The Book of Cheese

by Charles Thom; W. W. Fisk

"After the milk is pasteurized and acidulated three-fourths per cent of first-class starter is added and the vat is heated to 85°. It is set with rennet, using 2 ounces of rennet per thousand pounds of milk, so that the milk begins to curdle in 7 minutes and is cut with three-eighth inch knives in 25 minutes. All portions of the work after adding rennet are carried out in an unvarying routine manner, according to a fixed-time schedule every day. As soon as the rennet has been added the cheese maker is able to calculate the exact time of day when each of the succeeding operations should be performed, and the work of making the cheese is thus simplified and systematized. It is possible that the routine process here described may be varied somewhat with advantage at different factories."

This cheese usually lacks characteristic Cheddar flavor or contains it in very mild form. It therefore satisfies only those who seek very mild flavored products. Efforts are now being made to find a flavor producing substance or organism which will bring the flavor of this product more nearly to that of typical Cheddar.

218. Club cheese is known by a variety of trade names. It is made from Cheddar cheese, so that it is especially liked by persons who care for strong Cheddar flavor. It has a soft texture so that it spreads easily, and is therefore much used for sandwiches. Well-ripened or old Cheddar cheese is ground in a food chopper. The older the Cheddar, the stronger will be the flavor of the club cheese. Cheese of good flavor should be used. In order to do away with all lumps in the texture, it is sometimes necessary to run the mixed cheese through the food chopper a second time. While all lumps must be worked out, care should be taken not to work the cheese so much that it will become salvy and sticky.

Usually a little pepper is added, to give the cheese a biting taste. Some manufacturers add a great variety of substances, but these are not necessary and destroy the flavor of the cheese.

Club cheese may be wrapped in tin-foil or put up in air-tight glass jars. The latter practice, while more expensive, has the advantage of making the cheese keep longer; but for local trade tin-foil is just as satisfactory as glass. In filling the glass, care must be taken not to leave any air spaces between the cheese and the glass, as this is likely to permit the cheese to mold. A glass jar can be filled and air spaces prevented by first smearing a very thin layer of cheese over the glass.

219. The stirred-curd or granular process.—The original practice as brought from England and followed in the farm dairies before the development of the factory system is now known variously as the "stirred-curd" or "granular curd" process. With the introduction of the cheese factory, as known to-day, this system was replaced by the Cheddar cheese. The old farm process is still used on some farms and in a few factories. As the name indicates, the curd for such cheeses is kept stirred so that it remains in granular condition instead of being allowed to mat as in the Cheddar process.

The early steps of the two processes are identical. They diverge at the point at which in the factory Cheddar process the whey is drawn and the curd is allowed to mat. In some factories the curd and part of the whey are dipped into a curd sink. This allows the whey to escape more easily and quickly. In the stirred-curd process, the pieces of curd are kept separated by stirring and not allowed to mat. The whey is drawn off and the stirring continued by hand. After stirring fifteen to twenty minutes, the curd becomes so dry as not to mat easily. As soon as the curd has reached this stage, the salt is evenly and thoroughly mixed with it. More salt is added than in the Cheddar process because the curd is more moist than Cheddar curd at the time of salting. The whey freely separating carries away much of the salt. The quantity of salt to use depends on the amount of whey draining from the curd. After salting, the curd is allowed to cool, with occasional stirring to prevent the formation of lumps. The advantage of the stirred-curd practice lies in the shorter time required for making cheese and in the greater yield due to increased water-content. It has several disadvantages, among them being: (1) lack of control of undesirable fermentation; if gas organisms are present, the cheeses more frequently huff than with the Cheddar system; (2) there is more fat lost while stirring the curd, hence quality and yield suffer; (3) the water is not so thoroughly incorporated, which more frequently results in mottled cheeses; (4) the body is commonly soft and "weak," shows mechanical holes, and cures too rapidly. These faults are closely correlated with the presence of higher percentages of water than in cheeses made by the Cheddar process. In other words, the stirred-curd process usually produces a cheese with higher water-content, hence more subject to the development of unfavorable fermentation than the Cheddar cheeses.

220. California Jack cheese[99] is very similar to the stirred-curd or granular process. This cheese was originally made in Monterey County on the coast of California, about twenty-five years ago, in small quantities, but after it was found to sell well other counties started to manufacture it. As Monterey was the first county to make this product, it was named "Monterey" cheese. In order to distinguish the cheese made in other counties from this, it was suggested that it be given a name and, consequently, it was called "Jack" cheese. This has been accepted as its true name. The cheese is made mostly by Portuguese and Italian-Swiss, although some of the best of the variety is now manufactured near Modesto, California.

This cheese is adapted for manufacture on small dairy farms, where there is inexpensive and scanty equipment. The smaller sizes of cheese are made and ripened quickly. It has become widely used in California.

The cheese is made every morning, from evening's and morning's milk. The former is put into the cheese vat at night, and morning's milk is added as milking is going on. When the milk is all in the vat, it is immediately warmed to 86° to 88° F. and rennet extract is added (when milk has 0.2 to 0.21 of 1 per cent acidity) at the rate of 6 to 8 ounces to 1000 pounds of milk. No coloring matter is used. It is ready for the curd-knife in thirty to thirty-five minutes, its readiness being determined the same as in making Cheddar cheese. The curd is first cut lengthwise of the vat with the horizontal curd-knife and allowed to stand until the whey rises over and partly covers the curd, when it is cut again with the vertical curd-knife crosswise of the vat. It is then hand-stirred, gently at first, and the stirring is finished with the rake.