Page:Hand-book on cheese making.djvu/44

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to come off in transit and get mixed with those of other consignments, entailing much trouble to those concerned.

When coagulated milk has reached the right consistency to cut up, draw the curd knife through it at a moderate speed, truly and unwaveringly. The cutting behind an experienced hand will expel whey clear and green in color. In this item of procedure let your hand be counted among the experienced.


POTENT MAXIMS FOR THE CHEESE MAKER.


Keep a perfectly sweet, clean vat and spotless, shining apparatus and utensils.

Make an olfactory test of every mess of milk before it is dumped into the weighing can, and reject all that is tainted, unclean, or tending toward the sour, as by the acceptance of such injured milk you damage your own trade reputation, detract from the dividend of every patron who furnishes perfect milk, and irreparably wrong every consumer of the cheese.

Insist on each one of your patrons straining their milk through a fine cloth strainer of double thickness, and use the same yourself for it to pass through into the vat.

In heating up your milk to a temperature to meet a reception of the rennet, stir it frequently and gently.

Never set above 86° Fahrenheit in spring and fall and 84° in summer.

Remember that too high heat before setting separates the butter globules from the milk structure and that they are subsequently lost in the whey.

Use nothing but stone jars for keeping rennet. If a mess of rennet worth, perhaps, a dollar should get slightly tainted, throw it away rather than impregnate it through $200 worth of cheese and cause serious illness among numerous human beings.