FERMENTED MILK
In the preparation of Koumis, Kefir and other fermented milks of the same class, Yeast plays an important part, changing some of the milk-sugar into the alcohol which is found in these preparations in quantities up to 2%.
Baba Vasilka, 126 years old and her son, Tudor, 101;
Bulgarian peasants whose principal food has been sour milk all their lives
Koumis was first made from mare’s milk by the Tartars, but is now prepared in this country from cow’s milk by the addition of sugar and yeast. As carbonic acid is developed in the process it is quite effervescent and may be regarded both as a food and a stimulant. It is sometimes prescribed by physicians in cases when the patient cannot retain other food.
Kefir is a similar preparation originally made in the Caucasus by a fermentation started by Kefir grains which contain both yeast and various bacteria. The dry Kefir grains are soaked, first in lukewarm water, later in lukewarm milk, for several days, until they develop so much gas as to float on the top. A couple of tablespoonfuls of the grains are then added to a quart of milk which is left to ferment at 70° F. under frequent stirring or shaking. When the fermentation is fully developed the grains are strained off and the milk is bottled and kept for 1 to 2 days at 60°. The grains may be used at once again in fresh milk, and when the manufacture is finished they may be dried and kept, to be used again another time.
Kefir grains of natural size; a, b and c dried; d, e and f soaked (Orla Jensen, Milk Bacteriology)
CHAPTER III
CHEESE
Students making cheese in the University cheese factory, Madison, Wis.
Most of the following pages on Cheese were published in 1918 as a separate pamphlet to meet an urgent demand for brief directions along this line during the Food Conservation campaign. The copy has, however, been revised and new material has been added with the view of making this chapter more useful to those who desire to study in detail the manufacture of various fancy foreign types of cheese such as Edam, Swiss, Brick, Roquefort, etc., which are now made in this country in constantly increasing quantities.
For more complete directions in cheese making students are referred to “A B C in Cheese Making” by J. H. Monrad, and other technical works.
Cheese of a thousand different kinds is made, varying in properties and appearance from the solid, yet mellow and agreeable Cheddar cheese to the semi-soft, malodorous Limburger, the delicious, soft Neufchatel and Cream cheese, or the sweet Myseost of Norway. In India cheese was made centuries ago; to-day it is produced the world over, in the caves of the Swiss Alps and in the most modern and scientific American cheese factories and laboratories. Of these myriad types we can here describe only a few.
Cheese may be classified into that made with rennet and that made without. Of cheese made with rennet some is what is called hard, some soft.
The English and American Cheddar—the common American cheese—the Dutch Gouda and Edam, the Swiss Gruyere, and the Italian Parmesan are all hard cheese made with rennet. As examples of the soft varieties may be mentioned the French Camembert and Brie, Cream and Neufchatel cheese. In a class by themselves are such cheeses as the French Roquefort, the English Stilton, and the Italian Gorgonzola, their peculiar flavors being derived from molds implanted in the curd.
When cheese is made without rennet, the milk is allowed to curdle by natural acidity or it is in some other way made acid. Among the varieties made by this method the common Cottage cheese is the best known.
For many years imitations of foreign varieties such as Swiss and Limburger have been made in Northern New York and Wisconsin. As a result of the war and the cutting off of foreign cheese imports, the State of Wisconsin has built up a large business in these fancy varieties. New types have lately been added, as the Romano, Riggiano, and Myzethra, which are of Italian and Greek origin. Some of these are made of whole milk, some of partly-skimmed milk, and others of the albumin of the whey.
Let us briefly review the characteristic features in the making of the older types.