THE DAIRY. 315 



a peculiar character to the cheeses of certain districts. In 

 Italy they make a cheese after the manner of the English, 

 into which a considerable quantity of butter is worked ; and 

 the Rcclicm cheese of Belgium is made by adding half an 

 ounce of butter and the yolk of an egg to every pound of 

 pressed curd. 



Size of the cliesse. From the same milk it is obvious that 

 cheeses of different size.-?, if treated in the same way, will, at 

 the one! of a given number of months possess qualities in a 

 considerable degree different. Hence, without supposing 

 any inferiority, either in the milk or in the general mode of 

 trrainuMit, the size usually adopted for the cheeses of a par- 

 licular district or dairy, may be the cause of a recognized 

 inferiority in some quality which it is desirable that they 

 should possess in a high degree. 



The method of curing has very much influence upon the 

 after-qualities of the cheese. The care with which they are 

 sailed, the warmth of the place in which they are kept during 

 i he first two or three weeks, the temperature and closeness 

 of the cheese-room in which they are afterwards preserved, 

 the frequency of turning, of cleaning from mould, and rubbing 

 with butter ; all these circumstances exercise a remarkable 

 influence upon the after -qualities of the cheese. Indeed, .in 

 very many instances the high reputation of a particular dairy 

 district or dairy farm, is derived from some special attention 

 to one or other or to all of the apparently minor points to 

 which I have just adverted. In Tuscany, the cheeses, alt^r 

 being h;mg up for some time at a proper distance from t no- 

 li re, are put to ripen in an underground, cool and clamp cellar ; 

 iwid the celebrated French cheeses of Roquefort are supposed 

 to owe much of the peculiar estimation in which they are held, 

 to the cool and uniform temperature of the subterranean 

 caverns in which the inhabitants of the village have long 

 been accustomed to preserve them. 



Ammoniacal cJieese. The influence of the mode of curing 

 upon the quality is shown very strikingly in the small ainmo- 

 niacal cheeses of Brie, which are very much esteemed in 

 Paris. They are soft impressed cheeses, which are allowed 

 to ripen in a room the temperature of which is kept between 

 60 and 70 Farenheit, till they begin to undergo the putrefac- 

 tive fermentation and emit an ammoniacal odor. They are 

 generally unctuous, and sometimes so small as not to weigh 

 more than an ounce. 



