Factory Cheese Making 



15 



Cheese Box 



One of the best forms, in the writer's 

 opinion, is the small 5-lb. cheese, 

 proportioned exactly like the large 

 American. This makes a suitable size 

 for an average family, the members of 

 which have learned to appreciate a 

 good cheese. If it is made smaller, too 

 much is lost in the rind; if larger it 

 gets too old before it can be consumed 

 by one family. 



The larger cheeses are usually 

 packed in neat, snug-fitting elm-wood 

 boxes, with thin "Scale Boards" on the 

 top and botton of the cheese, the smaller 

 ones in paraffined pressed pulp or 

 pasteboard boxes. 



Cleaning the Vats and Utensils. Like every other place where 

 milk and its products are handled, the cheese factory must be kept 

 scrupulously clean. Vats and utensils should be rinsed first with 

 cold or lukewarm water or whey, then scrubbed with boiling hot 

 water and if necessary with soda, soap, or washing powder. The 

 surroundings should be kept neat and attractive, and the cheese 

 maker must see that the transportation cans are kept clean by the 

 farmers and the milk delivered in good condition. 



Yield. The yield is around 10 per cent, of the milk. To make a 

 pound of fresh cheese takes from nine to eleven pounds of milk. 

 In curing, a part of the weight is lost by evaporation, but this loss 

 is reduced to a minimum by paraffining. 



Composition. The American cheese contains almost all the casein 

 and the butter-fat of the milk, besides such portions of the milk- 

 albumin, milk-sugar, and mineral matter as is held in the water 

 or whey which is retained in the cheese. In round figures average 

 American cheese contains equal parts of casein, butter-fat and 

 water, 30 to .3.5 per cent, of each. 



Qualities. A good Cheddar Cheese should be mellow, yet solid, 

 without holes, and of an agreeable taste, neither sharp nor bitter. 

 Cheese can be made of skim milk, but it is hardly palatable. In 

 the fall of the year, when the average milk is rich in butter-fat, one 

 or two per cent butter-fat may be taken from the milk and the 



