kept cool over night, with the morning milk, and then warming the mixture until the temperature is about 90 degrees. The proper quantity of rennet is added and when the cheese is to be extremely yellow also some annotto. After thoroughly mixing, the mass is left for nearly an hour, by which time the coagulation is completed. The next operation is the breaking down or cutting up of the fresh curd, and this is an important process. Upon the care which is exercised in doing this depends in a large measure the richness and quality of the finished product. When properly manipulated the whey which is separated will be of a greenish color and clear, while the proper combination of milk fat and casein which is secured in separating the whey will make a cheese of first class quality. The curd is so dense as to naturally separate from the whey by deposition, and the latter is thus drawn off by a stopcock properly placed in the vat. The curd is then placed upon a cloth stretched over lattice work in order that the separation of the whey may be complete. Finally before passing to the cheese house the curd is treated with eight ounces of salt to twenty pounds of curd. After the cheese is molded it is placed in a warm room for one or two days, and then taken to the press house where it is subjected to the usual pressure. The pressing process is continued by wrapping the cheese in dry cloths and subjecting to new pressure every day for five or six days. The cheese is then removed to the ripening cellar where it is turned two or three times a week. It is ripe and ready for consumption in less than one year. There are a great many variations from this method of making Cheshire cheese, but they all follow the same general plan.
Manufacture of Cheddar Cheese.—The cheese is made in various parts of England though chiefly in Somerset, the period of manufacture extending from April to November. Cheddar cheeses are made in large sizes varying from 60 to 100 pounds each. The temperature of precipitation for Cheddar cheese is somewhat less than for the Cheshire cheese, being about 80 degrees. Rennet is used solely in the coagulation, lactic acid not being liked for that purpose. In the making of Cheddar often some of the fat escapes in the whey and this is afterwards collected and made into butter. Two pounds of salt to 100 pounds of curd are used.
Derby cheese is a name applied to cheese made in Derby. The Cheddar system of making it is usually employed.
Gloster cheeses are made on the same plan as that of the Derby and do not need any further description.
Leicester cheese is a variety of cheese which is very popular and made chiefly in the county of Leicester. The coagulation of Leicester cheese is made at a little lower temperature than that previously described, varying from 76 to 84 degrees. The curd is allowed to stand for about one-half hour before it is broken up and the whey separated. The best manufacturers of cheese
