Hints on cheese-making, for the dairyman, the factoryman, and the manufacturer

by T. D. Curtis

CHAPTER XXIII. CHEDDAR PROCESS.

During the summer of 1869, we had the pleasure of visiting the Spring Creek and Slate Hill factories, in Montgomery county, under the charge of Mr. Alexander Macadam. Mr. Macadam's father is an old cheese-maker, who learned the Cheddar process from the celebrated English dairyman, Mr. Joseph Harding, of Somerset, about 1855. The son has had all the advantages of the father's experience, and, in addition to an active, inquiring and practical turn of mind, has had experience in one of the heaviest cheese houses in London. If any one knows what good cheese is, and what is required by the English taste, as well as by the American market, we think Mr. Alexander Macadam does. He is, besides, intelligent, free and communicative—ready to impart any information within his knowledge. We propose to give as intelligible an account of his process as we were able to pick up in our brief visit. But, as he adopts in part the American method, and humors considerably American ideas, we will first give a brief description of the real Cheddar process, as explained in a pamphlet written by Mr. Robert Macadam, of Gorsty Hill Dairy, Crewe, who is the father of our host:

In describing the process of cheese-making, it is necessary to keep in view some definite size of dairy; and for this reason, we will allude in the present section to one making cheese from the milk of 60 cows.

As detailed in the paragraph on the morning's operations, the evening's milk having cooled down to 62°, is lifted and sieved into the cheese tub, and the morning's milk added to it, as it comes from the cow-house. If the temperature of the milk, when thus mixed, be under 78°, it must be raised to that degree of warmth, as from 78° to 80° is the best temperature at which milk can be set for coagulation. This may be effected either by warming a portion of the milk among hot water to any temperature not above 150°, or, when the cheese-tub is double-bottomed, by introducing a jet of steam, or allowing the hot water to circulate. The quantity of milk in the cheese-tub being one hundred and sixty-five gallons, the requisite quantity of annotto is now added, and carefully mixed, to produce a rich straw or cowslip color. Five quarts of sour whey being added, and a quantity of rennet sufficient to coagulate the mass of milk in sixty minutes, the whole is gently stirred and completely mixed, covered over with a clean cloth, and allowed to stand for coagulation. After the milk has stood for fifteen minutes, the top or surface should be gently stirred, to prevent the cream from ascending, and this must be repeated if the curd is long in beginning to form. Hence it is preferable that the coagulation should be completed in from fifty to sixty minutes, as otherwise a waste of richness is likely to ensue. When the cream shows a decided tendency to rise to the surface, it is advisable to skim it off, previous to lifting the evening's milk, and warm it to a temperature of 95°, as this prevents it from ascending, and causes it to amalgamate more completely with the mass of milk set for coagulation. In stirring the milk to prevent the cream from ascending, the strictest attention should be observed to abstain from doing so if the slightest degree of coagulation is perceived. As soon as the curd has acquired a moderate degree of firmness, the operation of breaking-up should be at once commenced, and must be performed carefully, gently and minutely. This may be accomplished by one person in about thirty minutes, when the revolving knife breaker is employed, or by two persons in about the same time, when the shovel or wire-breakers are used. Before this operation is finished, a quantity of whey must be taken from the cheese-tub, heated to 150°, and again poured upon the mass, stirring being actively kept up beneath the stream, to prevent any portion of the curd from being scalded. The quantity thus heated must be sufficient to raise the temperature of the contents of the cheese-tub to 80°, and the whole must be carefully and completely mixed. The addition of warm whey raises the temperature, and consequently hastens the separation of the whey from the curd, and assists in promoting the necessary acidity. [If, however, the presence of acidity can be detected by the smell or taste, no warm whey should be used at this stage of the process.] The curd being broken to a sufficient degree of fineness, it is allowed to remain undisturbed for one hour, except when the acid exists in too great a degree, in which case it should only stand during the time occupied by warming the whey for scalding. The whey-separator is then inserted, and the liquid allowed to run off until the surface of the curd appears among the whey, after which the separator is taken out, and the curd properly broken up with the shovel-breaker. But before breaking up the curd, a quantity of whey should be heated to 150°, for the purpose of scalding it. One person pours a portion of this hot whey over the curd, while another stirs actively beneath the stream with a shovel-breaker. The hot whey is poured cautiously over the mass at intervals, and the stirring is kept up gently but briskly, until the temperature is raised gradually to 98° or 100° Fah. The stirring is continued, and the temperature maintained, until the curd acquires a certain degree of firmness and consistency, which it is difficult to describe, but which the intelligent cheese-maker soon learns to recognize by its appearance, and by its peculiarly elastic feel when handled. It is therefore of the utmost importance to possess the discrimination and tact necessary for discerning when the proper degree of firmness and consistency has been attained. When the curd is sufficiently "cooked," it is in small granular particles, firm and elastic to the touch, and when a portion is taken in the hand and squeezed, it does not readily adhere, but separates into particles. The stirring must be continued till this peculiar consistency is attained, without any regard to the length of time, but should on no account be farther prolonged, because the cheese will then have a tendency to be hard and stiff, and will require a longer time to mature in the cheese-room. The length of time required for stirring varies according to the previous condition of the milk, being from twenty to thirty minutes when the acid exists in a sufficient degree, or even double that time when the natural process of change in the milk has been slow. This process of saturating the curd with heated whey has the effect of completely separating the solid and fluid parts, the only moisture left being that which adheres to the particles, and which comes away under pressure. But when the temperature is raised in this manner, or by heat from the bottom of the cheese-tub, the utmost care is necessary to keep the curd from being over-scalded, as, when the temperature is too suddenly raised, part of buttraceous matter may be lost, and the small pulpy particles get skinned over, inclosing a quantity of the whey, which it is extremely difficult again to separate. If the milk has been in proper condition to begin with, and the process carried on in the manner thus detailed, the curd will retain all the natural richness of the milk, and the cheese produced will have that rich creamy taste and sweet milky flavor, something like the odor of new milk, known as the Cheddar flavor. When the curd is raised (in the manner described above) to the natural heat of the milk (98°,) or only one or two degrees above it, all the butter is retained and fixed in the curd; for although subjected even at first to a pressure of half a ton, little or no trace of butter will appear. This is unquestionably a more rational and far superior method of separating the whey from the curd than that of heating beside a fire or in a furnace, with its attendant skewerings and changings.

The next step in the continuation of the process is to insert the separator, after the curd has been allowed to remain undisturbed in the scald for the space of thirty minutes. After the whey is run off, the curd is thrown up into a heap in the center of the cheese-tub, covered over with a clean cheese-cloth, and the whey allowed to drain away from it for another half-hour. At the end of that time the curd is cut across, turned over in square lumps, heaped up, covered as before, and then allowed to lie for half an hour longer. The curd is then taken from the cheese-tub, laid upon a cooler, split by the hand into thin flakes, and spread out to cool. The curd at this stage has a distinctly acid smell; it is slightly sour, and by no means palatable; and its taste and appearance are such as would lead a novice to think it unlikely to produce a fine cheese. When the curd has been exposed on the cooler for fifteen minutes, it is turned over, and allowed to lie for the same length of time. It is then packed into a cheese-vat, having a clean cloth under it, placed under the press for the space of ten minutes, and subjected to a pressure of half a ton. When taken out, it is ground in the mill, weighed, and returned to the cooler, and if the acid is sufficiently developed, it should be at once salted, cooled down to about 65°, and placed under pressure. The purest refined salt should be used, and should be weighed and carefully mixed with the mass, one pound of salt being sufficient for fifty-six pounds of curd.

When the acid is found to be insufficiently developed in the previous stages of the process, the curd is allowed to lie unsalted, and is stirred up occasionally, until the necessary degree of acidity is acquired. The curd is then finally put into the cheese-vat, and at once put under pressure, at first under a weight of five or six cwt. The cheese is taken out of the press in the evening, and a clean cloth put upon it, and being turned in the vat, is subjected to a pressure of half a ton. Next morning, it is again taken out, wrapped in a dry cloth, reversed in the vat, and returned into the press with four cwt. additional pressure placed upon it. On the following morning it receives its third and last cloth, and when placed in the press, is now subjected to the pressure of 18 cwt. In the evening, it is once more removed from the press, gets a calico cap neatly stitched upon it, is reversed in the vat, placed under a pressure of one ton till the following morning, and is then finally taken from the press. The cheese is then tightly bandaged to preserve its proper shape, and being ticketed with its date and number, is carried to the cheese-room, where it must be turned every day until fully ripe for market. Cheeses may always be in the store-room in seventy-two hours after they are first put into the press, and, indeed, they might be placed there much earlier; only to insure consolidation, it is preferable to maintain the pressure during the time specified.

A diary or register should be kept, into which the date and number of each cheese should be formally entered, together with such remarks as may be needful and proper concerning the condition of the milk, and the peculiarities of the curd, &c. The cheese-maker, when testing the quality of any cheese after it is ripe, may learn from the register the precise conditions of its manufacture, and will thus be assisted in attaining that degree of excellence which was laid down in the beginning of this work as a proper standard or quality.[A] It will also be found highly useful to note down many similar facts, such as the various yields of milk at particular seasons, and from different kinds of pasture or house-feeding, as the practice will not only give wide views of the subject, and correct information regarding it, but will also tend greatly to foster accurate and business-like habits.

It is necessary to state distinctly the mode of procedure best adapted for this contingency because the over-acidity of milk when not detected and duly attended to in the process, produces a corresponding blemish in the cheese.

In very warm weather, when the temperature of the evening's milk stands in the morning as high as 70° or upwards, every part of the process described in the previous section must be hastened. The curd is broken more speedily than usual, and whey is taken off as soon as possible, and quickly warmed for scalding. When the operation of breaking is concluded, an interval of only five minutes is allowed before the whey is run off. Scalding is then proceeded with, but, under these circumstances, the curd and whey should only be raised to the temperature of 98°. When the proper degree of firmness has been attained by stirring, the rest of the whey is run off after another interval of five minutes, and when the curd is heaped up, ten minutes only are allowed to elapse before it is cut across and turned over. At the end of other ten minutes, it is laid upon the cooler, in five minutes more it is turned over, and at the end of other five it is put into the vat and under the press. Having been subjected to pressure for five minutes, the curd is taken out, ground in the mill, put back into the cooler, and salted. It is then stirred up to cool, until the temperature of the mass is reduced to 65°, when it is placed in the vat, and subjected to the ordinary routine of pressure. It may be stated, in illustration of the time occupied by these operations, that if the curd be ready for breaking at eight o'clock, it may be milled and salted by eleven. By expeditiously conducting every stage of the process, excellent cheeses may be produced, even at the above temperature; but when the ordinary time is allowed to elapse before the curd is "cooked" and salted, the cheeses will likely be sour. These rules and statements are based on the safe ground of personal experience, for in a very warm season we have made upwards of forty tons of cheese without one being sour.

In these days of dispatch and outward display, when men seek so eagerly for the shortest and easiest ways of doing things, some will doubtless be found to carp at the minuteness and extent of the foregoing details, and at the repeated injunction to strive after a clear and intelligent conception of the principles on which this branch of industry is founded. And many more, whose past experience has been little else than a slothful compliance with false rules and prejudices, may, perhaps, censure the system as too abstruse and complicated. But all such objections are refuted by the simple fact that no common product, made from raw material universally the same, varies more in quality and value than cheese, from the one cause of difference in the skill with which it is made. To attain to excellence in cheese-making, it is absolutely necessary that the hand and the head should work together.

The Cheddar process, as carried on at Spring Creek factory, is an adaptation of the foregoing to American apparatus and implements, with other variations. The milk is set in the usual manner, and at the usual temperature—say, 82° to 84°. It is cut in the usual manner, and gradually heated up to 98°. Then the whole is allowed to stand, with occasional stirring, until the whey is perceptibly acid. The day we were there, we found the curd in the whey, and as much changed as is generally considered by Americans sufficient for dipping and salting. But as soon as a slight change is perceptible—indeed, as soon as any one of the hands fancies it is changed—the whey is drawn off. If the whey should still be sweet and the curd soft, there is no harm in drawing off the whey. Then one end of the vat is raised, the curd is poked away from the lower end, and the whey is allowed to drain out. If the curd is quite soft, the further separation of the whey is facilitated by cross-cuttings with a large butcher or groceryman's cheese-knife. If it is well "cooked," this is not necessary.

At the expiration of half an hour or so—provided the whey is not rapidly taking on acid, in which case, at the expiration of five, ten, or fifteen minutes, according to condition—the curd is cut into pieces six or eight inches square, with the knife just mentioned; these pieces are split laterally through the middle with the knife; the top and bottom surfaces are put together, and the whole piled up along the sides of the vat. The object of this operation is to get the cool surfaces into the middle, to be influenced by the heat, and to give the already heated center contact with the atmosphere. In a little while, the bottom pieces are piled on top. The cutting and splitting operation may be repeated at intervals of twenty or thirty minutes until the whey that runs from the curd has much the taste of sour milk just before it begins to lopper.

The whey looks white and rich, and is really so; but it is claimed, that there is not as much waste as is caused by keeping the curd in the whey and stirring it, when the butter and cheese that escape are so diluted as not to be noticed.

When the whey draining from the curd has a decided sour-milk taste, the accumulation is removed, the curd mill is set on the end of the vat, and the large square pieces of curd thrown into the hopper and run through. The mill tears them into pieces varying in size from that of a kernel of corn to a butternut. When ground, two pounds and an eighth of salt are sprinkled over the curd and stirred in. (Considering the dry state of curd, this is really heavy salting—heavier than three pounds thrown on the dripping curd, in the usual manner.) The salting done, the curd is allowed to stand, with occasional stirring, as long as convenient—indeed, the longer the better. It will take no harm after being salted; and if a curd is at all tainted, or is made of sour-milk, and is rather soft, it should be allowed to stand as long as possible, and permit the hands to get it to press and ready to bandage the same afternoon or evening.

This is the simple process, as we saw it at Spring Creek factory. The pressing and curing are not essentially different from the common methods. Thorough pressing, however, is considered essential; and so is an equable temperature in the drying room—which, by the way, Mr. Macadam did not have the advantage of, as the building was erected on economical principles, with a very primitive but thorough system of ventilation—not under his direction or supervision, however.

With sour-milk, Mr. Macadam hastens every stage of the process, up to the time of salting. When the requisite degree of acid is developed, even though the heat may not have gone above 90°, and the curd is very soft, the whey is drawn off, and the curd repeatedly cut into small squares with a knife, to facilitate the separation of the whey. The curd is ground, and the salt thrown on—in less quantity—when the whey that drains off has the proper sour milk taste. It is then allowed to stand in the vat, and drain and harden, as long as the work of the factory will permit. If it can remain a couple of days in the press, it is an advantage.

The curds prepared in the manner we have been describing for good milk, does not have a very promising look to an American cheese-maker. It is tough and stringy, and quite elastic. At least, such was the appearance of the curd which we saw. It is proper to state, however, that it was made of tainted milk, and the taint was quite marked in the curd. This, Mr. Macadam told us, was the condition of most of the milk and curds for some weeks past in that factory; yet, the taint did not show in the cheese on the ranges, except in a few instances where the curd had been salted a little too sweet, as he thought.

The great secret of his success, he seemed to think, was in getting rid of the whey early, in allowing a good deal of acid to develop, especially in tainted curds, in airing the curds and allowing the gases to escape, and in salting well.

Mr. Macadam's cheese, as a general thing, tried splendidly. It was firm, flaky, buttery and fine-flavored. His opinion is, that American cheese is, as a general rule, salted too sweet and too low, for the purpose of having it cure quick for market; but it lacks good keeping qualities, and verifies the old adage, "Soon ripe, soon rotten." It is hard to overcome this desire for quick returns; but he would recommend those who wish to improve American cheese, to sour rather more, salt a little more, and color a little less—as little as the market will allow—as coloring is believed to be positively injurious to quality. The tendency should be in these directions, in order to make a slower curing, better keeping and better flavored article.

But, it must be borne in mind, that Mr. Macadam has in view his own process of manufacture, and that allowances must be made for different modes. Let each be ready to receive hints, make his own experiments, and abide by his own decisions.