1910.] Camembert and Other Soft Cheeses. 377 



than half-way down the hoop and firm enough to admit of 

 turning. The turning of the cheeses is rather a delicate opera- 

 tion, and requires much practice before it can be skilfully 

 performed. The maker, deftly putting his left hand under 

 the cheese without removing the hoop, inverts the whole, 

 steadying the cheese meanwhile with his right hand and 

 placing it face downwards upon a fresh straw mat. The up- 

 turned surface of the cheese should present an unbroken 

 grooved appearance due to the straw upon which it has been 

 resting. Sometimes the cheeses settle too rapidly. This is 

 due to the milk being out of condition — a little sour, perhaps, 

 or the making room may have been kept at too high a tem- 

 perature. At other times the cheeses fail to drain or settle 

 sufficiently ; when this is the case the temperature has 

 usually been too low at renneting, or the temperature 

 of the room may have been too low. Cheeses which 

 drain slowly are usually fermented and spongy, the 

 excess of moisture setting up abnormal fermentation. Such 

 cheeses are never good. They are nearly always slimy 

 on the outside, and a slimy cheese will never mould or ripen 

 properly. 



The salting of the cheese takes place when the curd 

 has shrunk a little from the sides of the hoops, and 

 the upper and older surface is salted first with fine 

 dry salt spread evenly, about J oz. being used for each 

 cheese. After thus salting the upper face only, the cheeses 

 are left for six to eight hours in the hoops, when the second 

 salting takes place. The hoops are removed, the cheeses 

 turned and held in the palm of the left hand, salt being 

 applied to the new upper surface and to the sides, the latter 

 being rubbed heavily with salt. The cheeses should then be 

 placed on sparred shelves in the making room and turned 

 twice daily. When they begin to show the growth 

 of a fine white, rather pilose or hairy mould, evenly 

 distributed, they are removed to the drying room. Up to 

 this stage all the processes have been carried out in the 

 making room. 



The drying room is an apartment with preferably a 

 northern aspect, and so constructed as regards ventilation 

 that currents of air can be directed upon the cheeses in all 



