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

Fig. 82. Cheese-press.

The cheese-presses in most common use are very different in construction, and each possesses, doubtless, some peculiar merits. The self-acting press, [Fig. 82], is the favorite of some. Another form of this is seen in [Fig. 83].

Fig. 83. Self-acting cheese-press.

One of the most extensive and experienced dealers in cheese, in one of the largest dairy districts of New York,—Mr. Harry Burrill, of Little Falls,—has placed in my hands the following simple directions for cheese-making.

The cheese-tub should be so graduated that it may be correctly known what quantity of milk is used. This is requisite, in order that the proper proportions, both of coloring matter and rennet, may be used. The temperature should be ascertained by the thermometer. Experience proves that when the dairy has been at seventy degrees the best temperature at which to run the milk will be eighty-four degrees; but, as the temperature of the dairy at different times of the year will be found to vary above or below seventy degrees, the temperature of the milk must be proportionally regulated by the simple addition of cold water, to lower it; but, to increase the temperature, heat the milk in the usual manner, although it is absolutely necessary to avoid heating it beyond one hundred and twenty degrees.

After having brought the milk to the required temperature, and added the coloring, for every quarter hundred weight of cheese mix one pint of new sour whey with the requisite proportion of rennet; and, having arrived at the formation of a good curd, which will be the invariable result of a strict adhesion to the foregoing rules, let it be carefully cut up with three-bladed knives, as fine as possible; then dip off half the whey, and heat a portion of it to the temperature of ninety-five degrees, and return it to the whey and curds; then, after stirring it for five minutes, allow the curd to sink, and as quickly as possible dip off the whey. Having done this, press the curd by placing on it a board weighted with from three to five fifty-pound weights, which will gradually and effectually press the remainder of the whey out.

When the whey is dipped off, put the curd into white twig basket-vats, made the shape and size of a turned vat, which would contain the sixth of a hundred weight (about three inches deep, and two feet in diameter). It will be necessary to have boards about one inch thick, and two feet four inches in diameter, to go between each of these twig vats, to prevent the whey running from one vat into the other. When it has been pressed, return it again into the cheese-tub, cut it into small pieces, put it into the vats again in dry cloths, press it and return it to the tub again, cutting it into small pieces, and to every hundred weight of curd add one and one quarter pounds of salt; grind it twice, and stir it so that it shall be properly mixed with the salt; then put it into well-perforated turned vats, taking care to press it thoroughly whilst the vats are filling, to prevent the accumulation of air, to the presence of which is to be attributed the honeycomb appearance so often observed in cheese when cut.

When the cheese is put into the press let the pressure gradually upon it. After it has been in press one and a half hours, take it out and examine it, and, should there be any curd pressed over, cut it round and put it into the middle of the cheese, carefully breaking it up in the middle. Wash the ends of the cloths out in a bowl of warm water, squeeze them, and cover the cheese up, and, if there should be any not sufficiently full, it will be necessary either to put a follower upon it, or to put it into a smaller vat; in the evening let them be dry clothed. The following morning salt them all over and dry cloth them, and repeat this three successive mornings; after which, put them in vats, placed one on the other, and allow them to stand, if possible, a fortnight, occasionally wiping them. The cheese will get matured much sooner by these means, and the tendency to cracking and bulging be prevented.