American Cheddar, Factory System 



AMERICAN CHEDDAR CHEESE 

 The Factory System 



The milk is delivered in the morning by the farmers at the fac- 

 tory and is weighed and strained through cheese-cloth into the 

 cheese vat. When it is all in the \at it is warmed to a temperature 

 of 86° F. by letting steam into the water surrounding the bottom 

 and sides of the jacketed vat. 



Ripening. The milk should be slightly acid, not noticeably sour, 

 yet sufficiently ripened for the proper fermentation to take place in 

 the process that follows. The best cheese makers 

 regulate the ripening by adding a starter to the 

 sweet milk and allowing the lactic acid bacteria to 

 multiply in the milk until a "Rennet Test" or 

 "Acid Test '" shows that the desired degree of acid- 

 ity has been reached. The starter may be sour 

 whev or preferably prepared from sweet skim 

 milk or whole milk with a commercial lactic acid 

 culture as described in Chapter I under Ferments 



A Measuring- Giiss and gnJ Buttermilk. From 1 to 2 per cent, starter is 



an accurate thermometer J 



are indispensibie. Iisuallv sufficient. An acidity of .18 to .20% or 



21/2 degrees on the Rennet Test is usually desired before the rennet 



is added. 



•THE JMAESCHALL RENNET TEST consists of a Rraduated cup u; I with 

 a line hole for an outlet in the bottom. One cubic centimeter of a standard 

 rennet extract is diluted with water in the glass bottle (c). The cup is tilled 



with milk and placed on the corner 

 of the cheese vat, the milk being 

 allowed to run through the tine hole 

 in the bottom of the cap. The mo- 

 ment the surface of the milk reaches 

 the upper mark of the graduation in 

 the cup the diluted rennet extract 

 is added and quickly stirred into 

 the milk with the spattle {ft). 



^^'hen the milk begins to curdle it 

 stops running out. The sweeter the 

 milk is the more will run out before 

 coagulation stops it and tlie mark 

 on the scale at which it stops in{li- 

 cates the degree of acidity or ripen- 

 ing. The point is to have the milk 

 alike every day and if, for instance, 

 the cheese maker has found that his 

 cheese is best if he adds the rennet 

 to the milk in the vat when the test 

 shows 2f., he wants to ripen the milk 

 to that degree every day. So, if the 

 test shows .3 or 4, it indicates that the milk is not sulEcientiy ripened and it 

 should be allowed to stand warm for a longer time before it is set with rennet. 



The IHarschall Rennet Test 



THE ACID05IETER foi- making 



Acid Test is descrilted in t'hapter I. 



