In theory, we ought to prevent the waste of butter and caseous matter altogether; but in practice, there is always a little loss of butter, and there are certain albuminous ingredients, called by the Germans ziega, which rennet will not coagulate. There is, of course, no means of saving this. The sugar we cannot and do not want to save in the cheese. If retained, it would be injurious and probably spoil the cheese, as the lactic acid in the small amount of sugar retained in the water is all that we can well manage. But all matter coagulable by rennet, all the butter, and all the ash, we ought to retain; and we cannot really call ourselves scientific cheese makers until we can do this. When accomplished, a greater weight of cheese will be the result.
There is no avoiding the acid resulting from the small amount of sugar retained in the curd; but, having expelled sufficient whey, if we keep the curd warm enough, and hold it in the vat or the sink long enough, the lactic acid will come on and we shall get rid of the bad results of putting a curd to press sweet. This acidity is absolutely necessary with the generality of curing rooms. But with low and steady temperature in the curing room, we can do about as we please.
[RENNET.]
Our recent observations more than ever convince us of the importance of good rennet in cheese making. Great evils and losses result from the use of bad rennet; and the great trouble is that many cheese makers do not know when rennet is bad. There is not only the evil of diseased and tainted rennets, to begin with, but the preparation from good rennets is often spoiled in the preparing. Frequently, in hot weather, they are allowed to taint while soaking; and when the liquid is prepared sweet, it is often allowed to ferment and taint for want of sufficient salt and from exposure in a high temperature.
SOAKING IN WHEY.
Soaking in whey, containing all its taints and impurities, is the source of a vast amount of foul rennet and off-flavored cheese. If whey is used, it should be boiled to kill taints and precipitate, as far as possible, the solids remaining in it. But, do the best that can be done with it, and still whey is objectionable for soaking rennets, because of the acid that develops in it from the presence of sugar. This acid neutralizes a corresponding amount of rennet and helps to impoverish the cheese. Indeed, if carried far enough before the curd is removed from it, the finer flavoring oils are cut by it, the phosphates are dissolved, and these pass out with the whey, leaving the cheese but little better than an indigestible mass. If the acid adds solidity to the cheese, it does it by removing from it valuable ingredients.
TAINTED RENNET.
Frequently, we have encountered rennet preparations that were not only very sour, but also tainted and having a strong smell of carrion. Nothing but huffy, porous, stinking and rotten cheese can result from the use of such rennet preparation. Yet it is used, and the result is attributed to bad milk, or to the presence of some inscrutable taint or ferment, so prone are mankind to attribute effects to wrong causes. It has been to us unaccountable that cheese makers should use such horrid broth as we have seen them use, if they have any sense of smell whatever, and utterly astonishing that they should expect good cheese to be made from using it. With good milk, the cheese may appear fairly good for several days—especially if put to curing at a low temperature. But sooner or later, the taint must make its appearance. Possibly, it may not show ten days from the hoops, but the cheese can never become a mellow mass without also becoming a stinking one. It will soon be ripe and soon rotten.