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ON THE BEST METHODS OF
MANUFACTURING CHEDDAR CHEESE 

The making of a good Cheddar cheese 
depends largely on conditions which are con- 
veniently summarized by the word " medium." 
A first-rate quality of Cheddar can be made in 
any district, provided that you have soil of 
medium quality, which will grow a short, sweet 
herbage. Soils resting on and derived from 
limestone rocks are ideal ; yet any soil of fair 
body, growing herbage free from all coarse 
grasses, &c., and containing a small percentage 
of leguminous plants, is equally appropriate. 
The breed of cattle is of considerable importance, 
owing to the great variation in the nature and 
quality of the milk which they yield. Those 
yielding milks rich in fat, and with a great 
difference between the size of the largest and 
smallest fat globules, are not so suitable as 
those yielding a milk containing an average 
percentage of fat, with only a slight differ- 
ence between the size of the fat globules. 
When a milk is rich in fat there is danger of 
loss during the making of the cheese. When the 
fat globules are nearly uniform in size, you are 
able to get a more perfect distribution of them 
throughout the cheese. The milk of different 
breeds varies in colour, some yielding a milk 
almost white, others one decidedly yellow. The 
nearer white the milk the better, if artificial 
colouring of the cheese is not going to be 
practised. A typical cheese-making milk is 
that of the Ayrshire breed. 

The food which the cow receives influences 
the milk. The ideal food for producing a cheese- 
making milk is grass ; and the addition of cake 
to the diet of a cow renders the milk more 
suitable for butter than for cheese-making. 
This is because prime Cheddars are made from 
a medium quality of milk rather than from an 
excessively rich one. Besides, the increase in 
the richness of milk from such feeding is largely 
that of the fat of the milk, and consequently no
appreciable increase in the quantity of cheese 
is obtained ; whereas if butter was made a cor- 
responding increase in the butter yield would 
be got. Again, cheese made from the milk of 
cake-fed cows is liable to deleterious changes 
during manufacture. The drinking water of 
the cows should be free from all suspicion of 
contamination. Water from stagnant ponds, 
or the effluent water from sewage farms, renders 
cheese liable to become spongy. The surround- 
ings of the cow must be clean. The chief cause 
of complaint against milk is probably due to 
contamination after it is drawn from the cow. 
Given a suitable district, breed of cow, food, 
water supply, and surroundings, the cheese- 
maker can depend on commencing with a first- 
class raw article, i. e. a milk of average quality, 
suitable colour, with uniformly sized fat globules, 
and free from contamination either in the form 
of injurious bacteria or acquired taints. 

A Cheddar is a whole milk cheese, and con- 
sequently no fat is extracted from the milk 
which is intended for its making. The evening's 
milk is strained into the cheese- vat, and kept 
at 64 to 68 F. The temperature is varied
according to the conditions of the weather and 
the keeping qualities of the milk. In the 
morning the cream is skimmed off, heated to 
90 F., and returned to the vat through the 
strainer along with the morning's milk. By 
this plan we get thorough mixing of the 
cream off the evening's milk, with the mixed 
evening's and morning's milk. The milk is 
now allowed to ripen, if it is not already ripe 
enough. 

Ripening is essentially acidity development. 
There are two methods of attaining the desired 
result, (a) The old Cheddar method in which 
a certain amount of sour whey is added to the 
milk in the vat. This is an empirical plan 
which does not take into account the amount 
of acid already present in the milk, and also 
risks one day's contaminated whey tainting the 
rest of the season's make of cheese. (#) The 
more modern method, and that adopted by the 
Canadian makers, is to keep the milk at a certain 
temperature (90 to 95) until the required acidity 
develops. This temperature is the one that 
is most favourable to the growth of the bacteria 
which produce the acid we desire to obtain. 

TESTING FOR ACIDITY. There are two 
methods by which to determine the ripeness 
or amount of acidity developed (a) By means 
of rennet. Take 4 oz. of milk at the temperature 
at which it is intended to rennet the milk, and 
add i drachm of rennet ; if the milk coagulates 
in 20 to 22 seconds it is ready for renneting. 
(b) By means of chemical re-agents. Take out 
10 c.cs. of milk with a pipette, run into a white 
porcelain dish, and add three drops of phenol- 
phthalein solution (addition of an alkali to a 
solution of phenol-phthalein produces a pink 
coloration). From a burette allow to drop 
soda solution of such strength that i c.c. of it 
will neutralize O'Oi gramme of lactic acid. 
Whilst adding the soda solution, keep constantly 
stirring the milk in the dish, and on the appear- 
ance of the faintest tinge of pink which remains 
permanent, you know that the whole of the 
lactic acid in the milk is neutralized. If it 
requires 2 c.cs. of the soda solution for this 
purpose, we know that we have O'2 per cent, of 
acid in the milk, which is about the correct 
amount for making Cheddar. The former of 
these methods is probably to be preferred, 
owing to its requiring materials which are 
always at hand, and similar materials to those 
you are going to use in the actual cheese- 
making. The ripening or development of 
acidity is done with the object of aiding the 
coagulating action of the rennet, to assist in 
expelling moisture from the curd, and to shorten 
the whole process of manufacture. 

RENNETING. Assuming that the correct 
amount of acidity is developed, and that the 
temperature of the milk is 82 to 85, depend- 
ing on the season of the year, the atmo- 
spheric conditions of the day, &c., we add a 
sufficient quantity of rennet to ensure coagula- 
tion in 45 to 60 minutes. Usually 4 to 4! oz. 
of Hansen's rennet extract to each 100 gallons 
of milk is sufficient. After thoroughly stirring 
the milk and rennet, cover the vat with a cloth, 
and leave the curd until firm enough for cutting. 
When the curd makes a clean break over a 
finger inserted under and along its surface, it 
is ready for cutting. If cut before it is firm 
enough, you get a white whey owing to loss 
of fat, and this will happen however carefully 
the cutting is performed. If, on the other hand, 
the curd is too firm, you require to use such 
force in cutting that you also get a white whey, 
owing to the injury done to the curd. 

CUTTING. In the old Cheddar system a large 
single-bladed knife was used. In the Canadian 
system American cutters are used. With the 
latter the curd is first cut with a vertical knife 
lengthwise and crosswise, then with a horizontal 
knife in the same manner. Clean the sides 
and bottom of the vat with the hands ; cut 
again with two knives both ways, and allow to 
settle ten to fifteen minutes, the shorter period 
if the curd is hard, the longer if it is soft. The 
object of cutting is to facilitate the escape of the 
whey, and cutting into uniform-sized cubes aids 
in the securing of a good curd. 

BREAKING. After settling, stir the curd care- 
fully with the shovel breaker or rake for fifteen 
to twenty minutes, until the curd is the size of 
peas, and thoroughly intermingled with the 
whey. Then commence the application of 
heat or scalding, which usually takes place 
some forty minutes from the time cutting 
commences. 

SCALDING. This is done to render the curd 
firm, and to develop acidity. There are two 
methods of scalding 

(a) The old method in which the operation is 
performed in three stages. The process consists 
in drawing off a proportion of the whey, and 
after heating it to a certain temperature adding 
it slowly to the contents of the vat. This is 
repeated three times. The first time the whey 
is heated to 110, the second to 120, and the 
third to 130. The temperature of the contents 
of the vat is raised the first time to 90, the 
second to 95, and the third to 100. To 
ascertain the number of gallons of whey to 
draw off, multiply the number of gallons of 
milk at the commencement by the number of 
degrees it is intended to raise the contents of 
the vat at the first scald. This product, divided 
by the number of degrees of heat it is intended 
to raise the whey, gives the number of gallons 
of whey required ; e.g. 

Contents of vat, 100 gallons. 

Temperature to which it is intended to raise 
the contents of the vat, 90. 

Temperature of whey before commencing 
heating, 85. 

Temperature to which it is intended to raise 
the whey, 110. 

Thus we have 
90 - 85 = 5 x 100 gals. = 500 
100 - 85 = 25 
< -r = 20 gals., amount of whey required. 
I 25 

The contents of the vat are stirred fifteen 
minutes after each scalding, but after the last 
scalding stir until the curd is sufficiently 
cooked. 

(b) The more modern method (which requires 
a jacketed vat and steam) is to raise the temper- 
ature continuously at the rate of i in three 
minutes, until 100 is reached, and then keep it 
at 100 until the curd is sufficiently cooked. 
Scalding ought to be done more slowly if little 
acid is present in the curd, and more rapidly if 
the acid is well developed. 

The curd is known to be scalded sufficiently 
when it is shotty, hard, sinks quickly, has an acid 
smell, and answers to the hot iron test. This 
last test is simple and gives constant results. 
It is performed by taking a small quantity of 
curd, compressing it tightly in the hand, drying 
it on a cloth, and then applying it firmly to a 
bar of iron heated to black heat, and gently 
drawing it away. If acid enough, the curd 
attenuates to fine threads of |-inch length. 
If not acid enough, it will not so attenuate ; if 
too acid it attenuates to a greater length. The 
sufficiently scalded curd is allowed to pitch for 
a quarter of an hour, and then a rack is put on 
and weighted with a 56-lb. weight. Thus the 
curd remains until it is consolidated or begins 
to mat. It is then cut up the centre with a long 
knife, rolled to the upper end of the vat, and the 
racks and weights placed on as before. Draw 
off the whey, remove the weights from the 
curd, cut it up and spread it on the bottom of 
the vat. 

PACKING AND " CHEDDARING." Replace the 
curd in a square block in the bottom of the vat, 
sweep up all the crumbs, re-weight and allow 
to remain ten minutes. Cut into bricks and 
remove to the curd-sink ; cover with dry cloths 
and put on the weights. Open and turn every 
twenty minutes, turning the outside of the curd 
within. When the curd is firm and tough, cut it 
into two-inch cubes, tie up in a cloth, cover with 
dry cloths and a tin pan and apply the weights. 
Open out and separate every half-hour, using 
dry cloths each time until it is ready to grind. 
The above method of manufacture results in a 
more open and meaty cheese than that obtained 
by adopting the modern or Canadian plan. 

CANADIAN METHOD. In this method the 
whey is drawn off before any matting or con- 
solidating takes place, and the loose curd is 
removed from the vat to a curd-cooler, where it 
is stirred until it is dry enough to mat, which, 
however, is a point rather difficult for inexperi- 
enced persons to decide. Matting goes on until 
the curd is ready to grind. A curd is ready to 
grind when it is distinctly acid to the taste and 
smell, dry and solid in cutting, tears stringy, and 
attenuates from i in. to ij in. on the hot iron. 

GRINDING is done to reduce the curd to 
such a condition that salt can be thoroughly 
distributed ; it also allows of the cooling of the 
curd. When ground the curd is ready for weigh- 
ing, and, if cool enough, for salting. 

SALTING. About two per cent, of salt is the 
amount usually added, and the temperature of 
the curd should not be above 80. The salt 
hardens the curd, helps to dry it, has a slight 
antiseptic action and therefore arrests decay to 
some extent, and also has a tendency to check 
further development of acidity in the curd. After 
adding the salt stir the mixture well for fifteen 
minutes, which will ensure thorough incorpora- 
tion of the salt and the curd. When the tem- 
perature of the curd is 70 to 75 it is ready for 
putting into hoops which are lined with a cloth. 
In filling the hoops press carefully with the 
closed hand. After the hoop is full place it in 
the press. 

PRESSING. The pressure must be gradually 
applied, and should reach 10 cwt. in two hours' 
time, at which pressure it is allowed to remain 
over night. If pressing is excessive during the 
first few hours, fat is expelled with the whey, 
and the quality of the cheese is lowered. Besides 
this, a hard firm coat round the external portion 
of the cheese is got, which checks the drainage 
of the whey. The object of pressing is to bind 
and consolidate the curd, and to expel whey. 
A suitable temperature in the press-room (60) 
aids the objects of pressing. The morning next 
after the day of making, the cheese is taken out 
of the press, the cloth is removed, and the cheese 
bathed for one minute in water heated to 120. 
This improves the condition of the coat, render- 
ing it tougher and less liable to crack. After 
bathing put on clean cloths, and return to the 
press. Apply 10 cwt. pressure during the first 
two hours, and then 15 cwt. until next morning. 
On the morning of the third day turn the 
cheese, grease it, cap one end, and return to 
press with a smooth cloth ; then apply i to i J 
tons of pressure. The grease is applied to fill 
up cracks, to render the outside of the cheese 
smooth, and to enable the bandages to stick. 
On the fourth day turn the cheese, put a cap on 
the bare end, place in a clean cloth, and then 
apply pressure until the afternoon. In the 
afternoon bandage with a laced or winding 
bandage, weigh, and take up to the curing- 
room. 

CURING OR RIPENING. The temperature of 
the curing-room should be 65 to 70. New or 
young cheeses require the higher, old cheeses 
the lower temperature. The ripening - room 
requires to be kept at an even and correct 
temperature, for although the making of a 
Cheddar depends so largely on success in the 
first stages of the operation, there is yet a 
possibility of spoiling the best of curds if due 
attention is not given to the temperature of 
the ripening-room. When the temperature is 
too low the result is a soapy cheese lacking 
body and flavour; when too high, sweating 
occurs, loss of fat, and dryness in the cheese. 
The cheese must be turned daily for six weeks. 
Neglect to turn results in redness on the ends 
of the cheese, and moisture descends to the end 
which is resting on the racks. A certain amount 
of ventilation is necessary, but there must be 
no draughts. Usually the room is kept dark, 
which, however, is of little if any advantage, 
except that cheese-flies are not then quite so 
numerous.