In from fifteen to twenty minutes after hooping curd turn your attention to them again. If the old style hoops are used you will be obliged to bandage them by hand; if not, to pull up the bandage cloth. As the former way is nearly obsolete, we will simply discuss the modus operandi of the latter.
Set a pailful of clean warm water near you, and as you remove the cap cloths rinse them vigorously in this, to wash out all sour whey. Pull the margin of the bandage up and turn it neatly over the edge of the cheese; then, wringing the cap slightly, to remove only the surplus water, spread it over the surface, smoothing out all wrinkles. Apply, now, all the power that you have, that is, reasonable power. You do not want to press so hard that the butter will be crushed out of the cheese structure, but you want to press so as to expel all whey and permanently solidify the cheese. I examined 1888 made cheese this spring that were of fine quality but insufficiently pressed. The seams and cracks were mouldy and damp with whey, which damaged an otherwise fancy product 50 per cent.
CLEANING UP.
Cleaning up is the last duty of the cheese maker for the day. I use hot water freely on any portion of the floor with which whey has come in contact, and especially should it be used about the spouts and drains, for it is here that filth lurks and easily conceals itself. Boiling water will search it out and eradicate it; dash it on copiously all around. Sal-soda and potash are helpful aids to keep the make-room sweet, and a liberal supply should be counted among the necessities of every factory.
THE CURING ROOM.
It is just as easy to have a model curing room as one that is defective in structure. A cheese may be turned out of the hoop the acme of perfection in every detail of manufacture, and yet subsequently be damaged partly or wholly ruined by inhabiting a faulty curing apartment. The curing room should not be in a loft, or above the make-room. It should be on the ground floor, and for convenience it should open direct from the make-room, the door being easy of access to the press. The partition between the two rooms must be impervious to the steam arising from the cheese vats, as the animal vapor is detrimental to the maturing product on the shelves. The room should by all means be plastered, and have windows that can be lowered from the top when necessary for proper ventilation. In these times when cheese are frequently shipped when only ten days from the hoop, a large curing room is not necessary even for a large factory. The smaller you can have it without crowding, the better. If you want a room that will hold 300 cheese, lay shelves 2½ feet above the floor that will accommodate 100, put in stout uprights 7½ feet high, and on cross pieces above lay two more tiers of shelves of the same surface capacity as the bottom counter. When it is finished you have three tiers of shelves encircling the room, save for two doors, with space left in the center for a box stove. The object of arranging shelves one above another is not so much to utilize space as it is to scientifically cure the product. It, however, answers for both purposes. In a room, temperature rises with height, and the atmosphere is, of course, several degrees warmer near the ceiling than in the region of the floor. Hang a reliable thermometer on a range with the second tier of shelves, in a portion of the room where it will not be affected by direct heat from the stove. In this position the mercury should range from 65° to 70° Fahrenheit, the temperature on the top shelf at the same time rising to the vicinity of 75° Fahrenheit. We will be supposed to carry a day’s make of cheese into such a room when it is empty. Place them all on the top shelf in regular order, two deep. Continue to add from day to day until the top shelf is completely filled all around. Then begin at the end where you first started, and take down the first day’s make and place on the second shelf, arranging those fresh from the hoop in their place. Continue this process all around until the second tier is filled. Your next move will necessitate two removals, leaving the oldest on the bottom tier and the greenest on top. As soon as a cheese leaves the hoop a certain warmth of atmosphere is necessary to assist the process of fermentation that should at once begin. If this warmth is lacking green cheese will sour on the shelves before they can cure. Therefore, always place them in the most favorable position for assistance in the direction of maturity that you have at command.