3 88 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



December, 1906 



Cylindrical Cooler 



2 — Coagulation of the Milk 



How Soft French Cheeses are Made 



By Jacques Boyer 



ROBABLY as much cheese is made in France 

 || as in any other country, and French cheese 

 makers have succeeded in producing many 

 varieties of this article of diet, as a result of 

 competition and the endeavor to meet the 

 varying tastes of their fastidious customers, 

 who hold, with Brillat-Savarin, that "a dinner without cheese 

 is like a beautiful woman with only one eye." In this article 

 we shall confine our attention to the principal soft cheeses 

 which are marketed either in the fresh state or after under- 

 going the process of fermentation which is known as "ripen- 

 ing." 



In order to obtain so many sorts of cheese from the same 

 raw material — whole or partly skimmed milk — it is necessary 

 to subject the milk to various treatments, differing in the 

 temperature at which the curd is formed and the methods of 

 shaping and ripening. Suppose, then, that we visit an up-to- 

 date cheese factory and see what is done there. 



Usually the factory collects milk from the surrounding 

 country, either sending for it to the farms two or three times 

 a day or receiving it from the dairymen, who bring it to the 

 factory in tin cans containing about 20 quarts each. In sum- 

 mer, the milk is cooled immediately after its arrival at the 

 factory, as the microbes which spoil milk do not thrive at 

 low temperatures. The simplest method of cooling consists 

 in setting the cans in a tank of cold water, but special refrig- 

 erating devices are employed in large factories. These cool- 

 ers, which are of various forms, are so arranged that the milk 

 flows downward over the outside, while a current of cold 

 water moves in the opposite direction inside of the thin wall. 

 The cylindrical cooler, shown in Figure 1, has a spirally cor- 

 rugated surface of tinned copper and the water flows be- 

 tween this and an inner smooth cylinder of sheet iron. 



As the milk leaves the cooler it is caught in vessels which 

 are emptied into a great mixing vat in order to secure uni- 

 formity of the raw material. 



If the so-called "Swiss" or double cream cheese is to be 

 made, cream is added to the milk in proportions varying 

 from one-sixth to one-third of the total volume. The milk 

 and cream having been thoroughly mixed in a tinned iron 



vessel the curd is formed at a temperature of 59 or 61 de- 

 grees F., by the addition of rennet, a substance obtained 

 from the fourth stomach of young calves (Fig. 2). For 

 double cream cheese the rennet is diluted with water and the 

 formation of the curd occupies about twenty hours. In con- 

 sequence of the slowness of coagulation the curd is very rich 

 and creamy. Very little rennet is required — about one part 

 to 10,000 parts of milk. 



When tne coagulation is complete men lift the curd with 

 large tin ladles and lay it on clothes, which are then folded so 

 that they resemble oddly shaped pillows, laid in a row on a 

 draining table and covered with a board on which large iron 

 weights are placed in order to press out the whey (Fig. 3). 

 This draining process usually occupies fifteen hours. The 

 clothes, or bags, are then laid on a table and opened and the 

 curd is removed with small wooden scrapers. 



To give the paste the desired consistence, it is next kneaded, 

 either with the hands, or (with the addition of a little cream) 

 in machines with smooth rollers, one of which is shown in 

 operation in Fig. 4. The kneaded mass is collected in ves- 

 sels lined with cloth and paraffined paper, allowed to dry for 

 a time and then molded into the desired form. The mold 

 (Fig. 5) is composed of a number of small cylinders of tin, 

 open at both ends, and soldered to a tin plate. The mold 

 being set in a perforated board the molder lines the cylinders 

 with strips of paper, presses the mass into their open mouths 

 and then lifts the mold, leaving the little cheeses, wrapped in 

 paper, on the board. After they have drained sufficiently 

 they are packed and shipped. "Swiss" cheeses made in this 

 particular manner are called "Gervais" cheeses from the 

 name of the manufacturer who first made them at Ferrieres- 

 Gournay in the department of the lower Seine. 



"Bondons," "Malakoffs," and "Petits-Carres" (little 

 squares) are other varieties of "Swiss" cheese, produced by 

 a similar process, but of harder texture due to the greater 

 pressure to which the curd is subjected. 



But these double cream cheeses, which are sold chiefly in 

 summer and contain a large proportion of fatty matter, soon 

 become rancid. They may be preserved by applying two per 

 cent, of salt, with the hand or salt shaker. There are also 



