HINTS ON CHEESE-MAKING TEXT

we see one of these tin tubes ten or fifteen feet long. It is impossible to keep such a thing clean. A peep into this, or shorter ones, will show that they are not kept clean. Take as much pains as the hands may to clean them with a swab on a long stick, they will soon get coated over inside by the milk drying on; and, unless extra pains is taken, they will be lined with a beautiful coating of green and gold! They are used at night, and, unless the weather is very bad--and many pay no attention to the weather--they are allowed to stand over night where used, ready for the next morning. The milk and cream get dried on the inside surface, and nobody has the time, if the disposition, to soak it off. Further, tin conductors will get dents in them. The milk will collect and dry in the angles made by these dents. How, in the name of common sense, can any one get at them to clean them, in a tube ten or even four feet long? It is an impossibility. The milk collects, from day to day, until the conductor is full of foul ferments, through which all the milk of the factory is run and tainted. It is no fault of the cheese-maker, because he can't help it, if he employs a hand constantly on these abominable tubes. He may use a swab with strong ley, or salt and water, or both, and run hot water through the tubes till the patrons begin to come with their milk, but the "damned spots" will not "out." Of course, he will somewhat neutralize their active properties as ferments, but he does not altogether get rid of them. The only way in which he can do it, is to pitch the nasty things out of the window. If conductors must be used--and their use seems to be a foregone conclusion--let them be made in the form of open spouts. A foot or so next to the head, is all the tube that is needed--and this should be large enough to readily admit the hand for the purpose of washing. The rest should be an open spout, which can be easily and speedily cleaned and scalded. Many owners of factories, however, are too penurious to spend a few dollars in order to get rid of this nuisance of long tin conductors. They would rather lose--or, at least, run the risk of losing--five hundred dollars on the sale of their cheese, than spend five dollars for the purpose of avoiding this fruitful source of taint. If the cheese is poor, the blame can be laid on the cheese-maker; or, if the taint is too manifest in the vat of milk or curd, it can be charged upon the carelessness of the patrons. There is another source of trouble, which lies entirely with the cheese-maker, or with the hands under him whom he trusts. This is the strainer. In cool weather, perhaps there will be no difficulty, if the strainer is properly washed, scalded and dried each morning after the milk is all in. But in hot weather, especially if the atmosphere is damp and steamy, if a strainer is left over night without rinsing, it is sure to sour. Yet, the strainer, like the conductor, is often left at night just as used, ready for the reception of the next morning's milk. Both are likely to be sour. The milk in the vat is "old," especially next the cream, which acts as an air-tight covering. Now, run hot milk through the sour can, conductor and strainer, into this mess of changed milk, and any one, with even but a modicum of brains, can see what is likely to be the consequence. It will be a batch of sour, leaky cheese. Where an agitator is used, the trouble of milk souring or tainting beneath an air-tight covering of cream, is obviated. Washing cans, conductors and strainers at night, gets rid of the difficulty from these sources--that is, as far as the can and strainer are concerned, and partially as regards the conductor. A thorough rinsing in cold water, immediately after the last mess is run in, will be found to answer the purpose. It is usually late, and there is no hot water for regular washing and scalding. But a few moments' work will complete the rinsing in cold water, and this will not be found a very hard task for even the jaded hands of a cheese-factory. During all the hot weather, this should be strictly attended to. It will pay in a double sense--it will prevent sourness, and make the can, conductor and strainer easier to wash the next day. The old-fashioned thermometer is also a source of annoyance, if care is not taken in cleaning it. It will fill up with ferments between the face and back, in an astonishingly short space of time, during hot weather. In short, there is no way of keeping it perfectly clean, except by slipping the thermometer out of the back or case, and carefully washing and scalding it--and in doing this, it is exceedingly liable to get broken. We are therefore glad to notice the introduction of a new thermometer for dairy purposes. It is simply constructed, plain, easy to clean, and no more expensive than the common kind now in use. Those in need of thermometers will find this style much better adapted to their uses. The glass is fastened to a plain plate of metal, the two edges of which are bent forward to give it the requisite stiffness. Of course, agitators, dippers, rakes, &c., need to be carefully cleaned. But we have before spoken of the importance of the most scrupulous attention to cleanliness throughout, on the part of the cheese-maker as well as of the patron. Cleanliness is an indispensable virtue in all departments of dairying. CHAPTER X. COLOR. One would hardly think of associating cheese-making with the fine arts; yet, in what other light can we view the subject of color? It adds nothing to the quality of the cheese, but rather detracts from it. It is expensive and troublesome, and grows more so every year, as the demand for annotto runs up the price and leads to adulteration. But as long as we make cheese for a foreign market, we must adapt our goods to the tastes of that market, whether they be physical or mental. Our home market would, perhaps, not suffer from the omission of color; but the English market demands, to a large extent, highly-colored cheese. The Liverpool market will take a small quantity of pale cheese, but it does not equal more than one-fifth of the demand of the English market. A few factories, which sell exclusively to buyers who supply the Liverpool demand for pale cheese, may safely omit the color; but all which depend on the general market cannot safely do so. The London market specially demands a high color, and it is no less exacting now than it has been heretofore. The cry of buyers generally is, "Keep up the color!" The exceptions to this are few, and are confined to those who have special orders for pale cheese to supply the demand above indicated. The English consumer acquired his taste for golden-hued cheese before the American make found any considerable market abroad--indeed, before we had much cheese to sell. The first object in coloring seems to have been to give a rich butter color. In this way, cheese was made to appear rich whether it really was so or not. But the shade has been considerably intensified and the English eye is best pleased with the color produced by the use of prime annotto, with which it has become familiar. This may be a prejudice, but it is a comparatively harmless one; and since our customer is willing to pay for it, there seems to be no good reason why it should not be gratified. It is for our interest to please the eye as well as the appetite of so large a buyer of our products as England. She wants about four-fifths of her cheese highly but nicely colored. The complaint among buyers generally is, that color is too low. In reply to suggestions about the fact, makers often say that they never used more coloring, but it does not produce the desired effect. They have paid a high price for what was supposed to be prime annotto, but it proves to be extensively adulterated, and therefore weak. This is not the complaint of all, but of many. Some have adopted the use of prepared annotto, and find it cheaper and more satisfactory. When prime annotto could readily be had, it was cheaper to buy the basket and prepare it themselves. But now, one poor basket, during a season, imposes a loss greater than the difference in price between the prepared and the unprepared. There is another evil about the use of poor annotto. It is not only expensive and does not give the desired color, but what color it does give fades out with age, and leaves the cheese with a cloudy, mottled appearance, which is very offensive to the eye of our best customers. Again, where poor annotto is bought in the basket and prepared at the factory, it contains a large amount of sediment, and this sediment, often containing deleterious substances, too frequently gets into the cheese. The liquid is not properly settled and racked off. This affords another argument in favor of buying prepared annotto, which, if properly put up, is free from sediment. Those who prefer to buy the basket annotto and prepare it themselves, should buy only on the warrant of the dealer that it is what it is recommended to be. The dealer should test a sample of his annotto, before offering it for sale, and know precisely what he is selling. Buyers by thus purchasing only of well-known dealers, who sell upon honor, will discourage rascality. This is the only method we see for keeping the spurious article out of market, and securing satisfactory results in coloring. We would suggest to those who prepare their own annotto, that they use concentrated ley or potash. By doing so, they will secure just as good a shade as they can by using ley from wood-ashes, and not only save the trouble of bothering with a leach, but secure uniform strength. Two leaches will seldom turn out ley of the same strength. Sometimes it will be strong and satisfactory. But if you happen to get a lot of soft wood ashes in your leach, the ley will be weak, imperfectly dissolve the annotto, and materially injure the liquid. In fact, it is difficult to get your coloring twice alike by the use of a common leach. But with concentrated ley or potash, the same quantities or proportions of materials, mixed in the same way, will produce the same result. You can therefore keep your color even, and will not be called upon to experiment and change your hand every time you prepare a new batch of annotto. The difference in expense will be trifling, and rather in favor of the use of potash, if time and trouble are counted of any value. The prepared annotto ought to be kept in a stone jar, as the ley operates injuriously upon wood, and is liable to leave a tub in a leaky condition as the liquid is used out and the tub dries. Where annotto is purchased already prepared, of course it comes in vessels suitable to keep it in; but when prepared at the factory, a receptacle has to be provided, and nothing is better than stone or earthen-ware. In hot weather, the liquid is liable to smell badly from the action of the heat on it. A little salt stirred in will be found useful as a preventive against this. It is not necessary to discuss at length the question of the effect of coloring on the quality of the cheese. The introduction of a strong alkaline preparation cannot be without some effect; and when that happens to be adulterated with some vile substance, the effect cannot be otherwise than injurious. The annotto itself is generally conceded to be harmless; and the ley is, at most, but a neutralizer of the lactic acid, but the quantity is not sufficient, perhaps, to produce any perceptible result. At all events, color is demanded; annotto, prepared with ley or potash, is the accepted material; so we have only to color with annotto to suit the taste of our customer. We are assured that nicely colored cheese will bring from a cent to a cent and a half a pound more than the same quality of cheese will bring when pale. Buyers in some instances advise the making of pale cheese because they have a special order for it; but they usually expect to get it a little under the highest market quotations, and factorymen who allow themselves to drop the color on the advice of an interested buyer, because it is easy and costs nothing directly to do so, run the risk of being caught and of losing a great deal more than they can save by omitting the coloring. We never heard of a lot of cheese being condemned because it was too nicely colored; but we frequently hear of complaints and losses because cheese is too pale. The chances are at least four to one in favor of high-colored cheese; and even the fifth chance is not positively against color, though the other four are strongly against _lack_ of color. He who wishes to have the widest range of markets, and to command the best markets, must pay strict attention to color--not only must he color, but color well and evenly. We have an objection to color, for reasons satisfactory to ourselves; and buyers can have no interest in inducing makers to color their cheese, beyond the fact that it makes it more marketable--and in this, patrons and factorymen have a much greater interest than dealers can have. The market demands a rich, even color, and will not be satisfied without it. We say, therefore, _as a matter of dollars and cents_--not of taste, choice or convenience--_keep up the color_. We will give two recipes for preparing annotto: 1. To five pounds of prime annotto put five gallons of strong ley, made from wood ashes; gradually heat up and dissolve the annotto, care being taken to not scorch it on the bottom of the kettle. Of course thorough stirring is essential. When the annotto is all dissolved, add five pounds of sal soda and five gallons of soft water. Then gently boil the whole for twenty or thirty minutes. This makes about ten gallons of prepared coloring. If boiled away to less, add sufficient ley and soft water, in equal quantities, to make that amount. Some omit the sal soda; but it is generally believed that it not only adds strength to the preparation, but improves the color by giving it more of a rich, buttery hue, instead of a red. The whole, when sufficiently cooled to handle safely, should be set in a tub, with a faucet two or three inches from the bottom, to settle. When settled, it can be drawn off, and is ready for use. 2. Mix in the proportion of five quarts of water to half a pound of concentrated ley, and one pound of prime annotto. First dissolve the ley in the water, by heating and stirring, and then add the annotto, and dissolve it. Boil gently for half an hour. Care, as with the other preparation, should be taken not to burn it. Settle and rack off. Then your liquid is ready for use. The second recipe is the one most used, and is easiest to prepare, as it avoids the labor, perplexity and risk of making the ley, which may not always be of the desired strength, as the ashes may not be the same. But if ashes are used, hot water is best to leech through them. A quart of salt to ten gallons of preparation will improve its keeping qualities. CHAPTER XI. RENNET. An indispensable requisite in making cheese is good rennet. Nothing else will answer the purpose. Different substitutes have from time to time been tried, but all have met with indifferent success, or absolutely failed. Acids will produce coagulation, but they spoil the quality of the cheese. It was once supposed that the gastric juice of the calve's stomach was acid, and produced coagulation by souring. But it has been demonstrated that good curd can be produced from sweet new milk, by the use of rennet, without the development of acid in either the curd or the whey. How or why the principle obtained by soaking the calve's stomach produces coagulation has not yet been discovered. What the principle _is_, is not even known. It appears to be contained in the gastric juice secreted by the inner membranes of the stomach, and a small quantity of rennet, stirred into a vat of milk, seems to coagulate it in the same manner that milk taken into the calve's stomach is coagulated. We all know the fact that by the use of rennet we can make cheese. Beyond this, we have little knowledge; so far as we are aware, scientific men are just as much in the dark as the cheese-maker. As the stomach of the calf is bifold, we have seen the mistake frequently made of saving the wrong one. But we presume patrons are generally well informed on this point now, after so many years' experience. Where the stomach is not entirely empty, the presence of curd is a sure guide. Always save the stomach that contains the curd, and no mistake will be made. If the stomach is empty, save the one that has a smooth inside surface. The one that has a rough, honey-comb-like inside surface is worthless for cheese-making, and should, of course, be rejected. There are three or four ways of preserving the rennet or stomach, for future use. Only two, we believe, are generally practiced in America. In all cases, the rennet is to be turned wrong side out, all its contents being thrown away, and the inner surface carefully cleaned by picking off all hairs and bits of grass, hay or other substance which the calf may have taken into its stomach. But the rennet should never be washed, and great care should be taken not to remove any of the inner membrane of the rennet, as in this membrane resides all its strength. Washing would rinse out the gastric juice, and weaken the rennet; and much washing would render it nearly or quite worthless. When properly cleaned, the rennet should be thoroughly rubbed with salt, outside and in, turned the right side out, stretched on a crotched stick or on a hoop, and hung up in a cool, dry place, to cure. In private dairies, the farmer's wife, after salting the rennet, sometimes spreads it on an earthen plate and sets it away to dry, frequently turning it on the plate. Rennets dried in this way are nice, but it is too much work to tend to them for a general adoption of this method of drying. Drying on a stick or a hoop is the common way, and answers the purpose very well. The only trouble is to find a place both dry and cool. It is generally conceded, we believe, that heat injures the strength of the rennet. Hence the importance of curing it in a cool place. Freezing is thought by many to add to or develop the strength of the rennet. Be this as it may, old rennets, that have hang up in the dry-house or some other convenient place through the winter, will go much further in cheese-making than new rennets. Another method of preserving rennets is by packing them into salt. This is quite common, and is practiced by some of our best factories. It is less troublesome than drying them, and is a sure preventive against moths, which are apt to get into dried rennets. By salting them down, there is less trouble to find a cool place in which to keep them during the summer. But care should be taken to use only the purest salt in packing rennets. Salt not fit to salt curd with is not fit to pack rennets in, for when the rennets are used, the salt will be in the liquid and find its way into the mass of curd. Besides, pure salt is much the better preservative, and will keep either meat or rennets sweeter than impure salt. Some think rennets preserved in this way are not as strong as those that are dried. We do not quite see the philosophy of this, since by packing in salt, none of the virtues of the rennet can escape by evaporation, and must be retained either in the rennet or in the salt. It may be said that the salt injures the strength of the rennet. If so, why does it not prove equally injurious when the rennet is dried? In both methods of preserving, salt is freely used--generally all that the rennet will absorb. A batch of dried rennets may go farther than the same number packed in salt, and _vice versa_; but this does not prove that the _same_ rennets would not have equal virtues preserved by either method. The German method of preserving rennets is by blowing them up like a