cows '-MILK ROQUEFORT CHEESE. 23 



handled, losses are higher, and it is far more easily damaged in 

 transit. 



LOSSES IN CURING. 



The losses of cheese by scraping, brushing, and handling are 

 quite heavy. With Roquefort, special brushing equipment reduces 

 both the losses and the cost of manufacture. According to reports 

 on the industry in France a brushing machine can brush from 4,500 

 to 5,000 cheeses in an 8-hour day, and requires only two or three 

 workers. With a knife a worker is able to scrape from 200 to 300 

 cheeses a day. It has been found in French practice that at 

 each scraping, losses are reduced from 5 per cent where a knife is 

 used to one-half of 1 per cent by tho use of the brushing machine. 

 Without special precautions with respect to refrigeration, depending 

 on the perfection of ripening, salt content, and quality of the cheese, 

 the losses run from 16 to 22 per cent. In France the first scraping 

 is done by machinery. Scrapings at the ripening stage are made 

 by hand. Normally the cheeses are exposed to the air in the caves 

 from one to four months, and it is necessary to brush them every 

 10 or 15 days. In order to have a supply of cheese the year round, 

 the imported cheese, which is manufactured only six or seven months 

 in the year, is subjected to low temperatures of refrigeration and 

 may be withdrawn according to tlie demands of the market. By 

 this system the cheese is wrapped in foil and then subjected to a 

 very low temperature. Later it is exposed to the air of the caves 

 and ripened at a higher temperature. Often the cheese is held a 

 year at a temperature just a little above 0° C. (32° F.). At this 

 temperature practically all fermentations are checked. When again 

 subjected to the air of the caves the cheese ripens with redoubled 

 intensity and is more quickly broken down than when the other 

 system is used and the cheese is not ripened in the foil. By the 

 use of the holding system more delicate flavors are developed than 

 when the cheese is ripened and shipped directly from the curing 

 rooms. The practice just described reduced losses from 21 per 

 cent to 9 per cent. These figures, which were given by Marre, are 

 based on a comparison of approximately 869,000 pounds of cheese 

 ripened without refrigeration and 1,001,000 pounds ripened with 

 refrigeration.^^ 



The domestic cheese is first ripened to a certain degree and put into 

 the foil. The cheeses are scraped three times. There is a loss of 

 3.28 per cent in the fu'st scraping, 2.12 per cent in the second, and 

 2.02 per cent in the third, making a total loss of 7.42 per cent. These 

 figures were based on an arbitrary figure of 4f pounds as the average 

 weight of each cheese. More than 1,000 cheeses were used in obtain- 



i-" K. Marre, Le Rmiuefort, pp. 142-140. 



