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Show CHEESE MAKING IN THE HOME Only the best whole milk should be used in making cheese. If night's milk is to be used, entirely or in part, great care must be taken that the milk is ! drawn under the most sanitary condi-, condi-, tionB. All utensils with which it comes in contact should be carefuily sterilized i and the milk cooled down immediately : after it is drawn. If it is stirred during dur-ing the cooling, les3 cream will raise and it will therefore be in better con- dition for cheese making. It should be . kept cool all night and free from dust, i otherwise it will be too ripe for good j results. If some morning's milk is used it should be cooled to the same tempera-. tempera-. lure as the night's milk before the two are mixed. Thoroughly mix the milk and measure 1 the required five gallons into, preferably, ! some rectangular or square vessel. Heat gradually to 84-86 degrees F. Adding color. If color is desired the ; amount will vary from none to 0.1 of , an ounce. I Adding Rennet. Dilute 1-6 of an ; ounce of rennet extract in. forty times : its volume of pure cold water. Thoroughly Thor-oughly stir the milk and then add the diluted rennet by gradually pouring it in various parts of the milk. Stir briskly brisk-ly to mix the extract evenly throughout the milk. All motion of the milk should cease before it begins to coagulate. The vessel should be covered to prevent cool-. cool-. in of the surface. If all the conditions are proper the milk will begin to coagu- late in from 10 to 15 minutes, and will be ready for the next step in from 30 to 35 minutes. When to cut curd. Two and one half times the period from adding rennett till the first thickening appears gives the time for cutting. Method of cutting curd. If the re-j re-j quired knives are not available, the verticle cutting can be done with a butcher knife and if care is taken these strips of curd can be cut or broken into in-to uniform cubes. This is necessary so that the whey will be uniformly expelled. expell-ed. Care must also be taken not to tear and break off bits of curd as this will result in loss of both fat and curd. Stirring. As soon as the curd is cut, the whole mass should be gently stirred. stir-red. This can best be done with the hands, though the agitation must not be violent enough to break the cubes of curd. During the process the temperature tempera-ture should not be allowed to fall below 84 degrees F. Heating. After ten minutes stirring, gradually apply heat and raise the temperature tem-perature to 98 degrees F. This should not be more rapidly than 2 degrees in five minutes. Stirring should continue during this process, though the danger of breaking the curd is much less now, as it toughens with the heating. After a temperature of 93 degrees F. is reached reach-ed the curd need only be stirred about every ten minutes. It is important to keep the temperature tempera-ture of 98 degrees F. during this stage. When to draw whey. The cooking should Icontinue till the particles of curd, when squeezed in the hand and the pressure suddenly released, will fall a-part. a-part. At this time the whey is drawn. After the whey is drawn, the curd is let to mat together in a mass about two inches deep and four inches wide. Provision Pro-vision should be made to let the whey drain off as it i3 expelled from the mass. As soon as the curd mats together it should be cut into blocks and piled. Every ten to fifteen minutes the blocks are repiled, putting the bottom ones on top, and turning the parts exposed to the air in. This should continue till the curd takes on a velvety appearance and a piece of it touched to a clean hot iron will draw out in fine threads two or three inches long. During this time i the temperature should not be allowed to get lower than 90 degrees F. I This process can probablv best be ! done with a sharp butcher knife. The j blocks of curd are cut (avoid tearing) ; into strips about inch square and one to two inches long. After cutting, the ! curd is piled up, stirred enough to prevent pre-vent it from matting together and kept ! covered so that the temperature will I not fall below 90 degrees F. I Amount of salt The amount of salt ! requued depends on several factors, though on the average a shade less than I an ounce will be sufficient. ' (Continued on page 8) CHEESE MAKING IN THE HOME (Continued from page 1) When the salt is thorjughly dissolved, the curd takes on a mellow silky appearance ap-pearance and is then ready for the press. After salting, the temperature of the curd should be allowed to drop to 78-82 degrees F. and the curd put into the hoop or convenient vessel for pressing. Dressing After the cheese has been in the press 45 to GO minutes it should be taken out, turned, the bandage and caps straightened, and the whjle surface sur-face sponged off with a cloth wrung from water as hot as the hand can stand. The pressure on the cheese in the hoop should be gentle, uniform and continuous con-tinuous for at least twenty-four hours. Cheese should be cured in a room having a temperature from 65 to 70 degrees de-grees 1-'. During the first few days the cheese should be turned on the shelf each day. After this, turning once a week will be sufficient. For best results the cheese should be dipped in molten pariffia any time from the third to the fifth day of its curing. This will prevent the los of. moisture j and wdl produce cheese of higher quality than if left unparaffined. ' Thrf cheese should care for at least six weeks, two months is better. |