COLOR.
One would hardly think of associating cheese-making with the fine arts;
yet, in what other light can we view the subject of color? It adds
nothing to the quality of the cheese, but rather detracts from it. It is
expensive and troublesome, and grows more so every year, as the demand
for annotto runs up the price and leads to adulteration. But as long as
we make cheese for a foreign market, we must adapt our goods to the
tastes of that market, whether they be physical or mental. Our home
market would, perhaps, not suffer from the omission of color; but the
English market demands, to a large extent, highly-colored cheese. The
Liverpool market will take a small quantity of pale cheese, but it does
not equal more than one-fifth of the demand of the English market. A few
factories, which sell exclusively to buyers who supply the Liverpool
demand for pale cheese, may safely omit the color; but all which depend
on the general market cannot safely do so. The London market specially
demands a high color, and it is no less exacting now than it has been
heretofore. The cry of buyers generally is, "Keep up the color!" The
exceptions to this are few, and are confined to those who have special
orders for pale cheese to supply the demand above indicated.
The English consumer acquired his taste for golden-hued cheese before
the American make found any considerable market abroad--indeed, before
we had much cheese to sell. The first object in coloring seems to have
been to give a rich butter color. In this way, cheese was made to
appear rich whether it really was so or not. But the shade has been
considerably intensified and the English eye is best pleased with the
color produced by the use of prime annotto, with which it has become
familiar. This may be a prejudice, but it is a comparatively harmless
one; and since our customer is willing to pay for it, there seems to be
no good reason why it should not be gratified. It is for our interest to
please the eye as well as the appetite of so large a buyer of our
products as England. She wants about four-fifths of her cheese highly
but nicely colored.
The complaint among buyers generally is, that color is too low. In reply
to suggestions about the fact, makers often say that they never used
more coloring, but it does not produce the desired effect. They have
paid a high price for what was supposed to be prime annotto, but it
proves to be extensively adulterated, and therefore weak. This is not
the complaint of all, but of many. Some have adopted the use of prepared
annotto, and find it cheaper and more satisfactory. When prime annotto
could readily be had, it was cheaper to buy the basket and prepare it
themselves. But now, one poor basket, during a season, imposes a loss
greater than the difference in price between the prepared and the
unprepared.
There is another evil about the use of poor annotto. It is not only
expensive and does not give the desired color, but what color it does
give fades out with age, and leaves the cheese with a cloudy, mottled
appearance, which is very offensive to the eye of our best customers.
Again, where poor annotto is bought in the basket and prepared at the
factory, it contains a large amount of sediment, and this sediment,
often containing deleterious substances, too frequently gets into the
cheese. The liquid is not properly settled and racked off. This affords
another argument in favor of buying prepared annotto, which, if properly
put up, is free from sediment.
Those who prefer to buy the basket annotto and prepare it themselves,
should buy only on the warrant of the dealer that it is what it is
recommended to be. The dealer should test a sample of his annotto,
before offering it for sale, and know precisely what he is selling.
Buyers by thus purchasing only of well-known dealers, who sell upon
honor, will discourage rascality. This is the only method we see for
keeping the spurious article out of market, and securing satisfactory
results in coloring.
We would suggest to those who prepare their own annotto, that they use
concentrated ley or potash. By doing so, they will secure just as good a
shade as they can by using ley from wood-ashes, and not only save the
trouble of bothering with a leach, but secure uniform strength. Two
leaches will seldom turn out ley of the same strength. Sometimes it will
be strong and satisfactory. But if you happen to get a lot of soft wood
ashes in your leach, the ley will be weak, imperfectly dissolve the
annotto, and materially injure the liquid.
In fact, it is difficult to get your coloring twice alike by the use of
a common leach. But with concentrated ley or potash, the same quantities
or proportions of materials, mixed in the same way, will produce the
same result. You can therefore keep your color even, and will not be
called upon to experiment and change your hand every time you prepare a
new batch of annotto. The difference in expense will be trifling, and
rather in favor of the use of potash, if time and trouble are counted of
any value.
The prepared annotto ought to be kept in a stone jar, as the ley
operates injuriously upon wood, and is liable to leave a tub in a leaky
condition as the liquid is used out and the tub dries. Where annotto is
purchased already prepared, of course it comes in vessels suitable to
keep it in; but when prepared at the factory, a receptacle has to be
provided, and nothing is better than stone or earthen-ware. In hot
weather, the liquid is liable to smell badly from the action of the heat
on it. A little salt stirred in will be found useful as a preventive
against this.
It is not necessary to discuss at length the question of the effect of
coloring on the quality of the cheese. The introduction of a strong
alkaline preparation cannot be without some effect; and when that
happens to be adulterated with some vile substance, the effect cannot be
otherwise than injurious. The annotto itself is generally conceded to be
harmless; and the ley is, at most, but a neutralizer of the lactic acid,
but the quantity is not sufficient, perhaps, to produce any perceptible
result. At all events, color is demanded; annotto, prepared with ley or
potash, is the accepted material; so we have only to color with annotto
to suit the taste of our customer.
We are assured that nicely colored cheese will bring from a cent to a
cent and a half a pound more than the same quality of cheese will bring
when pale. Buyers in some instances advise the making of pale cheese
because they have a special order for it; but they usually expect to get
it a little under the highest market quotations, and factorymen who
allow themselves to drop the color on the advice of an interested buyer,
because it is easy and costs nothing directly to do so, run the risk of
being caught and of losing a great deal more than they can save by
omitting the coloring. We never heard of a lot of cheese being condemned
because it was too nicely colored; but we frequently hear of complaints
and losses because cheese is too pale. The chances are at least four to
one in favor of high-colored cheese; and even the fifth chance is not
positively against color, though the other four are strongly against
_lack_ of color. He who wishes to have the widest range of markets, and
to command the best markets, must pay strict attention to color--not
only must he color, but color well and evenly.
We have an objection to color, for reasons satisfactory to ourselves;
and buyers can have no interest in inducing makers to color their
cheese, beyond the fact that it makes it more marketable--and in this,
patrons and factorymen have a much greater interest than dealers can
have. The market demands a rich, even color, and will not be satisfied
without it. We say, therefore, _as a matter of dollars and cents_--not
of taste, choice or convenience--_keep up the color_.
We will give two recipes for preparing annotto: 1. To five pounds of
prime annotto put five gallons of strong ley, made from wood ashes;
gradually heat up and dissolve the annotto, care being taken to not
scorch it on the bottom of the kettle. Of course thorough stirring is
essential. When the annotto is all dissolved, add five pounds of sal
soda and five gallons of soft water. Then gently boil the whole for
twenty or thirty minutes. This makes about ten gallons of prepared
coloring. If boiled away to less, add sufficient ley and soft water, in
equal quantities, to make that amount. Some omit the sal soda; but it is
generally believed that it not only adds strength to the preparation,
but improves the color by giving it more of a rich, buttery hue, instead
of a red. The whole, when sufficiently cooled to handle safely, should
be set in a tub, with a faucet two or three inches from the bottom, to
settle. When settled, it can be drawn off, and is ready for use.
2. Mix in the proportion of five quarts of water to half a pound of
concentrated ley, and one pound of prime annotto. First dissolve the ley
in the water, by heating and stirring, and then add the annotto, and
dissolve it. Boil gently for half an hour. Care, as with the other
preparation, should be taken not to burn it. Settle and rack off. Then
your liquid is ready for use.
The second recipe is the one most used, and is easiest to prepare, as it
avoids the labor, perplexity and risk of making the ley, which may not
always be of the desired strength, as the ashes may not be the same. But
if ashes are used, hot water is best to leech through them. A quart of
salt to ten gallons of preparation will improve its keeping qualities.