Ch. XXXVII.] ON CHEESE. 425 



reputation, have only been of comparatively late years brought into use. 

 In Ireland the farms are generally so small, and the means of making-, 

 both in buildings and implements, so insufficient, besides the poverty which 

 compels the dairyman to resort to immediate sale, that cheese is but 

 seldom made ; and there is .'only one species, that of " Kinnegad," which 

 we ever hear of as there manufactured. In all our dairies the same main 

 ])oints are admitted to be essential ; but, although the means of attainino- 

 them are nearly alike in similar districts, yet in others they differ materially 

 in the minutiae, and upon these muLh of the art of cheese-making depends. 

 We therefore insert the details of the modes employed on some of the 

 most celebrated kinds. 



CHESHIRE CHEESE. 



That of Cheshire, as described in Holland's Survey, is generally made 

 with two meals of milk ; and that, even in dairies where two cheeses are 

 made in a day : indeed, in the beginning and end of the season, three, 

 four, and even five or six meals are kept for the same cheese. The general 

 custom is — 



To take about a pint of cream, when two-meal cheeses are made, 

 from the night's milk of twenty cows. In order to make cheese of 

 the best quality, and in the greatest abundance, it is, however, ad- 

 mitted that the cream should remain in the milk ; for whether the 

 cream that is once separated from it, can by any means be again so 

 intimately united with it as not to undergo a decomposition in the 

 after process, admits of some doubt. The more common practice is, 

 however, to set the evening's milk apart till the following morninrr, 

 when the cream is skimmed ofl', and three or four gallons of the milk 

 are poured into a brass pan, which is immediately placed in the furnace 

 of hot water, and made scalding hot; then half of the milk thus 

 heated is poured upon the night's milk, and the other half is mixed 

 with the cream, which is thus liquefied, so as, when put into the 

 cheese-tub, to form one uniform fluid. This is done by the dairy- 

 woman while the other servants are milking the cows, and the morn- 

 ing's milk being then immediately added to that of the eveninir, the 

 whole mass is at once set together for cheese. 



The rennet and colouring* being then put into the tub, the whole 

 is well stirred together ; a wooden cover is put over the tub, and over 

 that is thrown a linen cloth. The usual time of " coming," or curdling, 

 is one hour and a-half, during which time it is frequently to be ex- 

 amined. If the cream rises to the surface before the coining takes 

 place, as it often does, the whole must be stirred together so as to 

 mix again the milk and the cream ; and this, as often as it rises, until 

 the coagulation commences. If the dairy-woman supposes the milk 

 to have been accidentally put together cooler than she intended, or 

 that its coolness is the cause of its not coming, hot water, or hot 

 milk, may be poured into it, or hot water in a brass pan may be 

 partially immerged in it. This must, however, be done before it is 



* Spanish annatto is the drug usually emploj'ed: little more than the quarter of an 

 ounce of which is sufficient for a cheese of CO lbs. Other colouring matters are how- 

 ever used, such as marigolds boiled in milk, which give a pleasant flavour; and carrots 

 also boiled in milk and strained, which impart a rich colour, but a rather stronc- taste. 

 The annatto is generally put in by nibbing a piece of it in a bowl with some waira 

 milk, which is afterwards allowed to stand a little, in order to drain off the sediment, 

 and is then mixed with the entire quantity. 



