768 CHEESE 



acid is said to be used for this purpose in Holland. Some vegetables readily 

 coagulate milk, amongst others the juice of the fig-tree, and the flowers of the Galium 

 vcnim, the yellow lady's bed-straw, or cheese rennet. The odour of the flowers of 

 this plant is sweet, the stalks and flowers have been used in Cheshire to curdle milk, 

 and they are said to give a peculiar flavour to that kind of cheese. 



There are different kinds of cheeses according to the manner of preparing them. 



Soft cheeses^-SLB cream cheese, and Bath and Yorkshire cheese, which will not keep 

 long, and are therefore sold as soon as made. 



Hard cheeses as Cheshire, Gloucester, Cheddar, Parmesan, and Dutch cheese. 



Intermediate we may regard the Gruyere and Stilton. 



The following is the process used for cheese-making in general. The milk is first 

 strained, then put into a large cauldron, which hangs from an iron crane over <i 

 wood fire, and heated to nearly blood-heat. It is then removed from the fire, the 

 prepared rennet is added to it, and stirred till it is well mixed with the warm milk. 

 The cauldron is then covered with a cloth, and left for about half an hour or an 

 hour, till the coagulum is formed. This done, the curd is cut horizontally, with a 

 flat wooden skimming ladle, made for that purpose, into thin slices, which are poured 

 against the side of the cauldron, so that every portion of the curd thus rises to the 

 surface, and is thinly sliced. The cauldron is then replaced over the fire, and the 

 whole is 'well stirred with a long staff with a knob made of hard wood at the end, 

 and small sticks placed crosswise through holes bored in it ; this breaks the curd into 

 very small pieces ; the stirring is continued until the heat is raised to 135, when the 

 cauldron is again taken off the fire. It is then stirred for nearly an hour more with 

 the staff, and when this is done, the curd is found in small pieces about the size of a 

 pea, which feel elastic and rather tough. The curd is then collected in the bottom 

 of the cauldron, and the whey floats at the top : a cloth is put under the curd, and 

 lifted by the four corners on to an instrument, something like a small ladder which is 

 placed across the top of the cauldron. The whey runs out through the cloth, then 

 the curd in the cloth is put into a hoop, made of a thin piece of wood ; and a board 

 about two inches thick is placed over it; it is then put into the press. After 

 remaining in the press about an hour, the curd is examined, and the edges which 

 have pressed over the ring are pared off and put in the centre of the cheese. The 

 cheese is then taken out of the hoop and turned, and a fresh cloth substituted. This 

 is done two or three times during the day. A little finely-powdered salt is then 

 rubbed on both sides of the cheese, and it is left in the press until the next morning ; 

 after that it is taken out and put on a shelf, where it is allowed to remain for six or 

 eight weeks, having a little salt rubbed into it every day till it will not take any 

 more. The weather has a great influence on the dairy. In Cheshire, cheeses are 

 made in great perfection. In making them they are particularly careful to extract 

 every particle of whey ; to do this they press the curd very tightly in boxes with holes 

 bored in them ; they then put wooden skewers through these holes into the cheese, 

 so that no whey can possibly remain in the curd. This process gives Cheshire 

 cheeses the solid appearance which they possess. If there are any holes in them 

 they are considered imperfect. In these cheeses the salt is mixed with the curd, 

 instead of being rubbed on the outside of the cheese. This prevents fermentation, or 

 the formation of any elastic matter. Gloucester and Somersetshire cheeses are 

 made in just the same way as the Cheshire, except that the curd is not quite so 

 much broken, or the skewers put through the cheese, and some portion of the cream 

 is generally taken to make butter. Warm water is poured over the curd to wash 

 from it any whey that may still bo remaining in it, or to dissolve any of the oily 

 part, or butter, that may have separated, before the milk had been coagulated. 



Stilton cheeses require great care in making them. They are made by adding the 

 preceding evening's cream to the morning's milk. The cream and milk must be well 

 mixed together, and after the milk is coagulated, the curds must be strained through 

 a sieve, only lightly pressed, and then put into a shape ; when it is firm enough it is 

 taken out, bound round with a cloth to keep it from breaking, and set on a shelf. It 

 is sometimes powdered with flour and plunged into hot water to harden the outside. 

 Stilton cheese is generally preferred in a mouldy state, and to hasten this, pieces of 

 another mouldy cheese are often inserted in the new Stilton, or wine or ale poured 

 over it. But if the cheese is rich, it does not require this, but the inside will get soft 

 like butter, without getting mouldy. 



Gruyere and Parmesan cheeses are made by the process first described ; the only 

 difference between them being, that a greater degree of heat is used in making Par- 

 mesan than in making Gruyere, and this renders the Parmesan cheese dry and 

 grained, while the Gruyere is pressed and compact. A little saffron is also used to 

 give Parmesan colour and flavour, but nothing is used for Gruyere. 



Dutch cheeses are made in a very similar way to Gloxicester cheeses ; but instead 

 of using rennet tcr curdle the milk, the Dutch use muriatic acid, or spirits of salt. 



