432 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XXXVII. 



to a new one, of whatever species, by the insertion of some portions being 

 intermixed with it. This is done by extracting small pieces with the 

 sample-scoop from each cheese, and interchanging them; by which means 

 the new one, if well covered up from the air, will in a few weeks become 

 thoroughly impregnated with the mould, and with a flavour hardly to be 

 distinguislied from the old one. The cheeses selected for this operation 

 should however be dry, and the blue mould should be free from any portion 

 of a more decayed appearance *. 



DUN'LOP CHEESE 



has in the last half-century been brouglit into great vogue for its mild 

 richness, and is now very generally made throughout the counties of Ren- 

 frew, Lanark, Ayr, and Galloway, in various sizes, from a quarter to half 

 a hundred-weight ; the process of which — as we learn from Mr. Alton f 

 and others — is as follows : — 



AVhen so many cows are kept on one farm as that a cheese of any 

 tolerable size may be made every time they are milked, the milk is 

 passed, immediately as it comes from them, through a sieve into the 

 vat ; and, when the whole is collected, it is formed into a curd by the 

 mixture of the rennet. Where, however, the cows are not so numerous 

 as to yield milk sufficient to form a cheese at each meal, the milk of 

 another meal is stored about six or eight inches deep in coolers, and 

 placed in the milk-house. The cream is then skimmed from the milk 

 in the coolers, and, without being heated, is put into the curd-vat 

 along with the milk just drawn from the cows, and the cold milk, 

 from which the cream has been taken, is heated so as to /aise the 

 temperature to about blood-heat. This, indeed, is a matter of great 

 importance ; and though in summer 90° may be sufficient, yet upon 

 the average of winter weather 95° will be generally found requisite. 

 If coagulated much warmer, the curd becomes too adhesive, much of the 

 butyraceous matter is lost in the whey, and the cheese will be found 

 dry, tough, and tasteless; but if too cold, the curd, which is then soft, 

 does not part readily with the serum, and the cheese is so wanting in 

 firmness that it is difficult to be kept together: indeed, even when the 

 utmost pains are taken to extract the whey, and give solidity to the 

 cheese, holes — which in dairy-language are termed " eyes," " whey- 

 drops," and " springs" — frequently break out, and always render them 

 either rancid or insi])id. 



About a table-spoonful of the liquid rennet is generally thought 

 sufficient for 100 quarts of milk, and the curd is usually formed by it 

 within twelve or fiiieen minutes ; though in some dairies — of course in 

 consequence of the dill'erence of strength in the rennet — it does not 

 come from three-quarters of an hour to an hour, though double the 

 quantity of rennet is used. The curd is then broken with the skim- 

 ming-dish, or with the hand, and the whey ought to be taken oft" as 

 speedily as possible ; though without pressing, as the least violence 

 has been found to make it come oft" white, and thus weaken the 

 quality of the cheese J. 



* See Transactions of the Highland Society, N. S. vol. iii. p. 232. 



-}■ See his Dairy Husbandry, chap. iii. ; and his Survey of Ayrshire, chap. xiv. sec. 1 ; 

 also the Report on Dairy Management, in the Transactions of the Highland Society, 

 N. S. vol. i. 



J The best method of separating the whey from the curd is, in the first instance, to lift 

 the edge of the cheese-tub, and let the whey run off slowly from it into a vessel, placed 



