CHAPTER XVI
MISCELLANEOUS VARIETIES AND BY-PRODUCTS
As already discussed in Chapter VI, there are a large number of varieties of cheese. Very many are entirely unknown in America. A considerable number of forms are occasionally imported and may be found by visiting the markets and delicatessen stores in the foreign districts of our large cities. Certain forms not widely known are made in America in a few factories or are imported in sufficient quantity to call for brief discussion. Some of these are brought together here.
The importance of the by-products of cheese-making has not been sufficiently recognized, for manufacture on a large scale is only beginning to be appreciated in America. Certain cheese names, such as Mysost, are applied to whey products. In addition, milk-sugar is extensively made and whey-butter has been carefully studied and found to be practicable under some conditions.
278. Caciocavallo originated in Italy, but is now made in certain factories of New York and Ohio. Some factories in Lombardy[126] use whole milk, others use half-skimmed milk. The latter practice is probably the more common. In making this cheese, the milk is coagulated with rennet, cut and firmed in the whey, allowed to settle and the whey drawn. The curd is then piled on the draining table and allowed to mat or fuse into fairly solid masses. After several hours of draining and matting, the curd is cut into strips and placed in a vat of hot water. In the hot water, the blocks of solid curd melt into taffy-like masses which are worked and molded by hand into more or less standard shapes. Indian club or ten-pin forms are most commonly produced. When the proper shape has been gained, each mass is thrown into cold water which solidifies it in that form. Cheese masses heat and cool slowly; several hours of cooling are required to insure a firm cheese. The newly made cheeses are salted in a brine bath, then hung by a string to ripen. Sometimes these cheeses are eaten fresh, again they are ripened several months. They vary in size from one to six pounds. Cornalba gives the composition of Italian Caciocavallo made from whole milk as water 32 to 34 per cent, fat 34 to 36 per cent, protein 28.5 to 29.5 per cent, salt 1.7 to 1.8 per cent; when made from half skimmed-milk, water 28 per cent, fat 27 to 28 per cent, protein 35 to 40 per cent, salt 2.2 per cent. Other analyses vary widely from these figures on account of the differing fat-content of the milk. No standardized practice has been established in America.
Provolono resembles Caciocavallo in method of manufacture and composition, the main difference being in the shape of the cheese. It is more or less round and is held by a coarse net made of small rope. The cheeses are treated while curing the same as Caciocavallo.
279. Sap sago.—This hard green cheese imported from Switzerland is made in cakes, tapering from perhaps two inches in diameter to a rounded top with a height of about two inches. These are made from skimmed-milk curd, partially ripened then mixed with powdered leaves of Melilotus cœruleus, a clover-like plant. The mixture is then pressed into the market form and dried until very hard. It is handled without special care since the water-content is so low that fermentations are exceedingly slow. This low-priced cheese may be used in cooking.
280. Albumin cheese.[127]—In the rennet cheeses, the albumin, which constitutes about 0.7 per cent of the milk, passes off in the whey. This albumin is not curdled by rennet. It is, however, coagulated by heating. The presence of acid hastens such coagulation but does not cause it when used alone. When the whey is heated to about 200° F., the albumin rises and may be skimmed off. In this form it is recovered and used. It may be shaped is hoops under pressure, as Ricotte, an Italian form. This cheese is pressed firmly and dried. Such albumin is frequently prepared as a poultry feed.
281. Mysost, Norwegian whey cheese.—The whey contains nearly 5 per cent of milk-sugar which can be recovered by boiling. The Norwegian process which produces Mysost consists in raising the whey to the boiling point, skimming off the albumin as it rises, then concentrating the remainder of the whey. As it reaches sufficient concentration, the albumin is thoroughly stirred back into the mass and the mass finally cooled into forms. Mysost is a brown, hard brittle mass consisting principally of caramelized milk-sugar. Analysis shows such percentage composition as follows: water 10 to 20 per cent, protein 10 to 15 per cent, milk-sugar 30 to 55 per cent. Mysost is found in the larger markets of the United States.
Primost is an albumin cheese somewhat similar to Ricotte and Mysost. It is made by precipitating the albumin by acid and heat. The main difference is in the firmness of the cheese. This is regulated by drying.
282. Whey butter.[128]—The loss of a percentage of fat, rarely less than 0.3 per cent and in some cheeses very much greater, has led to the making of whey butter. For this purpose a separator is introduced and all whey is separated daily. The fat recovered in the form of cream is then ripened and churned. Whey butter is not rated as equal to butter made from whole milk but a fair market can usually be found for the product. The recovery of 0.25 per cent fat means two and one-half pounds of fat to 1000 pounds of whey. This will make about three pounds of butter.
Whether whey butter shall be made depends on the volume of business, the extra equipment required, the extra help necessary and the market for the product. As a rule, whey butter is economically recoverable only in large factories. It is not considered advisable to attempt to make it unless one has the whey from 10,000 pounds of milk. In some instances, the combination of small cheese factories with one churning plant has proved to be economical. The objection to the making of whey butter is, that it stimulates carelessness on the part of the cheese-maker because he thinks that the fat will be recovered by skimming. He does not realize that the other milk solids are being reduced in the same proportion as the fat, to the great loss in yield of cheese.