We are assured that nicely colored cheese will bring from a cent to a cent and a half a pound more than the same quality of cheese will bring when pale. Buyers in some instances advise the making of pale cheese because they have a special order for it; but they usually expect to get it a little under the highest market quotations, and factorymen who allow themselves to drop the color on the advice of an interested buyer, because it is easy and costs nothing directly to do so, run the risk of being caught and of losing a great deal more than they can save by omitting the coloring. We never heard of a lot of cheese being condemned because it was too nicely colored; but we frequently hear of complaints and losses because cheese is too pale. The chances are at least four to one in favor of high-colored cheese; and even the fifth chance is not positively against color, though the other four are strongly against lack of color. He who wishes to have the widest range of markets, and to command the best markets, must pay strict attention to color—not only must he color, but color well and evenly.
We have an objection to color, for reasons satisfactory to ourselves; and buyers can have no interest in inducing makers to color their cheese, beyond the fact that it makes it more marketable—and in this, patrons and factorymen have a much greater interest than dealers can have. The market demands a rich, even color, and will not be satisfied without it. We say, therefore, as a matter of dollars and cents—not of taste, choice or convenience—keep up the color.
We will give two recipes for preparing annotto: 1. To five pounds of prime annotto put five gallons of strong ley, made from wood ashes; gradually heat up and dissolve the annotto, care being taken to not scorch it on the bottom of the kettle. Of course thorough stirring is essential. When the annotto is all dissolved, add five pounds of sal soda and five gallons of soft water. Then gently boil the whole for twenty or thirty minutes. This makes about ten gallons of prepared coloring. If boiled away to less, add sufficient ley and soft water, in equal quantities, to make that amount. Some omit the sal soda; but it is generally believed that it not only adds strength to the preparation, but improves the color by giving it more of a rich, buttery hue, instead of a red. The whole, when sufficiently cooled to handle safely, should be set in a tub, with a faucet two or three inches from the bottom, to settle. When settled, it can be drawn off, and is ready for use.
2. Mix in the proportion of five quarts of water to half a pound of concentrated ley, and one pound of prime annotto. First dissolve the ley in the water, by heating and stirring, and then add the annotto, and dissolve it. Boil gently for half an hour. Care, as with the other preparation, should be taken not to burn it. Settle and rack off. Then your liquid is ready for use.
The second recipe is the one most used, and is easiest to prepare, as it avoids the labor, perplexity and risk of making the ley, which may not always be of the desired strength, as the ashes may not be the same. But if ashes are used, hot water is best to leech through them. A quart of salt to ten gallons of preparation will improve its keeping qualities.
CHAPTER XI. RENNET.
An indispensable requisite in making cheese is good rennet. Nothing else will answer the purpose. Different substitutes have from time to time been tried, but all have met with indifferent success, or absolutely failed. Acids will produce coagulation, but they spoil the quality of the cheese. It was once supposed that the gastric juice of the calve's stomach was acid, and produced coagulation by souring. But it has been demonstrated that good curd can be produced from sweet new milk, by the use of rennet, without the development of acid in either the curd or the whey. How or why the principle obtained by soaking the calve's stomach produces coagulation has not yet been discovered. What the principle is, is not even known. It appears to be contained in the gastric juice secreted by the inner membranes of the stomach, and a small quantity of rennet, stirred into a vat of milk, seems to coagulate it in the same manner that milk taken into the calve's stomach is coagulated. We all know the fact that by the use of rennet we can make cheese. Beyond this, we have little knowledge; so far as we are aware, scientific men are just as much in the dark as the cheese-maker.
As the stomach of the calf is bifold, we have seen the mistake frequently made of saving the wrong one. But we presume patrons are generally well informed on this point now, after so many years' experience. Where the stomach is not entirely empty, the presence of curd is a sure guide. Always save the stomach that contains the curd, and no mistake will be made. If the stomach is empty, save the one that has a smooth inside surface. The one that has a rough, honey-comb-like inside surface is worthless for cheese-making, and should, of course, be rejected.