to the quality of cheese on the one method compared with 

 the other, I think that there was some cheese just as fine made in the 

 old way as anything we can possibly make in the new, with one excep- 

 tion, and that is, that the cheese made according to the old method 

 will not toast ; instead of the casein melting down with the butter fat, 

 the two become separated, which is very much objected to by the 

 consumer, and, with this, want of uniformity through the whole dairy. 

 This is a very short and imperfect description of how the cheese was 

 made at the time I came into Ayrshire ; and I will now give a short 

 description of the system that has been taught by myself for the past 

 four years, and has been the means of bringing this county so 

 prominently to the front as one of the best cheese-making counties in 

 Britain. 



" Our duty in this system of cheese-making begins the night before, 

 in having the milk properly set and cooled according to the tem- 

 perature of the atmosphere, so as to arrive at a given heat the next 

 morning. Our object in this is to secure, at the time we wish to begin 

 work in the morning, that degree of acidity or ripeness essential to the 

 success of the whole operation. We cannot give any definite guide to 

 makers how, or in what quantities, to set their milk, as the whole 

 thing depends on the good judgment of the operator. If he finds that 

 his milk works best at a temperature of 68 F. in the morning, his 

 study the night before should tend toward such a result, and he will 

 soon learn by experience how best to manage the milk in his own 

 individual dairy. I have found in some dairies that the milk worked 

 quite fast enough at a temperature of 64 in the morning, where in 

 others the milk set in the same way would be very much out of 

 condition by being too sweet, causing hours of delay before matured 

 enough to add the rennet. Great care should be taken at this point, 

 making sure that the milk is properly matured before the rennet is 



