350 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



within my knowledge, the buttermilk would go back to the 

 cheese and serve to enrich it. The cheeses, in general, are made 

 very hard, which is owing, in the first place, to cutting the curd 

 very fine, and next, to the severe pressure which is given to 

 them. The rennets are here called veils ; and the best are im 

 ported from Ireland. At one of the principal dairies which I 

 visited, it was customary to put six skins, at the beginning of the 

 season, into two gallons of brine, and use this liquid for forming 

 the curd, in such quantities, and at such time, as required. A 

 quantity of lemon was also put into the liquid, to correct the 

 taste and give it a flavor ; but I believe with no advantage to 

 the cheese. It is strongly urged not to use the rennets until 

 they are a full year old, as otherwise they cause the cheese to 

 heave and to be full of holes. In most dairies, it is customary to 

 scald the curd with hot whey, but by the best dairy-women this 

 is disapproved, as tending to impoverish the cheese. The color 

 ing the cheese with anatto is not universally practised, nor does 

 it much benefit the sale, where the character of the dairy is 

 known.* 



I received from two sources, where the cheese was of the first 

 quality, two recipes for making Stilton cheese, and one for mak 

 ing Cheshire, which I shall subjoin. 



(1.) Stilton Cheese. &quot;To fill one of the Stilton moulds, 

 take nine gallons of new milk, and one gallon of cream. Take 



* Several questions have been proposed, by a respected correspondent, on 

 cheese-making. I shall answer to the best of my information. 



The skins for rennet are to be procured a year before they are wanted ; to be 

 cleaned of all impurity ; to be turned inside out and salted; to be then packed 

 down one upon the other in salt, with a layer of salt between each ; and then cov 

 ered with salt and shut up. As they are wanted, a month before being used, they 

 are to be taken out ; the brine drained from them ; spread and powdered with fine 

 salt ; rolled out, and distended upon sticks ; and hung up to dry. 



The temperature of the milk, when the rennet is applied, should be from 80 to 

 84 Fahr. The dairy-women in some parts of the country, who make very good 

 cheese, make their cheeses cold, that is, coagulate at a very low temperature. 

 This cheese is said always to meet a quick demand. They likewise salt them 

 but lightly. 



The curd is broken by a machine, being formed of projecting teeth set upon a 

 cylinder; and the curd, being placed in a kind of hopper, passes through them 

 and is ground fine. 



An hour, or an hour and a half, is thought the proper time for the process of 



