CHEESE SOLIDS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 604, 6 September 1909, Page 10

CHEESE SOLIDS.

DOES BUTTER-FAT COUNT? Mr. Coleman Phillips, of Wairarapa, has been putting on his , armour tohave a tilt at the'"Dairy Commissioner over the cheese-fat .question. Mr. Cuddio has boon reported as saying that practically the quantity df cheese that can bo, made from milk, is almost in proportion to tho amount of butter-fat it contains. It is generally held Mr.Cuddio is ' supported by facts and .experiments on this point, but it is interesting nevertheless to hoar what Mr.PbillWhas.to say to him.' In .a letter ''Ca'rtbrton Nows".Mr. Phillips says:— .'.;,'■•;,, . "Mr.- Cuddie is' surely 'in error in his late opinion that ' the; more butter-fat, : thbunore cheese. , ' At all events, I think him wrong— cheese, comes from casein, nb.t from butterfat. Milk varies,, but. tho avorago is ',3 per cent, only of The casein is coagulated and. separated, from the whey ; by! add-, ing the rennet, .and tho curd then'takes up more' or' loss butter-fat, according, to ■ the skill of-the maker; . But'to say'" the more butter-fat, .the moro choesoi'-- is quite contrary to ordinary chemical action in' checsemaking.Nln England, where the inilk : is too rich,- it is tho custom of good cheese-makers to remove some of fhe'eream. ; In Greytown, in 1882, when wo first-began!cheese-making, wo had a • great many 'burials,' owing :.to cheeso fermenting, and bursting. .When* there is too much butter-fat in tho curd,,the difficulty is to get: rid'of all the 'whey.' Factory managers can now seal up in.the cheese ■more of the butter-fat than.they used,to do, but if they had only' a j small quantity' of milk to deal with,•:and .a largo, amount of buttor-fat, the danger-would.bo that the fat would run away.to waste in the whey. In fact, the whey,_wquld : bo skimmed and whey butter made, as was the common practice in England. ' I know of one factory in. this district where it was -the custom to trail a sack down the wtcy drain, and scoop up the waste of butter-fat, which threatened to Block the drain. . I know oj no'way'of increasing the casein in milk from which cheeso is made, but butter-fat certainly can be increased by breed or feeding. A gentleman in Mr. Cuddie's position should .riot have given utterance to the opinion his has without consideration. ..Richness in cheese■has nothing to do with .the. first , principlo involved, viz.,.that.cheese comes from casein'; not from' .butter-fat.' _In -skimmed-milk cheese, all- the butter-fat is taken away, and still there is a good,' eatable cheese (I think a 3.8 test, ample, for , the Wairarapa to oxport, as good a cheese as London gets). Stilton is mado by adding extra butter-fat,, to the whole milk, but.this cheeso soon gets very strong and often . goes , bad'.. Cheddar is mado from the whole milk, but a 6 test all round would riot give a' good exportable cheddar. Single Gloucester is" made from half now milk and half .skimmed milk. Parmesan is made in Italy, near Parma, from skimmed milk. Cream cheese is made from cream curd, without pressure, but it must be eaten at once.-or it will go bad. When dry enough to use 'cheese contains 35 to 44 per cent, of water beside the .casein, and -a j greater or,less proportion of ,buttor-fat. I do not adviso clrao factories to encourage too rich a milk, which would be harmful-to our. present excellent export. Our factories, are'not chemical laboratories. "Wliilsfc all tho butter-fat may be sealed up in the curd by, say, Mr.'Cuddic, tho danger always is that a lot runs to waste in the .whey.' That' is why I asked, somo years since, for the whey to bo retained a little longer at the factories and skimmed, and tho wasto of fat , noted." - "' - ■■■■ " '