773 



CHEESE. 



CHELIDONINE. 



774 



much depends on the management of the cheese after it is made as on 

 the richness of the milk. Each dairy-woman has some peculiar method 

 which she considers as the best ; and it is certain that there is the 

 greatest difference between cheeses made in contiguous dairies. The 

 rennet should be very pure and sweet. When the milk is coagulated, 

 the whole curd is taken out, drained on a sieve, and very moderately 

 pressed. It is then put into a shape in the form of a cylinder, eight 

 or nine inches in diameter, the axis of which is longer than the 

 diameter of the base. When it is sufficiently firm, a cloth or tape is 

 wound round it to prevent its breaking, and it is set on a shelf. It is 

 occasionally powdered with flour, and plunged into hot water. This 

 hardens the outer coat and favours the internal fermentation, which 

 Hpens it. Stilton cheese is generally preferred when a green mould 

 appears in its texture. To accelerate this, pieces of a mouldy cheese are 

 "mutinies inserted into holes made for the purpose by the scoop, 

 called a tatter, and wine or ale is poured over for the same purpose ; 

 but the best cheeses do not require this, and are in perfection when 

 the inside becomes soft like butter, without any appearance of mouldi- 

 ness. In making very rich cheeses the whey must be allowed to run 

 off slowly, because, if it were forced rapidly, it might carry off a great 

 portion of the fat of the cheese. This happens more or less in every 

 mode of making cheese. To collect this superabundant butter, the 

 whey is set in shallow pans, as is done with milk when butter is made ; 

 and an inferior kind of butter called whey butter is made from the 

 cream or fat skimmed off. Keevil's cheese-making machine, which cuts 

 by the slow revolution of a framework of wires through the curd, 

 separates the whey so gradually that no buttery matter is carried off 

 with it, and no whey butter can be formed. 



Cheeses are frequently coloured, a practice which probably arose 

 from the notion of making the cheese look richer ; but now it deceives 

 no one. Yet if some cheeses were not coloured, they would not be so 

 marketable, owing to the association that subsists between the colour 

 and the quality of the cheese. The substance used for colouring is 

 most commonly arnotto. [ARNOTTO.] It is ground fine on a stone, and 

 mixed with the milk at the time the rennet is put in. The juice 

 of the orange carrot, and flower of the marygold, are also used for 

 this purpose. This last give a more natural tint than the arnotto, 

 which is too red. Cheddar cheese made in Somersetshire, which is 

 highly prized, Stilton, Derby, and some other cheeses, are never 

 coloured : Cheshire slightly : but some dairies in Gloucester and 

 North Wiltshire colour deeply. Foreign cheeses are only coloured 

 very slightly, if at all ; the Dutch cheeses are made in a very similar 

 manner to the Gloucester cheeses, but the milk is generally curdled by 

 means of muriatic acid or spirits of salt : and great care is taken to 

 prevent fermentation, and to extract the whole of the whey. For 

 this purpose the curd is repeatedly broken and pressed ; and before it 

 is made up into the round shape in which it is usually sold, the 

 broken curd is well soaked in a strong solution of common salt in water. 

 This diffuses the salt throughout the whole mass, and effectually 

 checks fermentation. When the cheeses are finally pressed, all the 

 whey which may remain is washed out with the brine ; salt is likewise 

 rubbed over the outside, and they are set to dry on shelves in a cool 

 place. The flavour of the cheese is perhaps impaired by the stoppage 

 of the fermentation ; but it never heaves, and it acquires the valuable 

 quality of keeping well even in warm climates. From the place where 

 this cheese is commonly made, it is known by the name of Edam 

 cheese. A finer cheese is made at Gouda and other places, by imitating 

 the process in making Gruyere cheese ; but this cheese is always full 

 of small cavities, and will not keep so long as the Edam. The cheese 

 most commonly met with in Holland is a large kind of skim-milk 

 cheese, which is made very like Cheshire cheese. It grows hard and 

 dry, and has not much flavour. To supply this defect, cummin seeds 

 are mixed with the curd, which those who are accustomed to it 

 consider a great improvement. On the whole it is a better cheese 

 than our Suffolk skim-milk cheese, and forms an important part of the 

 provisions usually stored for a Dutch family. In France the Roquefort 

 cheese is compared to our Stilton, but is much inferior, although a 

 good cheese. The little cheeses made from cream and folded in paper, 

 called Neufchatel cheeses are imported from France as a delicacy. 

 They can be easily imitated, being nothing more than cream thickened 

 by teat, and pressed in a small mould. They undergo a rapid change, 

 lirst becoming sour and then mellow, in which state they must be 

 eaten. 



A small cheese, much relished by all ranks, is made in the north of 

 Germany in the simplest manner. It is usually made from milk from 

 which the cream has been taken off to make butter, although the 

 entire milk is much better. This is curdled by being placed near a 

 fire. When it has become somewhat sour, it is put into a linen bag, 

 and all the whey well pressed out. When it is tolerably solid, it is 

 broken by the hand in a tub, and made very fine. It remains in this 

 state several days, until a considerable alteration takes place, and the 

 putrid fermentation begins, as is readily perceived by the odour. It 

 U then taken in small portions, and formed into flattened balls three 

 or four inches in diameter, by beating them in the hands. These balls 

 are ranged on a board, and set to dry. A portion of caraway seed is 

 generally mixed with the curd. In a few days the mellowing goes on, 

 and the centre becomes very soft. In this state it is a great dainty 

 for those who disregard a pungent and fetid smell. They are some- 



times placed in the smoke of a chimney where the putrid fermentation 

 is checked and confined to the centre by the pyroligneous acid arising 

 from a wood fire. They remain in the chimney a considerable time ; 

 and when they are used the outer part is peeled off like the rind of an 

 apple. A whole cheese is a mere mouthful. It gives a relish to the 

 sour black rye bread generally eaten by the lower orders. 



The green Swiss cheese, commonly called Schabzitger, which is made 

 in the canton of Glarus, and is by many persons highly esteemed, is 

 made somewhat in the same manner. The curd is pressed in boxes 

 with holes to let the whey run out ; and when a considerable quantity 

 has been collected and putrefaction begins, it is worked into a paste 

 with a large proportion of a certain dried herb reduced to powder. 

 This herb, called in the country dialect Zieger kraut (curd-herb), is the 

 ifelilotus offieincUis, which is very common in most countries, and has a 

 peculiar aromatic flavour in the mountains of Switzerland. The paste 

 thus produced is pressed into moulds of the shape of a common flower- 

 pot, and the putrefaction being stopped by the aromatic herb, it dries 

 into a solid mass, which keeps unchanged for any length of time. 

 When used it is rasped or scraped, and the powder mixed with fresh 

 butter is spread upon bread. It is either much relished or much 

 disliked, like all those substances which have a peculiar taste and 

 smell. 



A species of cheese or rather hard curd is made in the mountains of 

 Switzerland from the whey which has run from the common cheese 

 made of the whole milk. It is called ierri. When the Gruyere or the 

 Jura cheese, which is often sold by the same name, has been put under 

 the press, a quantity of fermented whey, about two or three gallons, is 

 poured into the caldron with the new whey, and the whole is heated 

 over the fire till a thick scum rises. This is taken off when the whey 

 is nearly boiling, and put into a square box with holes in it ; the whey 

 which remained mixed with the curd, and which is now very blue, is 

 allowed to run out, and a small pressure assists it. When a cheese of 

 sixty pounds has been made, the serre will often weigh twenty pounds. 

 This mass of curd readily dries on the shelf, and becomes hard. It has 

 little flavour, but it serves the people on the mountains for bread. 

 They cut slices of it, spread some butter over, and put a thin slice of 

 cheese upon this : washed down with a cup of fresh or of fermented 

 whey, it forms the chief food of the mountain herdsmen. The only 

 luxury indulged in is an occasional glass of kirschwasser, a spirit 

 distilled from cherries, or of gentian brandy, from the root of the 

 Gentiana officinalu. 



When a cheese which has been much salted and kept very dry is 

 washed several times in soft water, and then laid in a cloth moistened 

 with wine or vinegar, it gradually loses its saltness, and from being 

 hard and dry, becomes soft and mellow, provided it be a rich cheese. 

 This simple method of improving cheese is worth knowing. It is gene- 

 rally practised in Switzerland, where cheeses are kept stored for many 

 years, and if they were not very salt and dry they would soon be the 

 prey of worms and mites. A dry Stilton cheese may thus be much 

 improved. 



CHELERYTHRINE. [CHELIDONINE.] 



CHELIDONIC ACID (C 14 H,p,., + 2aq.) occurs in the same plant as 

 CHELIDONINE, in combination with that and other bases, principally, 

 however, with lime. The lime salt may be obtained from the juice 

 pressed from the fresh plant, best gathered when in full flower. This 

 liquid is boiled, filtered, acidified with nitric acid, and solution of 

 nitrate of lead added so long as a precipitate falls, care being taken 

 not to add excess of nitrate. The washed precipitate still retaining 

 lime is decomposed by passing sulphuretted hydrogen for two or three 

 days through water in which it is suspended ; the solution, filtered, is 

 then neutralised with chalk, decolourised with animal charcoal, and 

 evaporated to the crystallising point. 



With the chelidonate of lime thus produced, combinations of 

 chelidonic acid with almost any of the bases can be conveniently pre- 

 pared by double decomposition with their neutral and other salts. An 

 interesting class of compounds is thus obtained, containing one, two, 

 or three equivalents of metal in the place of one, two, or three equi- 

 valents of hydrogen. 



It is not easy to isolate chelidonic acid from its salts. Perhaps the 

 best method is to obtain it from its combination with ammonia, a salt 

 produced by double decomposition of chelidonate of lime and carbonate 

 of ammonia. To a concentrated solution of this compound, twice its 

 volume of strong hydrochloric acid is added. The whole usually sets 

 into a solid mass, from which the chelidonic acid may be finally 

 obtained pure by repeated crystallisation from water. 



This acid forms long colourless needles. In the air they slowly 

 effloresce. Heated to 212 Fahr. they lose their two atoms of water 

 of crystallisation, and at a higher temperature decompose. They are 

 soluble to a certain extent in cold water, but very much so in boiling 

 water. They are also dissolved by alcohol. 



Chelidonic acid dissolves in concentrated sulphuric acid, without 

 alteration, unless heat is applied, when decomposition quickly occurs. 

 Strong nitric acid acts very slowly upon it ; slightly diluted, nitrous 

 fumes are evolved, and an acid produced that has not yet been 

 examined ; it is not oxalic acid. 



Chelidonic acid dissolves iron or zinc, with disengagement of 

 hydrogen gas. 



CHELIDONINE (C W H IB N S ?). An alkaloid found in the common. 



