METHODS OF MANUFACTURING CHEDDAR 69 



according to the conditions of the weather and 

 the keeping qualities of the milk. In the 

 morning the cream is skimmed off, heated to 

 90 F., and returned to the vat through the 

 strainer along with the morning's milk. By 

 this plan we get thorough mixing of the 

 cream off the evening's milk, with the mixed 

 evening's and morning's milk. The milk is 

 now allowed to ripen, if it is not already ripe 

 enough. 



RIPENING is essentially acidity development. 

 There are two methods of attaining the desired 

 result, (a) The old Cheddar method in which 

 a certain amount of sour whey is added to the 

 milk in the vat. This is an empirical plan 

 which does not take into account the amount 

 of acid already present in the milk, and also 

 risks one day's contaminated whey tainting the 

 rest of the season's make of cheese. (#) The 

 more modern method, and that adopted by the 

 Canadian makers, is to keep the milk at a certain 

 temperature (90 to 95) until the required acidity 

 develops. This temperature is the one that 

 is most favourable to the growth of the bacteria 

 which produce the acid we desire to obtain. 



