Category Archives: Learning

History: Premium Cheese Recipe

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From an address on the SECOND day of the meeting of the Maine Board of Agriculture, January 4, 1871 by X. A. Willard, A. M., of Herkimer, N. Y., Dairy Editor of the Rural New Yorker, &c., &c.

“At the late New York State Fair, the premium on the best factory cheese was awarded to the Whitesboro’ factory [in Oneida County, NY]. The process of manufacture may be briefly described as follows:

The night’s milk is drawn into the vats and cooled to 65° by Austin’s agitator and running water, the morning’s milk is run into the vat, and the whole heated to 84°, when the rennet and annotto [sic] are stirred in. As soon as the coagulated milk will break smoothly over the finger, and before it is very hard, cut and cross-cut, but rather coarsely. Heat to 96° or 98°, in the meantime stirring with rakes to prevent packing. Let it remain until the whey is slightly acid. Draw off the whey to pack the curd on each side of the vat to drain, air and acidify. Next, cut the curd in square pieces and reverse those next to the side of the vat, placing the others on them, also reversed. When the curd is quite acid, pass it rapidly through a curd mill, using steam power, and immediately salt, using from two to two and a quarter pounds of salt to one hundred pounds of curd, thoroughly incorporating the salt, and put to press directly. Press twenty-four hours, and remove to the curing room [recommended at that time to be kept at 70°F!], during daily for three weeks, and then every other day.”

Workshop

Dave Potter Cultures & Enzymes Workshop

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Dave Potter from Dairy Connection will be teaching a cultures workshop
on Sunday, February 19th, from 9am-4pm at the Governors Restaurant
conference room in Waterville, Maine.

Understanding the Function of Cultures and Enzymes in Cheese Making

Have you ever wondered how does rennet work or what do cultures do in
the cheese process? To produce any variety of cheese, there are basic
functional properties of milk that need to be manipulated and
controlled by the cheesemaker. This program is designed to help
understand these processes. Understanding the functional role cultures
and enzymes play in your cheese make will allow you as a cheesemaker
to create a new style of cheese or improve on an existing recipe.

Dave Potter has been involved in the food and dairy industry for the past
36 years. Dave grew up on a dairy farm in NE Iowa. He attended South
Dakota State University and earned a BS degree in Dairy Science,
majoring in Dairy Product Manufacturing. He spent his first 22 years
employed with Nordica/Rhodia with primary responsibilities in the
technical application of cultures and other ingredients used in the
making of fermented milks and cheeses. The past 14 years he has worked
with his wife, Cathy, owner of Dairy Connection, Inc., Madison, WI, to
provide cultures and enzymes as well as application support to
farmstead and specialty cheesemakers.

The workshop fee is $50 for members and $75 for non-members (this
includes a guild membership at the cheese enthusiast level). We can
probably fit as many people as would want to attend, but please sign
up soon so we know how many lunches to order.

To sign up please mail your workshop payment to:

Maine Cheese Guild
c/o Mary Belding, Treasurer
250 Walker Mills Road,
Harrison ME 04040

History: Premium Cheese Recipe

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Mrs. V. R. Stickney made a presentation to the West Oxford Agriculture Society in 1859 to explain how she made her widely regarded cheese:

My dairy consists of four cows of the native breed. Their average period of giving milk is nine months; the average yield of milk for the whole term is five quarts per day. During the month of greatest flow the yield is seventeen pounds per day – and its quality is such that ten pounds of it will yield a pound of cheese. The cows are kept in winter on hay and a little meal in the spring, and on grass in the summer.

My mode of manufacture is as follows: The milk is strained in a large tin pan made for the purpose. Having soaked one rennet in one quart of water, put one tablespoon of the liquid to ten quarts of milk. While the milk is warm let it stand 30 minutes, then cross into eight parts; then let it stand till morning; then dip it off on to a cloth in the cheese basket; then wash the pan and put the morning’s milk into it, and the same proportion of rennet; let it stand half an hour, then cross it off; then let it stand one hour; then dip it in with the other curd and after standing half an hour, cut the curd, then during one and a half hours cut it occasionally; then pour on two quarts of water a little warmer than the milk; then let it stand one hour, cut into pieces about an inch through; add 4 oz. salt to 25 lbs. curd, produced from 90 qts. of milk; put into the press with a light weight.

Next day prepare curd by the same process, which, after having scratched the top of that in the hoop, add and press as before, and the third day fill the hoop, and press till the next day; take from the hoop and put a bandage around the cheese, put in the screen, then turn and rub twice a day.