50 
Composition of Cheese. 
as variable as those of other mortals, the temperature of the milk 
when it is " set " (that is, when the rennet is added) is often 
either too high or too low. They mostly profess to know the 
temperature of the milk to a nicety, !vnd feel almost insulted if 
you tell them that much less reliance can be placed on the indi- 
cations of ever so experienced a hand than upon an instrument 
Avhich contracts and expands according to a fixed law, unin- 
fluenced by the many disturbing causes to which a living body is 
necessarily subject. 
It is really amusing to see the animosity with which some 
people look upon the thermometer. It is true there are not many 
dairies in which it may not be found ; but if we took pains to 
ascertain in how many of these it is in constant use, I Ijelieve 
that the proportion would not exceed 5 per cent. This is a great 
pity, for a tolerably good one can be now bought or replaced at 
a trifling cost. 
I have spoken frankly but unfavourably of the acidometer. 
With equal frankness 1 express my regret that the use of the 
thermometer is not more general, as I believe it is indispensable 
for obtaining a uniformly good product. 
If the temperature of the milk, when the rennet is added, 
is too low, the curd remains too soft, and much difficulty is 
experienced in separating the whey. If, on the other hand, 
the temperature is too high, the separation is easily effected, 
but the curd becomes hard and dry. The amount of water, 
which is left in the curd when it is ready to go into the cheese- 
presses, to some extent indicates whether a proper temperature 
has been employed. When this has been too low, the curd will 
contain more than 50 per cent, of moisture ; when too high, 
sometimes less than 36 per cent. How variable is this propor- 
tion of water (chiefly due to the whey left in the curd) will 
appear from the following determinations made in the same dairy 
on four following days : — 
Amount of wafer in Curd ichen reculy to go into the vat. 
Percentage of water in 1st Cheese 41'53 
„ „ 2nd Cheese 41-49 
„ „ 3rd Cheese 38-20 
„ ,, 4th Cheese 35-80 
In this dairy the thermometer was not in daily use, and the 
heat employed in making the fourth cheese was evidently too 
high, for in good Cheddar when ready for sale the amount 
of moisture is hardly less than in this curd when put into the 
vat. The cheese from these four specimens of curd was made 
according to the Cheddar system. Five other specimens gave 
the following proportions of water : — 
