CHEESE MAKING.

Southland Times, Issue 2675, 5 February 1877, Page 4

CHEESE MAKING.

as Bhoe-makiDK^-^a-j^ne mignt as well expect to succeed in making fine. boots Thy •ruleUaVd'aowj*. WAMW: pa^er WiWe as -^ cheese by 'suclr^directiofl^;- with no previous experience. I. will, however, give t_Je'_;irectid__ as clearly and minutely as I can. If more than one milking is to be _.*&_, as is generally the 'case in making family cheese, heat the last milking— the new warm milk, and not the old cold r_ilk, ; as is often done— hot' enough to raise the cold milk to a temperature of about 85 deg. The mode of heating mast be left to the operator, with the caution not to let it burn on to the bottom of the vessel in which it is heated. No matter how hot the new warm milk is heated ; it will not injure it for cheese-making to heat it to boiling heat.- It will, indeed, be all tbe better for a good scalding. This might not be the case in heating cold ■milk, and hence the propriety of heating the new. ' Skim the old milk, and put the cream into a muslin strainer and turn on . new milk, at about 100 deg., till the cream is all washed through. Do this after the cold milk has become warm, go that the crpam. after being warmed up, shall not get cool again. This slumming should, of course, be done before the milk is warmed. A wooden tub, something like a good new wash-tub, o f suitable size, is a good vessel to make the curd in, as heat will not radiate from its' sides and cool the milk like a metallic vessel. Supposing the milk to be in Huch a tub, and warmed to 85 deg., and the cream all washed through the strainer into the milk, and thoroughly mixed, it will now be ready for the application of rennet. Liquid rennet, which you can get of a druggist, or pepsine will do ; but the direct steepings of the dried stomach are preferred, and are very much cheaper. A rennet which will cost 20 cents will curdle the milk for 300 or 400 lbs. of cheese. Begin three or four days before-hand, and soak the rennet in two quarts of weak brine, stirring and rubbing it often, to get the strength soaked out before beginning to use it. In warm weather the brine should be strong, to keep the rennet from spoiling. Stir the contents of the rennet dish "every time before using, and use one part rennet to a thousand parts of milk, and mix well. Take a little of the milk from the tub after tbe rennet has been mixed with it, and warm it to 100 degrees, and note the time it takes to curdle. It will take four or five times as long for milk to curdle at 85 degrees/ as it will at 100. If, when warmed to 100 : it does not curdle in six or eight minutes, add rennet till it will. Then cover the tub closely with a cloth, bo that the top of the whey and enrd shall not get cooler than the rest, and let it stand till the curd becomes so hard that, in passing your hand through it, the curd will split open before your finger. Then move the cover and cut the curd into -|-inch cubes with as little friction as possible, and cover the tub so as to prevent cooling. When the curd has settled so that you can dipoffabulkqfwhey equal to 10 per cent, of tbe milk in tbe tub, do so, and heat the whey to 120 deg., and turn it back into the tub, stirring the curd co it will all warm alike. When you think the lumps of curds have become warmed through, heat another batch of whey a little hotter, and turn into the curd and stir as before, and so on till the whole mass is raised to 98 or 100 degrees. While the heating is going on, the curd must be kept from sticking together, and the finer it is kept the more readily and evenly will it heat, and the better will be the cheese. In breaking up the curd to keep it fine, and in stirring it to prevent it from sticking together, tbe manipulations should be carefully done, so as not to waste the richness of the milk. Tbe fatty part of the milk is, for the most part, mechanically held in the curd, and' if violence is done to the curd, especially while soft and tender, the cream runs out and runs off in the whey, and you get a skim milk cheese as effectually as if you had skim milk to begin with. As the curd grows harder, less and less stirring will be required to keep the lumps from adhering, till at length it may lie without Btirring|for some time. When it is not being stirred, keep tbe tub covered to prevent cooling. While the curd ia lying in the whey, at about 98 degrees, to ripen, try it occasionally by taking a little curd and pressing it in your fingers into an elongated lump, and apply one end to an iron surface which is hot enough to make water simmer. When tbe curd wiil adhere to the hot iron so as to draw out in strings or threads as you pull the curd from the iron, it is ripe enough to be taken from the whey and salted and put into the press. It will not be ripe enough for the press till the curd will stick to the hot iron, but it may be removed from tbe whey as soon as it will begin to adhere to the iron. As soon as the curd is ripe enough, dip ofl the whey and place the curd on a muslin strainer over a sieve or basket to drain and cool. When thoroughly drained salt at the rate of 2Jlb of salt for 1001 bof curd, as near as you can estimate, and mix evenly. Cool the curd to 75 deg. or 80 deg. and put to press. Before putting tbe curd into the hoop put a press cloth into the hoop which shall be large enough to reach above the top of the hoop, then fill in the curd, turn the edges of the press cloth over the curd, and lay on a " follower," and it is ready to go under the press. In calculating the size of a hoop necessary to hold the curd you expect to make, it may be some help to know that a pound of pTCRsed cheese measures about 25 cubic iDcb.es. The unpressed curd will of course take up some more space. Begin pressing moderately at first and increase the pressure gradually until it reaches about 50 pounds for each gquaro inch in the face of the follower. A screw makes a very convenient press for pressing small cheeses ; but if you do not happen to have a convenient press at hand, and would prefer not to secure one to start with a lever may be used for a temporary press. Not having a press at hand, I have this winter used a strong scantling, IG feet long. Fastening a stud on the side of a building perpendicularly, so that th> lower end should reecli to the deeired distance above the flcor, I placed one end of the scantling under the end of the stud, and used the cheese for a fulcrum, pressing down with the scantling as if to raise the building. The weight of the scantling was enough to begin with, and afterwards weights were added till tbe necessary power was obtained. Such a device may answer till you measure your skill at cheese-making, and then, if desired wore convenient arrange*

ments in_y be' made. After pressing till the curd is well stuck together, Bay .three to six hours, turn the cheese upside down in the press, taking off the press ;cloth and putting on another, and press ;firmly for about twelve hours longer ; then grease the surface to keep it from drying ;too fast and sticking and, if necessary, put a bandage round the outside to keep it from spreading, and place it where it will have a steady temperature ranging from seventy to seventy -five degrees, as near as may be, and turn and rub every day for a while, and then every other day, and in from four to six weeks you will have a cheese ripe enough to cut. The time required for a cheese to enre varies with the amount of rennet used in making it, and with the temperature of the room in which it is kept. It varies from ten days to six months or more. Dairymen now use double the quantity nf rennet they did ■fifteen years ago, and the time of ripen--1 ing has been reduced from three months :to about thirty days as an average for whole-milk cheese, Skim cheese requires | a much longer time.— Prof . L. B. Arnold.