Danish kettle and cheese vat
If Cheddar cheese is to be made regularly it is best to get an outfit consisting of a small boiler and a jacketed vat, although cheese may be made in a plain wooden tub or any other convenient vessel. The double bottomed vat generally used in American as well as in Danish dairies facilitates both the heating of the milk before setting and the “cooking” of the curd in the whey after cutting. Either low pressure steam, or—better—water heated by steam, is introduced in the space between the outer, wooden bottom and the inner, tinned steel or copper bottom. If it is cool the milk should be warmed to 86° F. In the summer it may be warm enough as it comes in, fresh from the cow. If not, heat it by steam or by setting it in a “shot-gun” can in another vessel of hot water, stirring frequently, until the thermometer shows 86°. It may be well to add a little buttermilk or sour whey from the preceding day, or a pure culture starter made with Buttermilk Tablets, not to exceed 1% or 2%.
Cutting the curd
If it is desired to make colored cheese add a teaspoonful of liquid cheese color, or ½ cheese color tablet dissolved in warm water, to 100 pounds of milk, more or less according to season and the shade of color desired in the cheese.
Next add the rennet. Where cheese is made from less than 500 lbs. of milk Rennet Tablets are handy, one tablet to 80 or 100 lbs. For less than 50 lbs. of milk, Junket Tablets may be used, one to a gallon. Dissolve the tablet, or tablets, or fraction of a tablet, as the case may be, in cold water and stir the solution well into the milk, making sure of thorough mixing. Let stand covered for half an hour until a firm curd is formed. Cut or break the curd very carefully with a big knife or spoon or home-made fork with wires across the prongs, imitating as far as possible the operation with curd knives in the factory.
Taking the temperature of the milk in a shot-gun can
