Milch Cows and Dairy Farming / Comprising the Breeds, Breeding, and Management, in Health and Disease, of Dairy and Other Stock, the Selection of Milch Cows, with a Full Explanation of Guenon's Method; The Culture of Forage Plants, and the Production of Milk, Butter, and Cheese: Embodying the Most Recent Improvements, and Adapted to Farming in the United States and British Provinces. With a Treatise upon the Dairy Husbandry of Holland; To Which Is Added Horsfall's System of Dairy Management

by Charles Louis Flint

Making of Edam Cheese.

—The Edam is a rich sweet milk cheese, that is made from fresh, unskimmed milk. The milk, while still warm from the cow, is poured into a large tub or a kettle through the strainer. In cold weather, when it has cooled off in standing in the air, it is warmed to a proper degree by adding milk heated by the fire. The rennet is then added. This is prepared in the following manner: The maw of the nursing-calf, cut, into long strips, is soaked for twenty-four hours in sweet whey, when it is made lukewarm over a slow fire, whey and all, and three times the quantity of cheese-brine, or solution of the salt of the cheese, added. The mass is then allowed to stand four days, when it is fit for use. An exact determination of the quantity of rennet to be used cannot well be given, since the quantity depends on the quality; but usually about two hundred cans of milk to one fifth of a can of rennet is the proportion, taking more or less, according to the strength of the rennet.

The milk in the tub to which the rennet has been added is covered over and allowed to stand till it is curdled, or become hard, which usually requires a quarter of an hour. The curdled milk is then called “glib.” It is now slowly but regularly stirred, with a shallow, long-handled cheese-spoon, in all directions.

Some cheese-makers treat the milk in the following manner: They stir the milk, thrusting an inverted cheese-ladle into the curdling mass every two or three minutes after adding the rennet, by which the curdling is much hastened. Now they move the ladle or cheese-stick three or four times with considerable force through the thickening milk, and lay it, inverted, on the surface of the milk, covering the vat for ten or twelve minutes, when the mass is again set in motion, and then again allowed to stand. By this means the cheese particles settle to the bottom, and the whey rises to the top.

When, after these alternate stirrings and rest of the curdling milk, the solid particles have settled, and the whey is collected on top, the latter is turned off, as carefully as possible, into the whey-tub. In order the better to settle the cheesy parts, and to cause the whey to come up, the cheese-stick is loaded with weights or stones, by which the whey is separated in the pressure upon the curd. Some minutes after, the whey is again turned off, the whole mass is properly stirred, and the curd is collected with the cheese-stick and worked with the hands, and the whey is again carefully turned off. The curd, now become thick, is taken out of the vat, piece by piece, and broken with the hands as finely as possible, in order to fill as much into the cheese-moulds as will just make a cheese. The moulds are set into the cheese-vat, and the curd is worked and pressed closely in with the hand, to remove the whey as much as possible. The cheese is then taken out of the mould, and again very finely crumbled in the vat, and, after the whey is again turned off through the strainer, is pressed the second time into the mould, so that it is as full of cheese as it can possibly be. It is then turned in the mould so that the upper side goes down, when it is again firmly pressed in. The turning is repeated several times.

In the making of large and medium cheeses the presser is used, while space left empty by the pressure is again filled with curd, so that the mould is always full, and the cheese gets its requisite size. In the smaller or four-pound cheeses, the hands alone are used for this pressing into the mould. The mould, now pressed full, is put into a tub, properly washed in whey, and cleansed of all remaining fat. By the washing and smoothing the cheese must get a glossy and smooth rind. After this is done, the cheese is again taken out of the mould, wrapped in a clean linen cloth, put in again, and covered over and brought under the press, that it may become harder and firmer, and that the whey may run off.

In hot weather the cheese is left under the press five hours, from nine in the morning till two in the afternoon; but, if it is cool, it must stand longer. There are several different objects in view in deciding the continuance of the pressure. Many think two or three hours sufficient, whilst others press five hours. Cheese designed for export is pressed longer, or twelve hours.

It takes from three to four hours, usually, from the pouring in of the milk to the bringing of the cheese under the press; but it can be done in two or two and a half hours without injuring the cheese.

After the first pressing is finished, the cheese is put into another mould, rounder than the first, and with only one hole in the bottom, to lie in the salt. In many places a long trough is used, in which several such moulds are placed to be salted at the same time; and for this either dry salt or pickle (brine, or salt in solution) is used. The pickle is most commonly used, and is thought best. When one side of the cheese has laid some hours in the brine, it is turned, and the other side is also salted. After a while it is salted or turned in the brine but once a day. Small four-pound cheeses remain nine days in hot weather, and in cold ten or twelve days, in the salt; medium ones of ten to twelve pounds must lie at least three weeks. In very hot weather they are often salted twice a day. The moulds with the salted cheese are placed, several together, into the cheese-vat where the brine is, or on a salting-tray where the brine is collected in a tub beneath. After being finally salted, they are washed perfectly clean with water or warm whey. Many put their cheeses from the brine immediately in a kettle of hot whey for some minutes, and wash them in it. All unevenness or roughness got in pressing in the mould is now scraped off with a knife.

After the washing, the cheeses are again perfectly dried, and laid on the shelves in the cheese-room, where they are daily turned, and remain from two to four, and even five weeks. The cheese is now salable; but before it is packed or delivered it is laid for some hours to soak in pure, cold spring or well water, the smallest for three hours, the medium four, and the largest five hours. The cheese is then well cleaned with the cheese-brush, laid on the shelf in the store-room, and turned a week or more, daily. But, in order to give them a fine yellow color, in damp weather, especially, the poorer ones are, by many dairymen, laid a good ways apart, and sprinkled or washed daily with new beer. When the cheese is to be sold, it is properly washed still again in hot whey, and rubbed with a woolen cloth a day before sending to market, with hot or cold linseed-oil, by which the outside of the cheese gets a fine glow; but it must be rubbed till no fat or oil is to be felt.