+116. Domestic or American Neufchâtel cheeses+ are soft, have clean sour milk (lactic acid) flavor and are quickly perishable. In all but the coldest weather, they require refrigeration to reduce deterioration and loss. They range in fat-content from traces only to 50 per cent and more; in water from 40 to 75 per cent, according to the milk used. In texture Neufchâtel is smooth, free from gas, free from lumps or roughness when rubbed between the fingers. This flavor and texture is obtained by a combination of slow rennet curdling with developing acidity. No further ripening is permitted. +117. The factory.+--Neufchâtel factories require the standard dairy equipment for receiving, weighing, testing, separating, heating, pasteurizing and cooling the milk. Since many factories produce several products, the same general dairy equipment may serve for all. In addition to such equipment, Neufchâtel requires a curdling apparatus which can be held at 70-75° F. This may be a room properly controlled, or a tank where temperature control is obtained by water and steam. For draining, a room kept at 60° F. gives nearly the ideal temperature, which must be supplemented by relative humidity high enough to prevent the exposed surface of curd from drying during periods of twelve to twenty-four hours. This requires almost a saturated atmosphere. A room with special molding machinery is required and tables for wrapping, labeling and boxing the product are necessary. Box-making machinery is usually an economic necessity for work on a large scale. Adequate refrigeration is requisite both to chill the curd before molding and to preserve it after packaging. [Illustration: FIG. 13.--Neufchâtel draining racks.] +118. Cans.+--For curdling, the "shot-gun" can, about nine inches in diameter and twenty inches deep, is generally used. This holds thirty to forty pounds of milk. Increased capacity is dependent, therefore, on the number of units installed, not on changes in the units themselves. [Illustration: FIG. 14.--Detail of a Neufchâtel draining rack.]