CHEESE. A product of the dairy, obtained from the curd of milk. (See Caseine.) The analysis of cheese shows it to be one of the most nourishing of foods. Its manufacture from milk has of late years been reduced to a science, many of the best minds in the country having contri buted to improvements in the manipulation of the milk, the chemistry of the various transformations and in improved implements and machinery for manufacturing and curing. In cheese-making, the utmost nicety must be used from the time the milk has been drawn from the cow until the product is boxed for sale, to produce a uniform article from day to day. The introduction of cheese-factories has rendered this possible. These exact conditions cannot be carried out in ordinary dairies, when the proper temperature and facil ities are wanting, when any thing in the make up, as salt, rennet, scalding, etc., are guessed at. Hence cheese-factories have greatly stimulated production, until the manufacture of cheese in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and particularly in the western States, constitute one of the most important of the agricultural industries. The report of the chemist of the Department of Agri culture, in relation to the various analyses made from cheeses on exhibition at the centennial exhibit at Philadelphia, and, concerning the common mode of manufacture, that which yields whole-milk cheese, made from the whole of the milk, without skimming, is most elaborate in its details, the main points of which are familiar to all who are interested in the subject. Therefore we simply give below the results of the chemical analyses of several samples obtained from dif ferent parts of the country, and represented in the collection; one unusually large, and contrib uted from those known as the best manufac turers. They are as follows: Of the second method of manufacture, that by which the ordinary skim-cheese is produced, the usual proportion of cream being taken from the milk for the manufacture of butter, two varieties are presented. By the one method, and that is in most common practice, the skimmed milk alone is used for manufacture into cheese; by the other method, the buttermilk is added to the skim-milk; the fresh milk is.heated to 130°
Fahrenheit, cooled to 65°, allowed to stand from twenty-four to forty-eight hours for the cream to rise, and the cream is churned sweet. The results of the analyses of the two kinds of cheese are given below: ranged from eighteen to 25.9 per cent. This fat that is added to the curd is sometimes called oleomargarine, and the cheese is hence con veniently distinguished from other kinds by the name given to it above; in respect to quality, it is superior to the ordinary skim-cheese, although, as in the case of the comparison between the two varieties of skim-cheese already mentioned, the better cheese is not always found to contain the larger proportion of fat. The chemist found but one veritable imitation of the styles of cheese so common on the continent of Europe. Lim burger cheese is made in one place the State of New York, somewhat in the same manner as it is made in Europe. The analysis shows that it contains a large proportion of water-43.67 per cent. ; and somewhat less than the usual proportion of fat that is found in whole-milk cheese, or about thirty per cent. In the manu facture of whole-milk cheese, a considerable portion of the fat remains in the whey. In a few cases this fat • is collected and made into whey-butter, that brings a fair price in the mar ket; and the removal of this fat does not, it is asserted, lessen the feeding value of the whey. A sample and an analysis of this butter are pre sented; but if a chemical analysis is no true test of the quality of a sample of cheese; still less is it so in the case of butter. Two samples of factory-butter and one of butter made from the milk of Jersey cows are also contained in the collection, of which the last mentioned was by far superior to the others in quality; but no such difference is indicated in the results of the analysis given below.