T9o6.] Cream and Soft Cheese Making. 



215 



and then placed in a fine-textured linen cloth, previously 

 rendered sweet and clean by thorough scalding with boiling 

 water. Sweet shallow-pan cream may of course be used, and is. 

 treated in a similar manner. The cloth is best laid in a basin,, 

 and the cream poured into it, then the four corners are taken 

 and tied together, so that the cloth resembles a bag containing 

 the cream. It is better not to put more than i gallon of cream- 

 in the cloth, as drainage is not easy with more than this quantity, 

 and the cheese is apt to become too sour. The bag of cream 

 should be hung up in a cool dry place to drain. Three times 

 a day the cloth ought to be opened out and the sides scraped 

 to remove the stiffened cream in order to facilitate drainage. 

 At the second scraping down the cream should be transferred 

 into a fresh cloth. It is sufficient if the cloth is changed once 

 only, though if done more frequently rather better results are 

 obtained. The cream will be sufficiently drained in about two 

 days, but the process may be accelerated by opening out the 

 cloth and scraping down frequently, and by placing a small 

 weighted board on the cloth containing the cheese. When the 

 cheese becomes of a stiff pasty consistency it should be emptied 

 out of the cloth, and a small quantity of fine salt mixed with it 

 preparatory to moulding ; this will bring out the flavour and 

 assist the keeping properties of the cheese. It is customary 

 in some cases to salt the cream, instead of the actual cheese. 

 The cheeses are turned out in square, oblong, round, heart-shaped, 

 and other forms, according to the type of mould used. The)^ 

 may either be done up in grease-proof paper and placed in 

 small cardboard boxes, or the curd may be done up in butter 

 muslin and afterwards wrapped in grease-proof paper, in which 

 case no box is necessary. The cheese sold retail at sixpence 

 is usually of about four ounces weight, and a gallon of rich cream 

 should make about sixteen cheeses. 



Ordinary Cream Cheese. — This is prepared from thin cream 

 taken from the separator at the rate of 12 per cent, or from- 

 cream to which milk has been added. It should be cooled 

 to 60 deg. or 65 deg. F., and i c.c. of rennet added to each 

 \ gallon of cream. It should be allowed to stand for about 

 twelve hours to thicken, and then ladled into cloths and treated 

 in a similar manner to double cream cheese. This variety of 



