Page 13 - DairyOnThePrairie

In Jones County, two types of cheese were known cheese factories had either failed or been converted Dairy on the Prairie 11

to have been manufactured: full cream and skim milk. into butter creameries. A variety of factors precipitat- Images of milk
and Cheese vats.41
Skim cheeses were less rich, made from a by-product ed the decline of cheese factories, including Eastern Photograph courte-
sy of the Minnesota
of butter production. However, most of the cheese demand for butter but not cheese, failure to invest Historical Society.

made in Jones County was full-cream cheese, a vari- large amounts of capital in improvements, greater per-

ety of what is now commonly referred to as cheddar. ceived profits in butter, and lack of a nationwide mar-

Most cheeses were exceeding large, to be sold and keting effort aimed at Iowa cheese.

sliced into smaller dimensions by merchants and gro-

cers. A 22-inch diameter cheese typically weighed 120

pounds, cured.

The heyday of the early Iowa cheese industry

extended from 1865 until around 1880; the

success of the butter industry was long-

er-lasting. A 15-year success period

for the cheese industry seems par- RENNET WAS AN

ticularly short, especially when ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT IN EARLY

the costs of equipment and CHEESE RECIPES. RENNET IS A DRIED

buildings erected specifical- EXTRACT MADE FROM THE INNER LINING OF A

ly for processing cheese are RUMINANT (CUD-CHEWING) STOMACH, USUALLY A

considered. By 1885, all CALF UNDER A WEEK OLD. THE FOLLOWING IS AN 1878

b u t one of the Jones DESCRIPTION OF RENNET, WHICH CAN STILL BE PURCHASED

County cheese factories TODAY IN TABLET-FORM IN LARGER GROCERY STORES:

had been subsumed It is not a pleasant looking object and its looks are
into larger companies. better than its smell, which to inexperienced nos-
By 1900, all of the trils is abominable. The thing it most resembles is a

bladder used in packing lard. It is tough, fibrous,

translucent, and yellow...When the cheese-maker

Self-bandaging pours his rennet into the vat of milk, a quick and
cheese hoops.40 wonderful change takes place in the contents. The

liquid thickens to the consistency of cream, and

from the consistency of cream it assumes the

appearance of a solid, which shrinks from

the side of the vat and leaves a yel-
low whey in the seams.39

Gabriel Bernou separating curds
and whey in Gentilly cheese factory,
1895. Courtesy of the Minnesota His-
torical Society Loc# HD7.3 p31 Neg#
17798.