Cheese consists of the coagulated casein of milk, together with the fat globules that may be mechanically retained. Cheese is made by coagulating the milk with rennet, which has been extracted from the stomach of a calf, the sugar of the milk being passed off in the whey, and lost.

Schmier Kase or cottage cheese is formed by allowing the milk to sour, and to coagulate by gradual warming. This cheese is usually made from skimmed milk, hence contains practically no fat.

The cheese of commerce is ripened in various ways. The process of ripening is due to the action of enzyms present in the milk, or to those formed by bacterial growth. Ripened cheese is considered to be more easily digested than the un-ripened product. The best that can be said of this process is that the ripening of cheese is perhaps the least objectionable of all processes of decomposition taking place in food proteids. The only benefit that can be claimed is one of flavor, and, in matters of flavor, the appetite for Limburger, and similar cheeses, is at least a cultivated taste that furnishes evidence neither of merit nor of nutrition. In the manufacture of cheese, the milk, sugar, and a part of the albumin and fat are wasted, and as there are no advantages in taking the milk in this changed form, there exists no scientific reason for the use of cheese when fresh milk can be obtained.

The several processes of making cheese.