Cheese Experiments. 
171 
4. The whole milk may be skimmed, and made into skim- 
milk cheese ; the cream from the skimmed milk be added to 
new milk, and made into extra rich cheese. 
The question is, which of these four modes gives the best 
money return. Such a purely practical question can be tested 
satisfactorily in one way only, that is by actual trials. I therefore 
gladly availed myself of the kindness of my friend Mr. Thomas 
Proctor, who most liberally placed his dairy at my command, 
that I might institute a series of experiments calculated to further 
the solution of this inquiry. I am, likewise, much indebted to 
Mr. Tanner for the practical assistance which he rendered me 
by superintending the experiments, which were made on a suf- 
ficiently large scale to furnish reliable data. 
For each experimental cheese an equal quantity of milk was 
used, consisting of 130 quarts of evening milk and 130 quarts 
of morning milk. The first experimental cheese was made on 
the 11th of August, 1860 ; the others on the following days. 
In Mr. Proctor's dairy at Wall's Court (now in the occupation 
of Mr. Richard Stratton) cheese is made in the Cheddar fashion. 
In making the different experimental cheeses, the same general 
process was adopted, being that usually employed in this dairy. 
Immediately after the morning milking, the evening and 
morning milks were put together into a Cockey's tin tub, having 
a jacketed bottom for the admission of steam or cold water. 
The temperature of the whole was slowly raised to 80°, by 
admitting steam into the jacketed bottom. No annatto was used 
for colouring ; after the addition of the necessary quantity of 
rennet, the tub was covered with a cloth and left for an hour. 
Rennet, it may be remarked, when properly prepared and 
added in sufficient quantity, should perfectly coagulate milk 
at 80° in from three-quarters of an hour to one hour. If the 
milk fail to be coagulated within the hour, the curd produced 
will be too tender, and not easily separated from the whey with- 
out loss of butter and inj ury to the quality of the cheese. These 
results invariably follow when the rennet is not sufficiently 
strong, or too little of it is employed. 
On the other hand, if the curd is completely separated from 
milk at 80' Fahrenheit in twenty to twenty-five minutes, the 
cheese produced is apt to be sour or hard. An excess of rennet 
always has the effect of separating the curd from the milk too 
rapidly, and in a hard condition. 
As much depends upon the strength of the rennet, it is useful 
in daily practice to prepare a large quantity at a time, and to 
ascertain by a few trials the proper amount for mixing with a 
