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Show LEAVES' from j Making Cottage Cheese The production of fresh cottage cheese for the local market is a useful project for the Women's Exchange, Ex-change, or any permanently organized organ-ized women's club. The equipment required for such production is simple sim-ple and inexpensive, and the making mak-ing of the cheese is light and easy work. Usually a considerable quantity quan-tity can , be disposed of at good prices to lunch-rooms, school cafeterias cafete-rias and delicatessens. In making cheese in quantity it as necessary to follow an exact method in order to insure a uniform product. prod-uct. TO CLABBER THE MILK If the milk is to be soured without a starter, it should be set in a clean pail or shotgun can, covered, warmed to 75 degrees F., and allowed al-lowed to stand at that temperature until it curdles. It goes without saying say-ing that fresh clean skim milk must be used. THE USE OF STARTERS Since the use of a starter helps to give uniformity in the finished product, the advisability of using it is apparent. A home-made starter is simply a quantity of sour milk in which a large number of acid-forming acid-forming bacteria have grown. However, How-ever, for best and surest results commercial starters are recommended. recom-mended. These may be bought from any dairy-supply house. The small package of starter liquid or dried is added to a pint of pasteurized milk. The milk which is then cooled, covered and set away to sour is called a "mother starter." When it has curdled a teaspoonful is used per quart of pasteurized skim milk to ripen it for cheese. In making mak-ing large quantities of cheese the proportion of starter to milk is usually a pint to three or four gallons gal-lons of milk. The most convenient procedure is to set the milk with the starter at night; it should be a firm clabber by morning. When the milk has formed a firm curd which breaks sharply and shows a collection collec-tion of whey when a finger is inserted in-serted in the clabber, the curd is ready for processing. CUTTING, HEATING, AND STIRRING With a long-bladed knife cut the curd crosswise into two-inch squares. Heat to a temperature of 100 degrees F., and keep at that temperature tem-perature for 30 minutes. During this heating process the curd should be stirred with a spoon every four or five minutes. Note: The object of all these operations op-erations is to separate the curd from the whey. The texture of the resulting re-sulting cheese is largely dependent upon careful cutting, heating, and stirring of the curd. If the curd is stirred too much, the result will be a cheese of extremely fine grain which is slow to drain and a large part of which will be lost. DRAINING When the milk has been heated and otherwise processed for the proper period, it is then poured upon cheesecloth which is suspended over a pail or other container, for the purpose of separating the curd from the whey. The curd should drain, undisturbed, for 15 or 20 minutes. If it is handled it tends to become mushy. Later, lift first one side, then another of the cheesecloth to facilitate the draining process. Allow Al-low it to drain until practically all of the whey is gone, leaving the curd smooth and soft. The usual rate of salting is 2 heaping heap-ing tablespoonfuls to 3'A gallons of milk, or about 2 ounces to 10 pounds of curd. COTTAGE CHEESE WITH RENNET Liquid rennet may be bought from dairy-supply houses and should be added to the skim milk at the rate of 3 drops per 10 pints or pounds of milk. The milk is then handled as indicated in the paragraph "The use of starters," the rennet being added just after the starter is put in, and the whole stirred vigorously. After the rennet is added, let the milk stand until it is curdled, after which it is ready to drain. If rennet ren-net is used, do not heat the milk before be-fore draining as this will produce a hard, tough product. Simply drain after clabbering, without any preliminary pre-liminary cutting or stirring. The curd will be very fine and it will be necessary to use for draining, a cloth with a very fine mesh ordinary ordi-nary cheesecloth will not suffice. After draining, salt just as for any cottage cheese. For further information as to making and marketing, and for many tempting recipes, send five cents to Superintendent of Documents. Docu-ments. Washington. D. C. asking for Farmers' Farm-ers' Bulletin No. 14S1. www RUSSIAN OLIVE Russian olive, that lovely gray-green gray-green shrub so often used for windbreaks, wind-breaks, may be readily growTi from seed. The seed matures and is collected col-lected early in October. It should be stratified over winter (a layer of the seed, then a layer of sand, and repeat), and planted in the spring in trenches about one inch deep. The seedlings should reach suitable sizes for transplanting the first season. A pound of seed will usually produce about 600 usable seedlings. This shrub gives a pleasant appearance. , I |
