Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1875 — Lactic Acid In Making Cheese. [ARTICLE]

Lactic Acid In Making Cheese.

At a recent convention of 1 dairymen there was an unusual amount of talk and hypothetical argumentation concerning the operation of lactic acid in the manufacture of cheese. C. L. Sheldon stated that without lactic acid the cream-sacks protect the oil from the immediate action of the rennet and hence the fermentation or ripening process goes on more slowly, so far as the influence of the cream is concerned, because the casein covering of the cream globule must first yield to the influence es the digestive process going on. A statement made by L. B. Arnold that cheese could be made with better keeping qualities without the use of an acid than with has led me to think the matter over, and I am not sure but we have given the lactic acid credit for the work performed by another agent. Of one thing I feel assured—that is, the lactic acid weakens the casein covering of the cream globule. In the manufacture of cheese perhaps a greater number of unknown quantities enter than in the butter problem. Now how shall we determine these? We give a certain value to the condition of the milk that we start with; then of the rennet which we add to it; certain values to the different manipulations of the manufacture; value to the amount of acid developed and to the temperature used in curing. Now, do we determine these values correctly? Some of them we have been accustomed to regard as accelerating the curing of the cheese and othefs as retarding it. Our practice has shown us that cheese cures sooner where a certain amount of lactic acid is devel-. oped in the curd, and also that they cure slower where a greater amount of lactic acid is developed. Now, wbat value shall we put upon lactic acid? Shall we regard the weak acid as performing one work and the strong acid an opposite service ? Or, if it performs only in one direction, must we regard it as an active force assisting the ripening, or a conservative force retarding it? In order to work intelligently we should know just what the acid does for us. Now, take it for granted that the curing process is a process of fermentation; that is, fermentation is modified by temperature and the humidity of the substance in which it works, and that a certain amount of oil is required for its perfect working. (These positions, we presume, will not be disputed.) Now we will take up acid as an assistant to the ripening process; the weakening of the cream globule by the action of the acid brings the oil into the condition where the fermentation will be accelerated and hence the cheese will ripen quicker where this condition obtains. But suppose we let this acid work for a longer time than is required simply to weaken the cream-sacks. The oil is now exposed to the alcoholic ferment and a portion of it is destroyed thereby; at the same time the water is expelled from the curd. We now have a condition of cheese lacking in these two elements, w ater and oil, and unless the temperature shall make up this lack the cheese must cure slower. Instead of saying that the acid is the retarding agent the condition of the cheese is really the cause of the delayed curing. The acid is but one link in the chain and pe r formed its work in but one direction. The condition of retarded curing is due to the alcoholic ferment and whatever other influence may have produced the dry condition of cured. This may seem to some like splitting hairs; but to become successful experimenters it seems necessary that we should give to each agent or actor in the process its exact value and influence. If, with this view of lactic acid, we take up the manufacture of cheese without acid we may see how theory and practice in one case is in exact harmony with theory and practice in the other case.— N. Y. Herald.