424 
The Practice of Cheddar Cheese Making. 
curd does not liarden sufficiently fast, and the temperature falls 
quickly, it would be well to add more hot whey, so as to retain 
the heat at 100°. The curd now rests thirty minutes (or, if 
it is sufficiently acid, a shorter period will do), when all the 
whey is let off, and the curd piled as high as possible in the 
centre of the tub. Carefully wash down all crumbs, strain, and 
place them on the top of the mound. Cover and keep it warm 
with cloths until it has become sufficiently solid to cut into large 
pieces which can be turned over without breaking. 
When this has been done, the whole should be again piled and 
kept covered for thirty minutes longer, as before. After this, it is 
removed to the curd-cooler, cut into smaller pieces, and again 
piled and covered for thirty minutes, which cutting, changing, 
piling, and covering is continued until the curd presents a 
rich, dry, mellow, solid appearance, and a perceptible amount 
of acidity has been developed, which is easily ascertained by 
taste and smell. It is now ground, and should be a ragged 
solid curd, dry, but greasy, and if several pieces are pressed 
together by the hand the fragments would easily fall apart. 
Use fine clean dry salt at the rate of 2j lbs. per 112 
lbs. of curd, great pains being taken to thoroughly mix 
it. At this point the temperature of the curd should not be 
below 70°, and it should be put into the vat or mould, lined 
with a thin cloth large enough to cover the cheese, placed in 
the press, where it has a pressure of about 20 cwt., and allowed 
to remain until the next morning, when the cloth is changed, 
the position of the cheese inverted, and replaced in the press 
until the following morning. A little fat rubbed over it softens 
the surface, and is useful in preventing cracks. A square piece 
of muslin should be placed on its top and bottom, and the sides 
also completely covered with the same material, of sufficient width 
to draw over the squares 1^ inch, to which it should be neatly 
sewn. Replace the cheese in the press, where it must remain two 
days longer. It should then be stoutly bandaged and removed 
to the warm cheese-room, whence, after being turned daily for 
six weeks, it is taken to the cooler room, and turned every other 
day until three months old, after which, tui'ning once every 
four or five days is sufficient. Much trouble and damage to the 
cheese is saved by the use of vats which open with a key, as 
made by Brown, of Sheptoa Mallet, Somerset. 
That the manufacture of fine cheese in home dairies can and 
may be carried out by these methods is evidenced by the fact 
that the gold medal at one of the Paris Exhibitions was awarded 
for cheeses thus made, also the highest prizes at the Amsterdam 
International Show. And at the great Dairy Show of 1878 at 
