RIPENING CHEDDAR CHEESE. 1/3 



cheese will be safe from the bad effects of heat at the 

 factory, the cheesemaker is relieved of the worry in 

 caring for the cheese, one salesman can sell the cheese 

 for several factories, and the buyer can inspect a 

 large number of cheese in a short time, and at small 

 expense, while the average quality of our cheese will 

 be improved by adopting this plan. Large factories, 

 which can afford to have properly equipped ripening 

 rooms, may continue the present system, but smaller 

 factories should co-operate in ripening and selling 

 their cheese. Owing to the difficulty of getting 

 factories to co-operate it is likely that this part of the 

 business will pass into the hands of capitalists, who 

 are likely to be dealers in cheese. 



The chief factors which influence the ripening of 

 cheese after they are made are temperature, moisture, 

 ventilation, length of time held at ripening tempera- 

 ture, and possibly to a slight extent, light. 



The chief factor is temperature. A few years ago 

 a temperature of 60 to 70 degrees was considered 

 most favorable for ripening cheese. Recent experi- 

 ments have demonstrated that a temperature of 40 

 degrees gives much better results than the higher 

 temperature. Undesirable bacteria seem unable to 

 grow in cheese at 40 degrees, hence bad flavors are 

 less common in cheese ripened at 38 to 40 degrees. 

 Whether 40 degrees is the best temperature or not 

 cannot be stated' at present, but experiments point 

 to this as being a very favorable temperature. 

 Whether or not it will pay to maintain cheese at this 

 temperature has yet to be demonstrated. The chief 



