376 MANUAL OF MILK PRODUCTS 



Protection against insects. 



A very important item is that of protecting the cheese against 

 flies and other injurious insects. The outer doorways, the 

 windows, and every other possible opening should be carefully 

 guarded by screens with as fine a mesh as can be procured, 

 as the smallest flies produce the most trouble. If this is not 

 carefully attended to, the cheeses are sure to become infested 

 with fly maggots. In the ripening rooms protection against 

 these insects can be secured to a considerable extent by keeping 

 the rooms dark, for flies will not readily breed and multiply in 

 a dark place. 



The making of the cheese 

 The milk. 



The milk used in making Camembert cheese should be of the 

 best quality — that is, clean and fresh. Two quarts of milk are 

 required for each cheese. 

 Ripening the milk. 



The milk is poured into the vat and by the aid of water and 

 steam is heated to 85° F., this being the temperature best suited 

 for the growth of the lactic bacteria. A starter is added, the 

 amount depending on its strength and capacity for developing 

 lactic acid, usually 3 quarts of a medium starter for every 100 lb. 

 of milk. After adding the starter the milk is allowed to stand 

 until the desired degree of acidity is reached. 



This method of ripening the milk before setting is not the 

 rule in France, where they generally set the milk at a very low 

 degree of acidity without any attempt at previous ripening of 

 the milk. The acid, however, develops later in the curd while 

 the cheese is draining. In our experience serious trouble from 

 gas has been avoided by ripening the milk before setting. Es- 

 pecially during the hot weather it is advisable to use a higher 

 degree of acidity. The percentage of acidity used by us is 

 rather high (about 0.35 per cent). This is, however, partly 

 because of the low temperature of the room in which our experi- 



