THE DAIRY. 247 



days. After being taken from the press, it is put upon a shelf and turned every day, and 

 after curing in the cheese room for two or three months, it is ready for market. The Double 

 Gloucester cheese is made by the addition of cream to the milk. 



Gorgonzola Cheese. This is an Italian variety of cheese that is imported into Eng 

 land to a considerable extent, and is highly esteemed there by the wealthy consumers, being 

 considered by many as equal to the Stilton variety. Willard says, respecting this kind of 

 cheese: 



&quot; At the International Dairy Fair in New York a few years ago, samples of Italian Gor- 

 gonzola were shown, and they were examined with much attention by many of our dairymen 

 at the exhibition, and the question was then frequently asked whether this variety could not 

 be successfully imitated in this country. I have heard, however, of no attempts having been 

 made in this direction, though I am told the cheese is imported and may be found occasionally 

 in New York and other of our chief cities in small quantity, and that it sells for a very high 

 price from twenty-five to thirty cents per pound, and sometimes more. The cheese has 

 obtained prizes at London, Paris, and Florence, and its excellence has been in part attributed 

 to the healthy and aromatic plants upon which the cows feed. Good sweet grasses, grown 

 upon soils and in locations where they can mature in perfection, have undoubtedly an impor 

 tant influence in promoting the flavor and richness of cheese, in distinction from grasses 

 grown on low, wet grounds, or where there is a surplus of moisture to cause it to be watery, 

 immature, or furnishing feed that farmers usually designate as u sour.&quot; 



Some of the leading features in making Gorgonzola appear to be the mode of expelling 

 the whey from the curds; the mingling together of the warm and cold curds; the manner of 

 applying salt, and the curing of the cheese. 



The curds are made twice a day from warm milk, soon after it is drawn from the cow, 

 good sweet rennet being employed for coagulation, and a sufficient quantity used to perfect 

 that operation in from ten to fifteen minutes. The curd is then broken up and left alone 

 until it has settled to the bottom of the vat, when it is still more divided up with a wooden 

 instrument, always drawn in one direction. 



The whey having separated, the curd is hung up in hempen bags to drain. The cold 

 curds of the evening are mingled with the warm curds of the next morning s mess of milk, 

 being placed in flexible wooden bands covered on their inside with hemp cloth, and placed on 

 an inclined board, strewn with rye chaff. In mingling the two curds together, care is taken 

 that the upper and lower sides of the cheese are formed of warm curds, so as to insure a 

 good rind the cold and warm curds, if mingled for the outside, not properly uniting. &quot;With 

 this exception, the two curds forming the cheese are mingled in layers, the warm and cold 

 alternating. The curds, thus mingled, are further drained during the first day of the pro 

 cess by two or three turnings. On the following day, the cheese having obtained some con 

 sistency, the cloth is removed and the cheese weighed. After three or four days, fermenta 

 tion begins, and the wooden bands are removed. It is then salted on its upper and lower 

 sides once a day alternately for eight or ten days, four ounces of pulverized salt being used 

 on an average for thirty-five pounds of cheese. Some manufacturers adopt the plan of fre 

 quently turning and pressing the cheese against a salt-covered surface, thus insuring more 

 uniformity and a better rind. 



The color changes in a month to a pinkish white, if good, and if bad, to a black. &quot;When 

 black, the rind is soft, and the cheese perishable in summer. If the crust is sufficiently hard, 

 the shade is improved by one or two dippings in salt water. The cheese is cured in a room 

 kept at a temperature of about 65. They are placed on tables thinly covered with straw, at 

 first; afterwards they are kept in a cellar for six or eight weeks, and during that time they 

 are repeatedly turned, wiped, and salted. It takes about 100 quarts of milk to make twenty- 

 five pounds of cured cheese, or cheese fit for market. 



