GB799121A - Improvements in and relating to the production of cheddar-type cheeses - Google Patents

Abstract

799,121. Cheese making. COMMONWEALTH SCIENTIFIC & INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH ORGANIZATION. March 22, 1957 [March 26, 1956], No. 9551/57. Class 84. Apparatus for use in the production of Cheddar and Edam type cheeses, wherein the milk curd particles are fused together, comprises a vessel having a piston slidable therein, means for pumping curd and whey slurry, without entrainment of air, into the vessel, means to allow escape of whey from the vessel sufficiently rapidly to prevent ingress of air on compressing the curd to a block by pressure on the piston, and a second vessel having a slidable piston therein, the second vessel being placed to receive the block of compressed curd from the first vessel, and being of cross section greater than that of the first vessel, so that pressure of the piston upon the block of curd in the second vessel causes cross flow of the curd particles. In the apparatus of Fig. 4, a trough 1 and a cover 2 form an inclined cylindrical vessel closed by perforated circular pistons 3 and 4 actuated by hydraulic rams 5 and 6, the lower portion of the trough 1 forms the base of a deeper trough 1 A for holding whey, and the lower end of the cover 2 is perforated at 2 A, the upper end 2B being unperforated ; the second vessel 7 is inclined similarly to the first, is of width in one direction the same as the diameter of the first vessel but is wider in the other direction, and is closed by a perforated piston 14 and a piston 15 actuated by hydraulic rams 16 and 17. Curd and whey slurry is pumped through a pipe 9 into the first vessel, upward movement of the piston 3 causes passage of whey into the trough 1A, the level of whey therein being regulated by operation of a drain 10, and the curd is assembled to a block, out of contact with the whey, in the upper portion of the vessel ; on relaxation of pressure on the upper piston 4 the block falls through an aperture 8 on to the piston 14 in the second vessel 7 ; in the vessel 7 the block is pressed between the pistons 14 and 15, the curd particles in the block being so caused to flow laterally ; the flattened block of fused curd so produced slides from the top of the vessel 7 upon relaxation of pressure on the piston 15 and upward movement of both pistons 14 and 15.