Cheese making apparatus

A cheese making apparatus for producing cheese from a pressed mass of curds wherefrom the whey has been drained, which comprises

• (a) a rectangular vat including
• (1) a bottom wall,
• (2) two longitudinally extending side walls,
• (3) a fixed end wall and
• (4) a mobile end wall opposite the fixed end wall, the side and end walls defining interior dimensions of the vat,
• (b) a pressing plate arranged to be lowered into, and lifted out of, the vat, the pressing plate having outer dimensions slightly smaller than the interior dimensions of the vat,
• (c) a filtering sheet supported on the bottom wall of the vat for displacement in a direction parallel to the side walls,
• (d) a transverse partition affixed to an end of the filtering sheet adjacent the fixed end wall of the vat for displacement with the filtering sheet in said direction, the partition defining with the side walls, the bottom wall and the mobile end wall an operating volume of the vat determining the amount of curds to be held in the vat, and displacement of the partition changing the operating volume, and the transverse partition being elastically compressible in a vertical direction whereby lowering of the pressing plate into the vat compresses the partition and permits the plate to apply pressure to the curds held in the vat, and
• (e) means for simultaneously displacing the filtering sheet and the transverse partition affixed thereto in said direction.