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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



CHEESE — ITS MANUFACTURE AND QUALITY, 



Whether it be true or not, that " poor men oat 

 cheese for hunger, rich men for digestion," this kind of 

 diet enters very largely into consumption in this king- 

 dom, and in numberless varieties. We have it from the 

 soft globular Dutch to the hard horny Suffolk skim, need- 

 ing an axe to cut it, and which they say " pigs grunt at, 

 dogs bark at, but neither of them dare bite " — from 

 those famed Dorset cheeses which the rats leiX un- 

 touched on board ship, after eating some millstones by 

 mistake, to the rare cream cheese, the rich Cheshire 

 and Cheddar, and ripe Leicestershire Stilton. For nutri- 

 tious properties, cheese stands higher in the chemist's 

 estimation than even butchers' meat; and it is so 

 useful, because readily available for food, requiring no 

 subsequent preparation, and being easily kept. No 

 wonder, therefore, that the total consumption for the 

 United Kingdom should be reckoned at 120,000 tons 

 annually. Twenty thousand tons, worth about a 

 million sterling, are imported every year, principally 

 from Holland, largely from the United States, and in 

 less quantities from France, Sardinia, Tuscany, and 

 other parts of the Continent — the home production 

 being some 100,000 tons. Little cheese is made in 

 Ireland, but a small quantity in Scotland ; and the 

 chief English cheese counties are Cheshire, Gloucesfer, 

 Salop, Derby, and Leicester, in which more than three- 

 fourths of the whole quantity of British cheese is made 

 Cheshire itself produces 12,000 tons a-year. 



Milk will spontaneously separate into cream, curd, 

 and whey. The art of cheese-making consists in 

 the comiilete extraction of the whey, and in the proper 

 compacting and curing of the curd, the richness of the 

 cheese depending upon the quality of the milk, or the 

 proportion of cream it may contain. The cheese of 

 Cheshire is professedly made from new, unskimmed 

 milk ; but too often a portion of the cream is taken to 

 be churneil for butter, along with the small quantity of 

 cream yielded by the whey. The operations of "set- 

 ting" at the proper temperature, breaking the curd, 

 draining off and squeezing out the whey, salting, press- 

 ing, and drying, are generally known. The improve- 

 ments introduced of late years in the machinery and 

 offices of the dairy are — first, the " curd-breaker," 

 for cutting up the curd into small particles — sujjcr- 

 seding the old mode of three women kneeling around 

 the tub and breaking the mass with their fingers — 

 next, the " curd-mill," which breaks the curd after 

 the whey has been drained from it ia the cheesc-vat, 

 before finally putting it under tlie press — instead of the 

 old tedious plan of again breaking it with the hands ; 

 and then the " lever-press," which is self-acting, and 

 allows of the pressure being regulated by a weight 

 sliding along the beam. This machine dispenses with 

 the custom of kneeling upon and pressing the cheese 

 with a board, or two or three people thrusting 

 it with their bands, .or pressing it for a time 



before placing it under the heavy stono press. 

 Now there is so much difficulty in effecting a 

 perfect separation of the whey from the ingredients 

 of the cheese, that improved forms of dairy utensils 

 have been from time to time contrived for the purpose ; 

 some, indeed, forming a complete cheese-making appa- 

 ratus in one vessel. And the value of these inventions 

 lies, still further, in the fact that the richer the milk 

 (and, consequently, the finer the cheese), the more 

 difficulty is there in preventing cream and curd from 

 being lost along with the whey. There is an increasing 

 relish and demand for new milk in preference to 

 skimmed- milk cheeses: Hence, to supply the best 

 qualities profitably, in face of the large foreign im- 

 portation, the home producer requires every mechanical 

 or other assistance that can render the coagulation of 

 the milk and the separation of the whey more effectual 

 and economical. The inventions recently brought 

 out do not introduce any new practice, so much as to 

 render the operations simpler and less open to waste by 

 slovenly and unskilful management. There is a saving 

 in labour ; while the result is less at the mercy of the 

 dairy-maid. The most novel and interesting of these 

 inventions is the cheese-making apparatus invented by 

 Mr. Keevil, of Strand Farm, at Lacock, near Chippen- 

 ham. It consists of a large circular metal milk-tub, 

 with a wire-gauze strainer or filter at one side, having 

 a slide-plug to prevent or permit the whey passing 

 through ; and a bar across the top, acting as a bearing 

 for the frame of knives which rotate in the tub, and 

 also as a ])urchase for the screw press-plate when the 

 knives are removed, and this is placed upon the curd. 

 The process is as follows: — When the curd is "set" 

 sufficiently firm, the blades are made to turn gently 

 round, cutting the curd vertically and horizontally into 

 small squares ; the bar across the mouth of the tub is 

 then undone at each side, the spindle and frame of 

 knives removed, and the curd allowed to settle for some 

 twenty minutes. After it has fallen to the bottom, and 

 the pure whey risen to the top, the semicircular plug is 

 drawn up, a tap at the bottom of the filter is turned 

 and the whey allowed to drain through. W^hen the 

 whey ceases to flow by its own gravitation, a cheese- 

 cloth is spread over the curd, and the pressing-plate 

 applied, the cloth being put down between the curd 

 and the sides of the tub, to prevent any of it rising over 

 the plate. This plate is perforated, and has a gutter 

 sunk across it ; and the pressure, applied by means of 

 a screw, is at first light, so as not to squeeze out any of 

 the cream and curd— the rule being to screw down the 

 plate no faster than the whey flows clear and limpid 

 over the pressing-plate. This part of the work will 

 very much depend upon the quality of the curd, and 

 therefore the dairy-man will have to be guided by ex- 

 perience in this as in the old process. The pressing- 

 plate may have to be removed, the curd cut back 



