Cooking the curd
Gently heating the cut curd in its whey so the pieces shrink, lose moisture and firm up.
Also: scalding, scald, cooking
After the curd is cut, many cheeses are cooked: the vat is slowly warmed while the curd is stirred, sometimes by adding hot water. Heat makes the curd pieces contract and squeeze out whey, so the higher the temperature, the drier and harder the finished cheese. Cheddar is scalded to about thirty-nine degrees. Alpine cheeses such as Comté, Gruyère and Emmental, and Italian grana cheeses, are cooked to fifty degrees or more, which gives them their long-keeping firmness and favours heat-loving bacteria. Soft cheeses such as Camembert are not cooked at all. The French call cooked pressed cheeses pâte pressée cuite. Cooking is gentle and gradual, since sudden heat seals the curd.