In the spring of the year, hay produced milk is comparatively poor
and thin. When it reaches the manufacturer’s hands it is generally
as sweet as a rose in regard to acid, although not always so in
regard to stable tang. When it has been transformed into curd
it must be scalded high enough to cook it, whether that takes a
temperature of 98°, 100° or 110° Fahrenheit. Don’t think, as some
do, that the curd is cooked when it has reached the temperature
you are using—generally it is not more than half cooked then. We
will say you began making cheese on the first day of April. You are
not an expert at the business and, being anxious to make a good
beginning, feel a trifle nervous over the situation. Keep cool and
bring the temperature of the curd up to 100°. On reaching this heat
immediately cover up the vat with the carpet-like canopy previously
described. Be sure and give it a thorough rake stirring the last
thing on reaching the scalding point. If the make-room is reasonably
warm the canvas roof will keep the whey at a mercurial heat of 100°
for a long while. After a few minutes examine the curd and see how
it is progressing. Stir it up occasionally—once in fifteen minutes
or so is sufficient—and after it has stood an hour and a half at
100°, if it does not squeak sharply between the teeth when chewed or
immediately fall apart when squeezed dry of whey in a double-handful,
you may be assured that 100° was too low a temperature at which to
cook it. The object is to cook at the lowest temperature which will
do the business within a reasonable time. The higher the temperature
used, the quicker it will be cooked, but it will require more milk to
make a pound of cheese. A good yield and a good quality must both be
gotten out of the milk—these are fine points in cheese making. The
curd we have spoken of has stood in the whey at 100° degrees for one
hour and a half and is yet insufficiently cooked. An hour longer at
the same temperature would probably cook it to the right degree, but
there are objections to letting curd stand in the whey so long—it
gets whey soaked and begins to disintegrate slightly, even when no
acid is perceptible. So, after a ninety minute test, (or, better yet,
before), raise the temperature two, four, six or ten degrees, as your
judgment warrants, and bring it to a firm consistency as quickly as
possible.
We are now supposed to be working spring or fall milk that is
obstinately sweet and very hard to cook. In summer or warm weather,
milk is, of course, mature; this aids and hastens the cooking process
while sweetness retards it. In cool weather and with good milk,
having found that a minimum of 100° will not cook the curd after
standing at that temperature an hour and a half, fix your standard
higher and bring it within the rule prescribed. Be sure that your
curd is thoroughly cooked. Thousands of boxes of weak, half raw
cheese are thrown on the market every spring that are deficient in
quality through a lack of heat in the vat. The most convenient and
sure test of which I am aware, to tell that the curd is “done,” so
to speak, is to grasp a large double-handful and compress it dry of
whey; if it quickly, after pressure is withdrawn, falls easily apart
on the palm of the outstretched hand, you may be sure that your curd
is thoroughly cooked in every way.
Now we come to acid.