82 CHEESE MAKING. 
ever, in this way. If the curing room is cool enough to permit 
of it, salting the curd a little earlier will prevent this loss. 
PRESSING THE CHEESE. 
175. Curd Must Not be Too Warm or Too Cold. 
Before pressing, the curd should be cooled to between 
eighty and eighty-five degrees. If put to press warmer, the fat 
runs, and large quantities of it are lost. It also runs between 
the pieces of curd so that they will not close together, and under 
Fig. 40.—Students pressing cheese. 
the bandage, preventing it from sticking to the cheese. Poorly 
closed cheese has often been attributed to the curd mill, when 
the trouble really lay in the temperature at which the cheese 
was put to press. 
When the curd is much below 80°, it will not close together, 
but there is a happy medium which varies according to the tem- 
perature of the press room. If the room is cold, the curd will 
cool down. <A cheese-maker must have some brains in his head, 
and use them, for he is more than a mere machine to be wound 
up and run down. <A proper temperature for the press room is 
about 70° F. 
