In these days of dispatch and outward display, when men seek so eagerly for the shortest and easiest ways of doing things, some will doubtless be found to carp at the minuteness and extent of the foregoing details, and at the repeated injunction to strive after a clear and intelligent conception of the principles on which this branch of industry is founded. And many more, whose past experience has been little else than a slothful compliance with false rules and prejudices, may, perhaps, censure the system as too abstruse and complicated. But all such objections are refuted by the simple fact that no common product, made from raw material universally the same, varies more in quality and value than cheese, from the one cause of difference in the skill with which it is made. To attain to excellence in cheese-making, it is absolutely necessary that the hand and the head should work together.
The Cheddar process, as carried on at Spring Creek factory, is an adaptation of the foregoing to American apparatus and implements, with other variations. The milk is set in the usual manner, and at the usual temperature--say, 82° to 84°. It is cut in the usual manner, and gradually heated up to 98°. Then the whole is allowed to stand, with occasional stirring, until the whey is perceptibly acid. The day we were there, we found the curd in the whey, and as much changed as is generally considered by Americans sufficient for dipping and salting. But as soon as a slight change is perceptible--indeed, as soon as any one of the hands fancies it is changed--the whey is drawn off. If the whey should still be sweet and the curd soft, there is no harm in drawing off the whey. Then one end of the vat is raised, the curd is poked away from the lower end, and the whey is allowed to drain out. If the curd is quite soft, the further separation of the whey is facilitated by cross-cuttings with a large butcher or groceryman's cheese-knife. If it is well "cooked," this is not necessary.
At the expiration of half an hour or so--provided the whey is not rapidly taking on acid, in which case, at the expiration of five, ten, or fifteen minutes, according to condition--the curd is cut into pieces six or eight inches square, with the knife just mentioned; these pieces are split laterally through the middle with the knife; the top and bottom surfaces are put together, and the whole piled up along the sides of the vat. The object of this operation is to get the cool surfaces into the middle, to be influenced by the heat, and to give the already heated center contact with the atmosphere. In a little while, the bottom pieces are piled on top. The cutting and splitting operation may be repeated at intervals of twenty or thirty minutes until the whey that runs from the curd has much the taste of sour milk just before it begins to lopper.