30 West Country Cheeses. 



South Wales, but more especially to the miner, to whom, and 

 when in the pit, it is a digestive food that he can always eat 

 and enjoy. 



Since direct communication with Somersetshire from 

 Monmouthshire and the mining districts in South Wales was 

 accomplished by means of the Severn Tunnel, Cheddar cheese 

 makers in Gloucestershire and Somersetshire, especially so in 

 the latter county, have, during the last fifteen years, turned a 

 considerable amount of attention to the manufacture of this 

 cheese, so much so that during the last four or five years the 

 average sale of West of England Caerphilly cheese sold in 

 Newport market alone has been equal to 170 tons a year, five- 

 sixths of which was made in Somerset. It must, however, 

 be borne in mind that a proportion of this cheese is manu- 

 factured from the evening's milk skimmed, to which the 

 unskimmed morning's milk is added. Cheese of this type 

 commands the market at a remunerative price, from the fact 

 that the large Somerset dairy farms can place a much larger 

 number of cheeses from one day's make on the market than 

 can the smaller holdings in Wales. Nevertheless, the West 

 Country Caerphilly does not possess either the true flavour 

 or the keeping qualities of the cheese made in the original 

 home. A Caerphilly made in August or early in September, 

 if carefully managed, will keep and improve till the following 

 March or April, and in many instances turn out, both in colour 

 and flavour, a fine example of an excellent blue veined cheese. 



Manufacture of the Cheese. 



In the manufacture of Caerphilly cheese the milk of one 

 meal should be used. The rennet, of standard strength, is 

 added to the milk when the milk is at a temperature of 86° F., 

 and this is maintained as nearly as possible until the curd is 

 taken out of the cheese tub. It takes one dram of rennet to 

 coagulate three gallons of milk in one hour. The rennet, 

 having been accurately measured, should be mixed with pure 

 cold water to the extent of at least four times its volume ; this 

 insures a more perfect mixture in the milk. Home-made 

 rennet is unsatisfactory ; its strength is variable, and it 

 frequently contains organic matter, which rapidly decom- 

 poses. Rennet of such excellent quality, both English and 

 foreign, is now produced that its manufacture by the cheese- 

 maker would be very unwise. The curd is ready to cut when 

 it is firm enough to break over the finger without adhering to 

 it. Cutting is accomplished usually with the American curd 

 knives. Great care must be taken in the cutting, which must 

 be done slowly and gently, so as not to bruise the curd, or 



