Oil Lard Cheese. 
225 
curing. Hence a " blue skim cheese " generally turned out 
hard and dry, and was appropriately named " white oak 
cheese." Some years ago I pointed out this circumstance in 
discussing the office of fat in milk for the purpose of cheese- 
making. A good rich cheese contains, when mature or ready 
for eating, about 33 per cent, of moisture, and this moisture 
must be so minutely distributed through the parts — so assi- 
milated — as not to be recognised as moisture when a bit of 
cheese is mashed under the finger, but rather to give the im- 
pression that the goods are stocky, or rich in butter. 
By the term "blue skimmed milk" is meant milk that has 
yielded all the butter-fat that can be obtained from it in the 
usual process of setting. In the manufacture of artificial 
cream from lard and skim milk, to mix with the mass of skim 
milk and buttermilk in the vat, it is found, if the butter from 
the original milk has not been thoroughly removed, that the 
lard-fat and the butter-fat do not mix well together ; hence, 
to get a perfect emulsion of lard, the best results are obtained 
in working with a blue skimmed milk. 
In making the " lard cream " to be added to the skimmed 
milk, a machine ingeniously constructed is employed. It may 
be briefly described as a cylinder, 6 inches in diameter and 
20 inches long, having 50,000 points cut upon its surface, and 
arranged in spiral courses. This cylinder is enclosed in a shell 
fitting closely. It stands perpendicularly in a frame, with 
shafting and pulley at the bottom connected with the engine, 
and is made to revolve at the rate of 2500 to 3000 revolutions 
per minute. Two tin cans, with faucets, stand on the top of 
the machine, the one for the melted lard and the other for the 
skimmed milk. The faucets are arranged so as to convey 
the contents of the cans at one point together into the machine. 
The lard and milk are heated to a temperature of 130°, when the 
cylinder is set in motion and the faucets are opened, allowing the 
milk and lard — in the proportion of two parts of the former to one 
of the latter — to flow into the machine. The rapid revolution of 
this cylinder, the surface of which is set with thousands of small 
points, causes the lard to be divided into minute globules, which 
are encased or surrounded with the casein of the milk, making 
a perfect emulsion, similar to the butter globules in the original 
milk. Thus the lard and milk being united form a thin cream, 
which flows from the machine into large tin pails or cans, and 
is immediately mingled with the skimmed milk in the vat. 
The milk is set at a temperature of about 90° Fahr., Hansen's 
extract of rennet being used at the rate of 3J to 4 ounces ex- 
tract for 1000 lbs. of milk. It is preferred to have coagulation 
take place in about ten minutes, and the top of the mass is 
VOL. XVIII.— S. S. Q 
