One of the most important factors in cheese making is the saline
mineral known as salt. A cheese can be manufactured gilt-edged in
every way, but if it contains no salt, an insufficient quantity of
it or that which is of weak, inferior quality, it is simply a mass
of perishable, nitrogenous matter that will soon go to putrefaction.
Salt checks the growth of the lactic acid as quickly as a rush of
air snuffs out a candle; therefore, it has complete control over the
quality of the cheese in this direction. It preserves that quality
for an indefinite time, provided it exists in a sufficient proportion
and the cheese has been scientifically made. Then, again, salt gives
firmness and flavor to the cheese.
Thus, perceiving that cheese, as a component of human food, could not
exist without salt, the analogy between the purity of that article
and the fine quality of cheese is at once apparent. It is needless to
advise the use of nothing but a fine, pure grade of salt for savoring
cheese. Perhaps, instead of needless, it is _needful_ to admonish
manufacturers in this regard. I regret to say that I have observed
many who held false ideas of economy about so cheap an article as
this briny product. A difference of twenty-five cents on a barrel
would turn their judgment in favor of the cheaper, coarser article,
and, while really the losers thereby, they would feel complacent over
a supposed gain.
It is just such little slights as this—substituting poor for good
salt—that help make up the discrepancy in quality already perceptible
in American cheese. The dairymen of this country possess the most
advantageous position of any class of dairymen in the world. For
years their milch cattle have been bred toward the extinction of beef
characteristics, and toward the fostering and enlargement of lacteal
tendencies, until now, in point of blood, the general average is
high. Intelligence, skilled labor and ingenuity are at command and
should so leaven the products of our dairies that they should stand
above all competitors. Then, why be “Penny wise and pound foolish,”
when so grand a prize as national trade reputation is at stake?
Cheese manufacturers, employ only the most experienced and careful
help obtainable, and be willing to pay them liberally for their
services. Look only to _the quality_ of your cheese and let the ratio
take care of itself. No matter if it takes eleven or twelve pounds of
milk to produce a pound of cheese, provided that cheese is gilt-edged
in every particular. Use nothing but first-class material, from the
rennet, coloring matter and salt that goes into the cheese to the
scale board and the box that covers it. Let the foreign demand wane
if it wants to—we know how to relish good cheese here at home just
as well as our English brothers, and, in the future, we are going to
consume more of the product _per capita_, too.