252 SCIENCE AND PRACTICE OF DAIRYING. 



ripening, to coagulate butter milk along with the creamed milk, and to 

 coagulate at a temperature of 26 to 27 C. More rennet than is used in 

 the manufacture of fatty cheeses should be added, in order to reduce the 

 curd to a finer state, and subsequently it should be submitted to a more 

 moderate warming. Skim-milk cheese should also receive more salt than 

 fat cheese, and should be allowed to ripen at a temperature of at least 

 24 C. Elsworth recommends a special method of treatment of Cheddar 

 and skim-milk cheeses. The milk is heated to from 57 to 58 C., and 

 is then cooled to 15 or 16C., poured into the cream vessel, and after 

 the lapse of thirty-six to forty hours it is creamed. The cream is churned 

 in a sweet condition, a portion of sweet butter-milk is added to the skim- 

 milk, and the whole is treated as in the preparation of fatty cheeses. By 

 the previous warming, as well as the addition of butter-milk, the ripen- 

 ing of cheese is said to be hastened. 



The proper so-called " ripeness" of the curd is said to exert an influence 

 on the cheese. If the curd be made into cheese when it is not sufficiently 

 sour, the result is, it is asserted, that a soft cheese is obtained, which is 

 liable to rapid decomposition, and which, it is true, quickly becomes market- 

 able, but never gains a fine flavour such as cheese has, the curd of which 

 has been kept for a long time in the cheese-vat, and has been subjected to 

 souring in the proper manner. A dry crumbling cheese is obtained from 

 cheese which has been too strongly soured. 



The Preparation of Cheddar Cheese in England. This cheese is made 

 extensively in the western counties of England, where the art of cheese- 

 making was already considerably developed at the beginning of this 

 century. It is made from a mixture of morning's and evening's milk. The 

 cheeses are cylindrical in shape, 27 kilos, in weight, on an average, and 

 are about 27 cms. deep, with a diameter of 36 cms. The heaviest cheeses 

 weigh up to 50 kilos., while the lightest only weigh from 8 to 10 kilos. 



The preparation is carried on as follows: The milk is first coloured 

 with annatto, and often indeed with the juice of carrots or marigolds. 

 It is allowed to thicken, at from 27 to 32 C., in from 60 to 75 minutes. 

 The curd is then broken up with the ordinary cheese-knives. The milk is 

 previously warmed in round cheese-vats, made of oak, by adding a portion 

 of strongly-heated milk to the rest of the unwarmed milk, or by the 

 addition of hot water to the milk. In the preparation of cheeses of 27 

 kilos, in weight, the cutting up of the curd occupies about 20 to 25 

 minutes. Before the separate pieces of the curd are reduced to the proper 

 size, they are left for fifteen minutes in the covered cheese- vat, a portion 

 of the whey is then removed, and the work of breaking up the curd is 

 finished. After this the whey is all removed, with the exception of a very 

 small quantity, and the curd is drawn together and covered over with 



