HINTS ON CHEESE-MAKING TEXT

adheres to and fills it, and then they blow through the bow. If no bubble forms and floats off like a soap-bubble, the batch is not done. But if they can blow a string of bubbles, or one long bubble, it is time to remove the heat. The stringing of the cheese-curd, on the application of the hot iron, seems to afford a very similar test for the cheese-maker. It is not claimed that the use of the hot iron will necessarily insure the making of good cheese. It only determines the degree of acidity, which is one very important point. Other things are requisite to the manufacture of a prime article, and the same care, attention, and labor, in other matters, will remain just as essential. By using the hot iron, however, it is claimed that the cheese-maker can tell, every time, just how sour his curd is. CHAPTER XVIII. SALTING CURDS. We believe there is not much controversy on the question of salting curd. One says, salt it hot, and another says, cool it first. But the variation in temperature is but a few degrees, and can hardly be supposed to have much effect. On the whole, we prefer salting as warm as practicable, as the curd then takes the salt better and the seasoning is likely to be evener. But the sooner the salt is thrown on, the greater the waste will be from running off in the whey. If the curd were thoroughly drained, or pressed out, as it is by the English in the manufacture of cheddar cheese, before the salt is added, considerable less would be needed. Some salt the curd in the vat, while it is yet covered with whey, and think this the better way. We opine, however, it matters but little when the salt is added, if it be distributed evenly throughout the mass of curd and is used in the proper quantity. The common method is to salt in the curd-sink, while the curd is draining--generally as soon after it is dipped as it can be stirred into a loose condition suitable for evenly mixing the salt. We have heard the opinion expressed that it matters not whether the curd is well separated after salting, or left in coarse chunks with the salt adhering to their surfaces when put to press, as salt is very penetrating and the pressing drives the salt whey all through the cheese. But the common practice is not based on such a conclusion, and we think it well that it is not. Even salting we consider as essential in cheese-making as in butter-making. The amount of salt used at the different factories varies from four ounces to five ounces for a hundred pounds of milk, or from two pounds and a half to three pounds and an eighth for a thousand pounds of milk, or a hundred pounds of curd. The higher rate of salting is thought to somewhat retard the curing, but it will help the keeping qualities of the cheese. For convenience sake, and to save time and the liability to mistakes when in a hurry, we would recommend the making of a scale or table, based on the rate of salting adopted, ranging from twenty or twenty-five pounds up to a hundred, and then for the hundreds up to the capacity of the vat. It takes but a little while, during some leisure hour, to make such a tabular scale. When made and stuck up in some convenient place--say, over the salt barrel, or over the balances--it will enable any one not familiar with or quick in figures to see at a glance how much salt is needed for the curd of a given amount of milk. It is a convenience, too, that will last as long as the factory, if taken care of. For the benefit of whom it may concern, we give the following tables: TABLE FOR SALTING AT THE RATE OF 2 LBS. 8 OZS. TO 1,000 LBS. OF MILK. -----------+---------------++---------+--------------- MILK. | SALT. || MILK. | SALT. -----------+-------+-------++---------+-------+------- lbs. | lbs. | ozs. || lbs. | lbs. | ozs. 25 | 0 | 1 || 1,000 | 2 | 8 50 | 0 | 2 || 2,000 | 5 | 0 75 | 0 | 3 || 3,000 | 7 | 8 100 | 0 | 4 || 4,000 | 10 | 0 200 | 0 | 8 || 5,000 | 12 | 8 300 | 0 | 12 || 6,000 | 15 | 0 400 | 1 | 0 || 7,000 | 17 | 8 500 | 1 | 4 || 8,000 | 20 | 0 600 | 1 | 8 || 9,000 | 22 | 8 700 | 1 | 12 || | | 800 | 2 | 0 || | | 900 | 2 | 4 || | | -----------+-------+-------++---------+-------+------- TABLE FOR SALTING AT THE RATE OF 3 LBS. 2 OZS. TO 1,000 LBS. OF MILK. -----------+---------------++---------+--------------- MILK. | SALT. || MILK. | SALT. -----------+-------+-------++---------+-------+------- lbs. | lbs. | ozs. || lbs. | lbs. | ozs. 20 | 0 | 1 || 1,000 | 3 | 2 40 | 0 | 2 || 2,000 | 6 | 4 60 | 0 | 3 || 3,000 | 9 | 6 80 | 0 | 4 || 4,000 | 12 | 8 100 | 0 | 5 || 5,000 | 15 | 10 200 | 0 | 10 || 6,000 | 18 | 12 300 | 0 | 15 || 7,000 | 21 | 14 400 | 1 | 4 || 8,000 | 25 | 0 500 | 1 | 9 || 9,000 | 28 | 2 600 | 1 | 14 || | | 700 | 2 | 3 || | | 800 | 2 | 8 || | | 900 | 2 | 13 || | | -----------+-------+-------++---------+-------+------- We presume the method of using these tables will be plain enough to most cheese-makers. But we will give a single illustration. Supposing the batch of milk to be 4,640 pounds, if we wish to salt at the rate of 3 lbs. 2 ozs. to the 1,000 pounds of milk, we look at the column indicating the quantity of salt for a given number of thousands, and find that 4,000 pounds of milk require 12 lbs. 8 ozs. of salt. Referring to the other column, we find 400 pounds of milk require 1 lb. 4 ozs. salt, and 40 pounds, 2 ozs. Add these together, and we have 13 lbs. 14 ozs. as the quantity of salt required for 4,640 lbs. of milk. If desired, a table can be made out, with little trouble, that will show the quantity of salt required for any given number of hundreds of pounds of milk likely to be contained in a single vat. CHAPTER XIX. TAINTED MILK. The most abominable of all things in a cheese-factory is tainted milk. It means floating curds, "huffy" cheese, bad flavor and poor prices. Yet, as milk is now managed, most factories will, in hot weather, get occasionally caught with a mess of tainted milk. There are hard work, anxiety and unsatisfactory results in it for the cheese-maker, and dissatisfaction and small profits for the patron. Such things never ought to be; but, when such a catastrophe happens, like other disagreeable things, it has to be borne and the best made of it that circumstances will permit. We know of no way to make good cheese out of tainted milk, and have had comparatively little experience with it--though quite as much as we desire. But from our own knowledge and what we can learn from the experience of others, if we had a tainted mess of milk to work up, we should heat it up as soon as possible, cut the curd fine, cook it thoroughly and develop the acid as much as we thought the curd would bear and stick together so as to bandage well. If we had another batch, in which the whey was all right, we would draw off the whey from the tainted batch as early as possible and add whey from the sweet batch to the tainted curd, to cook it in. If not, as soon as cooked, we would draw off the whey and allow the acid to develop in the curd. We presume sour whey added to the batch would be an advantage in developing the acid, and acid is what seems to be needed to check the decomposition and further tainting of the curd. An extra quantity of salt would doubtless be an advantage in stopping further taint. The curd should be cooled to the temperature of the atmosphere, and well aired before being put to press, and the pressing should be thorough. Old cheese-makers have told us that they thought they found an advantage in washing and cooling a tainted curd with ice water--that is, by chilling it. It seems to us that, though this might check taint for the time being, it would hasten it when the cheese warmed up in curing, as butter or meat will spoil rapidly after having come in contact with ice, if exposed to the atmosphere. Prime cheese never can be made of bad milk. But, if milk is not too badly tainted, a mess managed on the principles we have indicated will make a fair cheese--one that will suit many palates. A curd made of sour milk may be improved by washing out some of the acid by the use of warm water. With such a curd, extra cooking is an important point; but generally there is less cooking, owing to the hurry to get the curd out of the sour whey. It is in almost the opposite condition, so far as acid is concerned, of curd made from tainted milk. The latter has too little acid; the former too much. We therefore want to develop the acid in a tainted curd, and to retard or diminish it in a sour one. CHAPTER XX. CURING. There is no part of the process of making up milk and getting the product ready for market which requires more care and judgment, as well as some hard work, than curing. Few rooms are properly prepared for the purpose. They are left too open and barn-like, with no means of controlling the temperature. Factorymen generally seem to think that if the cheese is only made and put on the ranges, there is little or no need of making any further provision. We have seen cheese, which we believe had deteriorated from one to two cents a pound in value, because the curing process had not gone on properly. The curing rooms were full of cracks which let in the wind, cold or hot, dry or damp, as it might be, and the cheese stood on the ranges in the cold, damp atmosphere, turning to swill--to hog feed, instead of human food. The faces were cracked; the flavor was bad; "too much acid," the buyers said; the makers were perplexed, and quite sure they had not changed their hands from what they were when they made a good reputation; the patrons were dissatisfied, and the committeemen grumbled. There might have been other failings; but we are quite sure that no one has a right to expect prime cheese where there are not the proper facilities for curing. If the weather happens to be right, a barn may answer the purpose. But no one has a right to presume on always having favorable weather; and it is the part of wisdom to make preparations for all sorts of contingencies. A curing-room should be made with a wind-proof wall. This would guard against sudden changes of weather, by keeping out both heat and cold. Sufficient air can be introduced through the windows, which should be made to open easily, and be provided with blinds. There should also be provision for supplying artificial heat, equally distributed throughout the building, and not from a red-hot stove set in the middle, or in one end or corner, where it will toast the cheeses near it, and leave those farther off to chill in the cold weather of spring and fall. If steam is used, the heating apparatus may be made to do the double work of cooking the curd, and warming the drying-room. This may be done by means of hot-air tubes, or by the use of steam-pipes running round the room. Of course it would cost a little at the beginning; but a curing room once properly fitted up would soon pay the extra expense in the saving of time, labor, care, vexation and money. A thousand and one annoyances would be guarded against, and the proprietor would have the satisfaction of knowing that he had got a good thing, which would insure the most that could be expected from the product of the cheese-vat, and build up a first-class reputation and a permanent business. A curing-room should not only be kept at an equable temperature of 70° to 80°, but be well ventilated. The gases constantly emitted by the curing process should have a chance to freely escape and leave the atmosphere as pure and sweet as possible. There is no more sense in supposing that a cheese can cure properly and have a clean, wholesome flavor, if kept in a close, unventilated room, than that a human being can retain his health in impure air. The curing-room must be kept clean and sweet, dry and airy--not by allowing the wind to whistle through it as it listeth, but by a judicious system of heating and ventilating, which will allow the hot and chill blasts to blow harmlessly by. CHAPTER XXI. GREASING CHEESE. When a cheese is first removed from the hoops, care should be taken that its face be not allowed to dry and crack before it is greased with hot whey-butter. Nothing has been found so good as whey-butter for the purpose of greasing cheese, and it should be applied hot, and as soon after the cheese is set on the range as possible. If it dries at all, we think it injurious to the formation of a smooth, glassy face; and if it dries much, the face is sure to check and present an unsatisfactory appearance, besides furnishing convenient places for the cheese-fly to deposit its eggs. A very convenient thing for applying the hot butter is a paint-brush. It is much handier and better every way than a swab. But care must be taken, or the bristles of the brush will get scorched. This can be avoided by removing the brush from the dish when through using it, and not putting it in the grease again until you are ready to grease the faces of your cheeses. A pressed iron dish with a handle riveted on, is handy for melting the grease. There is no danger of melting out the bottom, or melting off the handle, and you are less liable to burn yourself or spill your grease than you are if you melt the whey butter in an old basin, which very soon gets burnt and leaky. Little conveniences, like the iron dish and brush we have mentioned, help a great deal, in the course of a season, about cheese-making; and a cheese-maker had better furnish them at his own expense, if his employers are too stingy to do it, than not to have them. There are many such little things that greatly assist in doing work easily and in keeping neat and tidy. One can do without them, on the principle that a farmer can hoe his corn without a cultivator, but it does not pay. If a cheese cannot be greased as soon as taken out, spread a cloth or put a turner over it, or both. This will keep the moisture from escaping and the air from immediate contact with the face of the cheese. As whey-butter is the best and nearly the only material used for greasing the faces of cheeses, it will not be amiss and may be of use to inexperienced cheese-makers, to say a few words on the mode of trying out the whey-butter. Prepare a skimmer with a long handle, which may be cheaply made by punching the bottom of an old tin-pan full of holes and fastening a wooden handle to it with bits of wire. A shrub five or six feet long and of suitable size, with a short crook at the larger end, is convenient. It can be split at the crooked end, slipped on the edge of the pan and wired there without much trouble. Hang a large kettle--a cauldron is best--in a convenient place, and fill it about two-thirds fall of the grease and scum which you skim off from the vat. It is yeasty stuff, and requires a good deal of room, at first, to swell in when the heat is started. Keep up a moderate fire, so as to boil it gently without scorching, and continue the boiling until the cheesy portion is sufficiently cooked to sink to the bottom. Then allow the batch to rest and cool down. Dip off the butter, while still warm and oily, and carefully strain it into a clean tub. When cooled sufficiently to begin to thicken somewhat, a little salt sprinkled on the surface and thoroughly stirred in, as the farmers' wives sometimes salt their lard, will help prevent it from getting rancid and stinking. Set it in a cool place, and keep it covered tightly. Near the close of the fall's operations, a nice tub of whey butter should be thus prepared and set by for use the next spring--for, in the cold spring weather, when cheese-making first commences, very little cream will rise on the whey-vat, and it will take some time before a batch can be procured. In applying the whey-butter to the face of the cheese, no more should be used than the surface of the cheese will absorb and leave it moist and shiny. If enough is put on so that it will cool in streaks and stick to whatever it touches, it should be wiped off, or it will daub the turner or bench, and not only make unnecessary work in cleaning, but prevent a hard, smooth rind from forming. Many give themselves a good deal of annoyance by putting on too much grease. The next morning after the cheese has been set on the range, and had its upper face greased with hot whey-butter, it should be turned over, when a similar application of hot butter should be made to the other face. If the cheese is well made and of good milk, and properly greased, as we have indicated, more greasing will seldom be needed. A little care will determine when more is needed, if at all. If the face begins to look dry and feel harsh, in spite of thorough rubbing with the hands, call the grease-brush into requisition again. In hot, dry weather--especially if the air is allowed to strike the face of the cheese--a timely application of more whey-butter may keep the face from cracking and save considerable trouble. The cheeses should be regularly turned, for the first fortnight, every day, and have their faces thoroughly rubbed and polished with the naked hand. Nothing else will do so much to help form a satisfactory rind. A cloth carried along should be used to wipe off any surplus grease on the bench or turner, so as to prevent its daubing the next cheese and making additional work. This same cloth, thus made greasy, will answer the additional use of wiping off any mould that may be found collecting on the bandage. In this way, a lot of cheese, with comparatively little additional work and trouble, but a trifle more attention, can be kept looking clean and wholesome; and if this neatness does not actually help improve the quality of the cheese--we think it does--it will so much improve the appearance, that you will not only be rewarded by the satisfaction afforded, but can safely count on a fraction more from the buyer--enough to more than pay for all the labor bestowed in curing. CHAPTER XXII. SKIPPERS. One of the most annoying things in the drying-room is the cheese-fly. It is very small but very effective in its way; and as it has the power to so rapidly increase its numbers, it sometimes gives a good deal of trouble. To a beginner, its ways seem almost past finding out, yet its path often becomes disgustingly visible. We know of no sovereign remedy for these pests of the drying-room. The best preventive is perfect cleanliness in all the surroundings. No pools of whey or slops of any kind in, under or around the building, should be allowed to furnish the first broods. But few factories are so arranged as to leave no putrid whey-spouts or other receptacles for the eggs of the fly. When hot weather comes on, the flies, therefore, swarm all around the building; and most curing-rooms are so open as to afford them easy access. Once in the room, the trouble and warfare begin, and cease not until the dog-star no longer rages. The cheese-fly is not very particular where it deposits its eggs--whether in the cracks in the benches or turners, in wrinkles in the bandage, in the checks in the rind of the cheese, or on the smooth face. If the weather is warm enough and there is the least bit of