THE PREPARATION OF EMMENTHALER CHEESE. 259 



This method of utilizing whey, however, is not to be commended. In the 

 cantons of Berne and Lucerne in the Alps, the so-called sugar-sand is 

 obtained in summer from the raw milk-sugar of the whey. Occasionally 

 that is about once or twice during the period of mountain pasturing 

 the cow-keepers boil the whey and prepare molkensich, a substance made 

 out of the solid constituents of the whey. It consists mostly of sugar, 

 is of a chocolate-brown colour, and is shaped in the form of a brick. It 

 is used for eating with bread-and-butter on festive occasions. 



The soured whey, the sourer which is used to separate out the whey 

 cream and the ziger, is put in the sourer barrel, which is placed in a warm 

 part of the cheese-store, usually near the fireplace of the cheese-kettle. It 

 is made of wood and of a conical shape, and of from 75 to 100 litres 

 capacity. This barrel is covered with a wooden lid and fitted underneath 

 with a cock, and is not allowed to become empty during an entire 

 period. It is at first filled with whey, which rapidly sours, owing to the 

 warm place in which the barrel is kept. The whey required is daily 

 tapped off, and the space filled up again immediately with sweet whey. 

 The strength of the sourer determines the quantity to be used. If at the 

 beginning of the period of mountain pasturing no sourer is obtainable, 

 diluted vinegar is employed. 



After the cheese has been taken out of the press, it is numbered with 

 ink, or with a black colouring matter prepared from lamp-black and oil, 

 and is brought into an airy room, where it is allowed to remain for 24 

 hours, generally as it is, occasionally in a mould- hoop. It is thereafter 

 brought into the cheese-cellar and treated with dried salt. During the 

 first weeks the cheese is provided with cheese-binders similar to mould- 

 hoops, but made of soft wood. The mode of salting, as well as the differ- 

 ent precautions which have to be carried out in salting this cheese, have 

 already been pointed out and discussed in 115, and the requirements 

 which are necessary for a good cheese-cellar as well as the temperature and 

 moisture most suitable for the storing of cheese, have already been discussed 

 in 116. About 20 days after the cheese has been brought into the 

 cellar, often indeed sooner sometimes as soon as it has been brought under 

 the press the formation of the large eyes in the cheese begins- to take 

 place. Before cheeses of 50 kg. and above that weight have become per- 

 fectly ripe, and have attained their full taste, 8 to 12 months must at least 

 elapse, during which time the cheeses on an average lose about 12 per 

 cent of their weight. For salting, on an average, during the first two 

 months, 2 kg. of salt are required per 100 kg. of cheese, and the loss in 

 weight in this time amounts to from 6 to 7 per cent. In the preparation 

 of fatty cheeses, 100 kg. of milk yield in summer on the Alps 9 to 11 kg. 

 of Emmenthaler cheese, in summer in the valley dairies, 8 to 10 kg., and 



