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flat bai* tome milk which has been betted to about 95 of Fahrenheit, 

 and adds mull measure of rennet; by the rapidity with which it 

 curdle*, and the form of the flakes produced, he knows its exact 

 strength and put* more or leu into the caldron in which the milk is 

 heated for curdling. A ample instrument might be easily invented, 

 by which the exact degree of itrength might be ascertained, and a rule 

 given to guide the lea* experienced ; but as long u a man feels a 

 superiority acquired by experience alone, he U not likely to encourage 

 any contrivance which would place others on a level with himself. 

 From this cause even the thermometer has not been introduced gene- 

 rally into any great dairy, nor hare any certain rules been given to 

 ascertain the exact heat required in the milk, when the rennet is added, 

 to form the beat curd. 



There are different kinds of cheese, according to the mode of pre- 

 paring it : soft and rich cheeses are not intended to be kept long ; hard 

 and dry cheeses are adapted to be kept and stored for provisions. Of 

 the first kind are all cream cheeses, and those soft cheeses called Bath 

 cheeses and Yorkshire cheeses, which are sold as soon as made, and if 

 kept too long become soft and putrid. Stilton and Gruycre cheeses 

 are intermediate ; Parmesan, Dutch, Cheshire, Gloucestershire, and 

 jmiUr cheeses, are intended for longer keeping. The poorer the cheese 

 is the longer it will keep ; and all cheese that is well cleared from whey 

 and sufficiently salted will keep for years. The small Dutch cheeses called 

 Edam cheeses are admirably adapted for keeping, and form an fmportant 

 article in the victualling of ships. 



The Gruyere and Parmesan cheeses only differ in the nature of the 

 milk and in the degree of heat given to the curd in different parts of 

 the process. Oruyere cheese is entirely made from new milk, and 

 Parmesan from skimmed milk. In the first nothing is added to give 

 flavour ; in the latter saffron gives both colour and flavour : the process 

 in both U exactly similar. A large caldron in the shape of a 1 ]!. 

 capable of holding from 60 to 120 gallons of milk, hangs from an iron 

 crane over a hearth where a wood fire is made. The milk, having been 

 strained, is put into this caldron, and heated to nearly blood-heat 

 (95 to 100*). It is then turned off the fire, and some rennet, pre- 

 pared as stated above, is intimately mixed with the warm milk by 

 stirring it with the hand, in which is held a flat wooden skimming-dish, 

 which is turned round in the milk while the hand and arm stir it. A 

 cloth if then laid over the caldron, and in half an hour, more or less, 

 the coagulum is formed. This is ascertained by pressing the skimming- 

 dish on the surface, when the whey will appear on the part pressed. 

 If it is longer than an hour in coagulating, the milk has been too cool 

 or the rennet not strong enough. The weather has a great influence on 

 the process of the dairy, and there is much yet to be learned by 

 accurate observations with meteorological instruments, especially elec- 

 trometers. When the curd is properly formed, it is cut horizontally 

 in thin slices by the same skimming-ladle. Each slice, as it is taken 

 off, is poured along the side of the caldron which is nearest to the 

 operator ; by this means every portion of the curd rises successively to 

 the surface, and is sliced thin. The whole is then well stirred, and the 

 caldron is replaced over the fire. A long staff, with a small knob of 

 hard wood at the end, and which has smaller cross pieces or sticks 

 psssnd through holes in it at right angles to each other near the end, is 

 now used to stir and break the curd, and the heat is raised to about 

 135, which is as hot as the arm can well bear, even when used to it. 

 The caldron is again swung off the fire, and the curd is stirred with 

 the staff, which U moved round with a regular rotatory motion, the 

 knob running along the angle formed with the side by the bottom of 

 the caidron, which is in the form of a bowL After stirring in this 

 manner nearly an hour, the curd U found divided into small dice 

 about the size of a pea, which feel elastic and rather tough under tho 

 finger. Experience alone can teach the exact feel they should have. 

 The whey, of which a portion U removed occasionally, now floats at top, 

 and the curd is collected in the bottom by giving a very rapid rotatory 

 motion to the contents of the caldron by means of the staff. A cloth 

 U now introduced into the bottom, and all the curd collected over it ; 

 it is raised by the four corners, and laid on an instrument like a small 

 ladder, which is placed across the mouth of the caldron. The whey 

 runs out through the cloth, which U a common cheese-cloth, woven 

 with wide interstices ; and the curd in the cloth is placed in a shape or 

 hoop made of a slip of wood four inches and a half wide, the two ends 

 of which lie over each other, so that the diameter can be increased or 

 lessened A cord fixed to one end of the hoop is passed with a loop 

 over hooks on the outer surface of the other end, and prevents the 

 ring from opening more than is required. The curd is pressed into 

 this ring with the hands, and the ends of the cloth are folded over 

 it A round board, two inches thick, and strengthened by cross 

 pieces nailed on it, is place* over the curd, and the press let down 

 upon it. 



The cheese-press is a simple long board or frame forming a lever, 

 loaded at on* end and moving in a frame at the other ; it is lifted up 

 bv another lever connected with it, and let down on a strong stick, 

 which stands with its end on the centre of the board last-mentioned. 

 T*s the weight U easily removed or replaced. The hoop containing 

 the cheese is placed on a similar board, and from it the table of the 

 press slopes towards a wooden trough, which receives the whey as it 

 runs out In so hour after this, the curd is examined; the edges, 

 which are pressed over the ring, are pared off, and the parings are put 



on the centre of the cheese ; a fresh cloth is substituted, and the whole 

 cheese is turned. The ring, which opens readily by unhooking the 

 con!, allows the cheese to come out, and is nut on again and tightened. 

 This is repeated two or three times in the day. In the evening, a 

 small portion of finely powdered salt is rubbed on each ride of the 

 cheese, and it remains in the press till the next morning. It is now 

 again rubbed with salt, and placed on a shelf with a loose board under 

 it. The wooden ring remains on the cheese for two or three days, and 

 is then taken off. This is the whole process. 



During the next six or eight weeks, the cheeses are turned and 

 wiped every day, and a small quantity of fine salt is sifted on the 

 surface and rubbed in with the hand until it will take no more. The 

 cheese-room is always very cool , and little light is admitted. A free 

 circulation of air U essential. The cheeses are in perfection in about 

 six months, and will keep two years. A quantity of elastic fluid i - 

 disengaged in the ripening, and forms those round eyes which are a 

 peculiar feature in these cheeses. The smaller and rounder the eyes, 

 the better the cheese is reckoned. They should contain a clear salt 

 liquor, which is called the tears ; when these dry up, the cheese loses 

 its flavour. These particulars will give any one unacquainted with 

 the dairy a tolerable notion of the process of cheese-making in 

 general 



In Cheshire the making of cheese is carried on in great perfection, 

 and the greatest pains are taken to extract every particle of whey. The 

 dairy management is as follows : The cows are milked at night, and 

 the milk is poured into tin pans on the floor of the milk-house. This 

 milk is skimmed in the morning, and then poured into the large tub 

 where the curd is " set." As the morning's milking proceeds, the pails 

 full are brought one after another and poured into this tub. A pan of 

 milk U warmed in a boiler in the dairy, and when sufficiently hot the 

 cream just taken from the evening's milk is mixed with if, and the 

 whole thus warmed U poured at last into the tub which thus contain* 

 tin- whole milk, en-am and all, of both "meals." The colouring 

 matter, "annatto," apparently about a gill, is added to the loo or 1'J" 

 gallons which may be then in the tub as the produce of 48 to 50 cows ; 

 a half handful of saltpetre is thrown in with the view of correcting the 

 bitterness which is to be detected while the butter-cups are in full 

 leaf ; and the rennet, about a pint of brine in which two or three, little 

 bite of the prepared veils or " bag skins " have been steeped over night, 

 u added to the milk, which is then left for an hour covered up till the 

 curd has f ully formed. It is then cut slowly with a wire curd breaker, 

 and the curd sinking, the whey is baled out ; the curd is collected and 

 squeezed both by hand and by the direct pressure of a weight above a 

 board placed upon it, and the last of the whey being removed it is 

 lifted into one of the large Cheshire cheese vats pierced with holes for 

 the further escape of fluid ; the lower part being a wooden cylindrir.il 

 vat, and the upper a tinned cylinder slipping into it as the curd on 

 pressure sinks. After a certain pressure in this form, the curd is 

 removed and cut and broken by hand, and from 1 to 2 Ibs. of fine salt 

 is scattered over it, and the whole rebroken and refilled into the vat, 

 into which a cheese cloth has previously been placed. There it renmin~ 

 for the day, yielding somewhat to the pressure of its own weight. It 

 is then put gradually under pressure, which on the second or third day 

 amounts to nearly a ton weight upon each cheese. 



Every day the cheese is turned and wrapped in fresh cloths, and on 

 the seventh or eighth day of this treatment, or as soon as dry, it is 

 removed to the loft and there, swathed around with strong girthing, 

 placed on a bench. By-and-by it is laid, still swathed as before, on a 

 layer of straw on the floor of the room, and there it lies till from ten 

 weeks to four months old, when it is ready for sale. 



This U pretty generally the history of a Cheshire cheese. In some 

 dairies, in order to the perfect extraction of the whey, skewers are 

 used to pierce it, being thrust repeatedly into it through the holes in 

 the cheese vat, in order to the formation of drains for the liquid. 

 The whey is heated in a boiler, and throws up a cream, called 

 " fleetings," which is skimmed twice, the first yielding a very good 

 butter, and the latter a substance used principally for feeding ' 

 the whey is afterwards given to the pigs. Excepting a portion of the 

 cream from the milk used in the house, and that which thus comes 

 from the whey, the Cheshire cheese is a whole-milk cheese, and as rich, 

 therefore, as any that is made. 



Gloucester and Somersetshire cheeses are similarly made, with this 

 difference, that the curd is not so often broken or the cheese skewered, 

 and a portion of the cream is generally abstracted to make butter. 

 After the curd has been separated from the whey and is broken fine, a 

 little warm water is sometimes poured over it for the purpose of 

 washing out any remaining whey, or perhaps to dissolve any porti< .n of 

 butter which may have separated before the rennet had coagulated the 

 milk ; for although cream adds to the richness of cheese, butter 

 to make it rancid. This practice is, however, both lazy an<l 

 chievous, inasmuch as it impoverishes the curd. Gloucester cheeses, 

 too, are not so heavy M Cheshire, or as Cheddar and other Son 

 cheeses. 



Stilton cheese Is made by adding the cream of the preceding even- 

 ing's milk to the mornings milking. The cream should be intinnt. I \ 

 incorporated with the new milk ; great attention shoidd 1>c j..iid lo tl,, 

 temperature of both, and much of the quality of the cheene depends 

 on thin part of th- process. To make this cheese in perfection n- 



