428 



Cold Curing of Cheese. 



[OCT., 



pensive to maintain than the lower temperature of 40 deg., while 

 the curing was found to take only one week longer than under the 

 old system, and at the same time the cheese developed a decided 

 flavour necessary for the export trade. Several of these houses 

 have been built, and cheese is collected from the makers nearly 

 every day. They appear to have given perfect satisfaction, and 

 cheese cured in these rooms was of a more uniform quality, 

 and the shrinkage much less than would be the case in curing 

 rooms with an uncontrolled temperature. 



Some very carefully conducted experiments have recently 

 been carried out by the Department of Agriculture with cheese 

 made in a factory under ordinary conditions. Fourteen cheeses 

 made from the same vat were selected daily on twenty-six 

 separate days. Two of each lot were allowed to ripen in the 

 factory curing room, two were placed at once in the 32 deg. 

 room, and two in the 40 deg. room ; two others were put in 

 in each room after being kept in the curing room for one week, 

 and two in each room after keeping for two weeks. The period 

 of making extended from June 19th to August 24th, and the 

 judging by three separate judges was done on January 6th. 

 The average marks were as follows : — 



System of Curing. 



Low rennet. 



High rennet. 



In 32 deg. 



room (fresh) 



95 "o 



94 '4 



40 „ 





94-3 



92-3 



32 V 



,, (after one week) ... 



93-8 



93'4 



5> 40 „ 





90 0 



90-3 



„ 32 „ 



,, (after two weeks) ... 



93 "o 



gi-6 



40 „ 



,, ,, 



90-0 



90 9 



Some of the cheese was made with a normal amount of 3 oz. 

 of rennet to 1,000 lb. of milk, and some with double this amount, 

 it having been shown that an increased quantity of rennet 

 hastens the process of ripening. On the whole, it will be seen 

 that the best result was obtained by placing the cheese direct 

 into cold storage, while there was very little difference between 

 the results where it was kept for one or two weeks first. 



The greatest beneficial influence of cold curing appears to be 

 with what would otherwise be poor cheese ; for instance, taints 

 which appeared in several lots of cheese not stored for one or 



