CHAP. vi. STILTON CHEESE. 829 



curd, which seems to depend for its development upon the action of 

 the air, and the presence of which experience has showed to be an 

 essential element in the making of a cheese. This acid should be 

 allowed to develop properly before the addition of salt. To determine 

 when the curd is ready for salting, the hot iron test is again resorted 

 to, and when the curd will draw fine silky threads 1| inches long, 

 and at the same time have a soft velvety feel when pressed in the 

 hand, the butter fat will not separate with the whey from the curd. 

 I generally advise using 1 Ib. of salt to 50 Ib. of curd, more or less, 

 according to the condition/of the curd. After salting we allow the 

 curd to lie fifteen minutes, so as to allow the salt to be thoroughly 

 dissolved before pressing. 



" In the pressing, care should be taken not to press the curd too 

 severely at first, as you are apt to lose some of the butter fat, and with 

 this I do not think that the whey will come away so freely by heavy 

 pressing at first. We advise three days' pressing before cheese is 

 taken to the curing-room. All cheese should have a bath in water at 

 a temperature of 120 next morning after being made, so as to form a 

 good skin to prevent cracking or chipping. The temperature of 

 the curing room should be kept as near 60 as possible at all seasons 

 of the year, and I think it a good plan to ventilate while heating. 



"Too much stress cannot be laid on the fact that milk must be 

 pure to obtain satisfactory results. Impurities in milk affect unfavour- 

 ably not only the value of its products as articles of diet, but the 

 very process which gives the products. At the Dairy Institute near 

 Kilmarnock, we pay the strictest attention to the milking of the 

 cows, to see that each milker washes his hands after the milking 

 of each cow, and, at the same time, the milk is all carefully strained 

 in the byre, and again when delivered in the dairy. The kind of 

 cheese we aim at making is a close cutting, fine flavoured, mild cheese, 

 with good body, and a good cheese in two and a half months, or one 

 that will keep a year." 



Reference may here be made to two papers on "Pure Cultures for 

 Cheddar Cheese-Making," by Professor J. R. Campbell, in the " Trans- 

 actions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland," 5th 

 series, vol. viii. (1898) and vol. ix. (1899). In the latter volume (p. 219) 

 two important discoveries were announced. The first of these is the fact 

 that it is well within the power of any dairyman to prepare what is prac- 

 tically a pure culture of the same bacterium as that which it had been 

 customary to supply from the laboratory. " The second discovery is that 

 the sour- whey starter, used by some of the successful cheese-makers before 

 the introduction of the American system, was practically a pure culture. 

 These men had, therefore, by empirical methods, attained the same end 

 as that to which we have been led by the more accurate guidance of 

 bacteriological research." 



Stilton Cheese has only been introduced since the middle of the eigh- 

 teenth century. It was first manufactured by a Mrs. Paulet, who resided 

 in the Melton quarter of Leicestershire, and who, being a relative of the 

 landlord of the Bell Inn, at Stilton, on the great North Road, supplied 



