i9 io.] Brie, Pont l'Eveque and other Soft Cheese. 455 



appear to think that any sort of cream is good enough with 

 which to make cream cheeses, but this is a mistake. If 

 the cheeses are properly made with the best cream, no more 

 profitable branch of dairying exists than the manufacture of 

 cream cheeses. 



Cream intended for cheese-making should be perfectly 

 fresh and sweet to commence with, and any ripening 

 necessary should be undertaken before the cream is placed 

 to drain. The old method of draining the cream by hanging 

 up in a bag or cloth for two or more days is a mistake, as 

 by the time the cream has drained sufficiently it has assumed 

 a bad flavour, which is reproduced in the cheese. In judging 

 the cream-cheese classes at shows it is found that the flavour 

 is at fault in 90 per cent, of the exhibits, and this is almost 

 always due to the protracted period of drainage. 



In general, two varieties of cream cheeses are manufac- 

 tured — the one known as double-cream, from cream contain- 

 ing about 50 per cent, of fat, and the other from thin cream 

 which is thickened with rennet before drainage takes place. 



If it is required to make the sweet variety of cream cheese, 

 the cream is drained after standing twelve hours, but if a 

 certain amount of ripening is desired, then a small quantity 

 of starter (usually about half a pint to each gallon) is strained 

 into the cream immediately the temperature has been reduced 

 to 6o° F. 



This starter may be either a pure culture of lactic acid 

 bacteria, such as is used by most cheese-makers, or it may 

 be a little clean soured milk. 



Double-Cream Cheese. — A really good method of making 

 double-cream cheese may be described as follows : — 



The cream is taken off thick, and if pasteurised will be so 

 much the better. It is then cooled in cold running water 

 till the temperature is down below 6o° F., and is allowed to 

 stand at this temperature for twelve hours.* 



The cream is drained in fine linen or longcloth spread over 

 a wooden form, and this form is provided with a loose board 

 which can be weighted when necessary to press out the super- 

 fluous moisture. 



* Thick cream cooled over a refrigerator does not make good cheeses, the product 

 tending to be coarse and open in texture. The proper method is to cool the cream 

 m pails in cold running water. An interval of twelve hours between separation and 

 drainage is necessary as this develops the flavour and assists in after-drainage. 



