Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

BUTTER AND CHEESE MAKING. 137 weather. At the end is a bright metal union, attached to which are pipes run- ning off right and left, one passing through a division wall into another apartment. A metal strainer is fixed on to the side of the vat, through which the milk is poured. Two kinds of milk are used — the perfectly sweet, and that which is “ on the turn,” the latter being added for the purpose of creating acidity and aiding in the ripening of the cheese. All the milk having been poured in, rennet and colouring are intro- duced. The former is measured in a graduated glass, and five ounces are used to 170 gallons of milk. The colouring is a dark-brown vegetable solution, and one and a half ounces are used in the same quantity of milk. The use of this ingredient in no way affects the flavour of the cheese, nor improves it beyond adding the yellowish hue familiar to most people. Yet without it, or should the colour be too deep, the cheese would be rendered comparatively valueless, or, at all events, considerably reduced in value. The rennet causes the milk to coagulate, and then ensues a process of separation, the curd settling at the bottom and the whey rising to the top. If the cheese is intended to be kept any length of time, the vat will be kept heated to 90° or 940. If it is for quick sale, and this generally happens in the cold weather, the temperature is reduced to, say, 85°. Periodically it is stirred up for half an hour at a time, and when the “ setting together ” takes place, it is broken with a cutter—an implement consisting of a series of long narrow blades—for half an hour. In a few hours from the pouring in of the milk, the whey is run off, disclosing the curd in a close layer at the bottom. It is then cut up into blocks or slabs, and sub- sequently broken up as small as possible with the hands. Salt, which acts as a preservative, is next thrown upon it, to the extent of I lb. of salt to 20 lb. of curd. Finally, the curd is passed through a machine fitted with two rollers, in which are rows of metal teeth. This breaks the curd up into very small pieces, which are then placed in circular perforated metal jars, each one representing a cheese, and set near a fire, or in a cheese oven, to preserve the temperature. After a few hours of this treat- ment, during which the metal jars have been occasionally reversed in position, the curd is put into the presses. The material is placed in a small wooden hooped barrel, lined with a cheese-cloth, and fastened at the top with a tin fillet. The weight brought * 0 IRISH FARMERS DELIVERING- MILK FOR BUTTER MAKING, CAPPAMORE. . (Photo: E. S. Baker & Son, Birmingham. By permission of the Maypole Dairy Company.} 18