SALTING AND PRESSING. 169 



SALTING AND PRESSING. 



Cheese salt may be coarser than salt used on butter, 

 as curd contains more moisture to dissolve the salt, 

 and less of the coarse salt will leave the curd and be 

 lost. The curd is in a fit condition to salt when it 

 feels silky and mellow, and when the whey leaving 

 the curd contains from I to 1.2 per cent, of acid. 

 The acidimeter should be used to determine the time 

 of salting and thus secure uniform results from day 

 to day. 



Experiments conducted at the Ontario Agricultural 

 College regarding the effect of salt in checking acidity 

 indicated that salt reduces the percentage of acid in 

 the whey leaving curds. The average of several trials 

 gave an acidity of .98 at the time of salting. One- 

 half hour after salting the percentage was reduced to 

 ,8 1 and one hour after salting it was .94. As salt 

 when applied to the curd causes an increased flow of 

 liquid, the reduction in percentage may have been due 

 to an increased amount of moisture, hence a reduc- 

 tion in the percentage of acid. In order to settle this 

 point the whey leaving the curd at a given time 

 would have to be weighed. 



The amount of salt to be added depends upon the 

 moisture in the curd and upon the length of time for 

 ripening. Moist curds require more salt, and quick- 

 ripening cheese should have less salt. The rate may 

 vary from one and a half to three pounds of salt per 

 100 Ibs. curd, or per 1,000 Ibs. of milk, which latter 

 is the more commonly adopted basis, while the 



