INVESTIGATIONS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND CURING 
OF CHEESE. 
THE COLD CURING OF AMERICAN CHEESE. 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
There is a general opinion of long standing that it is necessary for 
cheese to go through a ripening or breaking-down process before it is 
fit for human food. The green cheese as it comes from the press has a 
consistency much like that of india rubber and feels somewhat like 
that substance to the touch. In addition there are certain physiolog- 
ical effects popularly supposed to follow the eating of green curd as it 
comes from the vat, and this supposition has grown into a belief on the 
part of both scientist and layman that the green cheese is partially if 
not almost wholly indigestible. These opinions, which will very 
likely be shown to have little foundation in fact, made it seem desir- 
able that the cheese should go through a ripening or breaking-down 
process before it reached the hands of the retail dealer and consumer. 
But it is not the purpose in this bulletin to go into any discussion of 
the changes that occur during this ripening period; they are very 
complicated, are probably due to a number of disputed causes, and 
are evidently not thoroughly understood by scientists in general. 
The outward evidence that this ripening has progressed to a sup- 
posedly sufficient extent is a change in the physical condition of the 
cheese, in which the curd loses its elastic consistency and becomes 
friable and waxy to the touch and somewhat soluble in water. During 
this process, when carried through under old factory conditions, there 
is also a decided change in the flavor. The flat and insipid taste of 
the green curd disappears, and the product acquires a characteristic 
cheesy flavor, which becomes strong and sharp as the ripening 
progresses. 
As will be discussed in greater detail later, a decided change has 
evidently taken place in the tastes and desires of the consumer along 
this line. The market is progressing toward a milder cheese, and this 
change has evidently come with the new ideas in regard to curing. 
Under the old system of warm curing rooms the consumer had very 
little chance to become acquainted with anything but a product well 
broken down in texture and highly developed in flavor. While it is 
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