CHAPTER Ix. 
SALTING AND PRESSING THE CURD. 
165. Condition of a Curd for Salting. 
The curd is ready to salt when it smells like toasted cheese 
and not like burnt hair when rubbed on the hot-iron. It should 
not feel harsh, tut soft and silky, and when squeezed in the 
hand, a mixture of half fat and half whey should run between 
the fingers. 
If clear whey runs out, the curd is not ready to salt. White 
whey should not run from a curd before salting. In that case it 
has not been fully freed from whey, and there is a heavy loss of 
fat. When salted, a clear brine should run from the curd. 
Few cheese-makers realize how important a step in the pro- 
cess of cheese making the salting of the curd is, and they salt 
all their curds according to some fixed rule, learned from their 
predecessors, without knowing what the salt does. 
166. Salt and Its Impurities. 
Salt is known to chemists by the name of sodium chloride. 
There are associated with sodium chloride as impurities in salt, 
potassium, calcium and magnesium chlorides, and sulphates of 
magnesia and lime. The presence of calcium and magnesium 
chlorides in salt makes it lumpy and damp, for these chlorides 
have a great attraction for water, and will absorb it from the 
air. Calcium chloride and magnesium chloride give the salt a 
bitter taste. 
These impurities, however, as well as the water contained 
in salt, are a very low percentage of the whole, and when a salt 
dealer talks about his salt being so much stronger or purer than 
any other high-grade salt, he has no regard for facts. Do not 
understand, that common barrel salt is just as good as the best 
salt for cheese making, for it is not. Common barrel salt con- 
tains a great deal of dirt, and salt may take up bad odors, which 
will be imparted to the cheese. 
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