LARD CHEESE. The skimmed 'milk is poured into a large cheese-vat, says the 11'. Y. Grocer, and thoroughly mixed with the buttermilk, which has just been drained from the butter. Three hundred pounds of fresh milk are then poured into a large tin bucket, beside which is another tin bucket of the same size, con taining one hundred pounds of snow white lard that has undergone a steam-refining process which removes its natural odor and renders it pure and tasteless.
The lard and the milk in these two receptacles are heated to a temperature of 135° Fahr., and then, by means of a faucet at the bottom of each bucket, these liquids are drawn off into a common funnel and together enter a small opening in what is known as the " mixing-machine." The principal part of this machine con sists of an iron case fifteen inches in length and seven inches in diameter, within which a closely fitting iron cylinder, cut round with screw threads and 50,000 teeth, revolves at a rapidity of 4,000 revolutions per minute. The heated milk and lard enters
the machine at the bottom and flows out of an aperture in the top —a perfect emulsion. This mixture, which is two parts milk and one part lard, is then added to the buttermilk and skimmed milk which were previously stirred together in the cheese-vat. This composition is then heated to a temperature of about 100° Fahr., the rennet added, and the whole allowed to stand about forty min utes, when it coagulates. The curd is then chopped, salted, drained, and pressed so as to consolidate the caseine which is min gled with the lard, and expel the whey or serum of the milk. The pressure to which the cheese is subjected is very great. About thirty days are occupied in curing these cheeses, during which time they are turned over every twenty-four hours.