186 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Mar., 1899. 
It is perhaps the pressure to which a cheese is subjected which has the 
most effect in inducing the close compact texture of a finished cheese, but the 
curd which will eventually become softened into cheese, simply because, as one 
might say, it cannot help itself, relies in a great measure on the surrounding 
conditions for the acquirement of the finishing stroke—quality. 
ACTION OF ACIDITY. 
It is well known that a cheese in which some considerable amount of lactic 
acid is present, will ripen in a comparatively shorter time than if there is a 
deficiency in this respect, and it is so whether the cheese is one which depends 
for its alteration either on the action of moulds, or bacteria, or as is usually 
the case, on both. 
In early spring it is difficult to get a proper condition of acidity in the 
curd, and to this is in some part ascribed the dry, flayourless character of many 
spring-made cheeses. 
The fermentation which begins as soon as, or even before, the cheese 
leaves the press, depends in the first stage on this acidity, and in those cheeses 
which rely for their ripening on the action and growth of moulds, the whole © 
process is dependent to a much greater extent on the early acquirement of 
acidity than in the case of cheese of a closer texture. 
The great point is tv secure the necessary condition of acidity in the milk 
before renneting, as although the fresher the milk the heavier yield of curd, — 
yet the time of ripening is correspondingly prolonged. 
Skim milk intended for the manufacture of cheese requires the develop- 
ment of a greater degree of acidity than with whole milk, as the loss of fat is 
found in practice to considerably retard the ripening process. It may be as 
well here to indicate that the following practices tend to further the develop- 
ment of acidity in the curd :— 
1. Addition of a “starter” shortly before renneting. 
2. Coarse cutting of the curd and prolonging the time between 
- “cutting” and the withdrawal of the whey. 
3. Vatting the curd while still heavily charged with whey. 
4, Applying a comparatively light pressure in the press. 
DEVELOPMENT OF CHEESE MOULDS. 
These little organisms, which are classed among the very lowest orders of 
living plants, originate in cheese by reason of the fact that their spores, or to 
make the term more expressive we may call them ‘ seeds,” are at all times to 
be found floating in the atmosphere, and naturally find access to all parts of 
the dairy, when under favourable conditions of warmth, moisture, air, and food 
supply, coupled with acidity, they deyelop and grow to an appreciable extent. 
The fungus spores becoming entangled in the curd of a cheese, which by 
its making, condition, and after-treatment favours their growth, develop by 
producing numbers of minute filaments, which, spreading throughout the 
interstices of the loosely adhering curd of an unpressed or lightly pressed 
cheese, give it the appearance of being “ blue-veined,’”? and in many varieties 
both of British and foreign cheeses contribute not a little to the flavour and 
texture of the same. 
During their growth the moulds help to change the character of the cheese 
in a most noticeable way by reducing both directly and indirectly the amount 
of acidity present, and it is supposed that when a condition of neutrality exists 
in the cheese the work of ripening is completed by that other class of low 
organisms, bacteria. In Brie cheese (a variety of Normandy) a red mould 
makes its appearance so soon as the excess of acid is consumed by the earlier 
working fungi. The cheese mould most generally known in the dairy is 
Penicillium Eee a blue fungus. There are also, peculiar to certain varieties 
of cheese, white and red moulds. 
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