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FARMERS' REGISTER— ON MAKING CttEESE. 



It is not known, or likely ever to be discovered, 

 when or by whom the use of rennet in coagu- 

 lating milk was discovered. It docs not appear 

 that any material improvement in making chcepe 

 had been made in Scotland al'ter the use of rennet 

 was known, until about the middle of last century, 

 when full-milk, or Dunlop cheese, began to be 

 made in the Bailliary of Cunningham, in the 

 county of Ayr. But by whom that cheese was 

 first made has not been discovered. The Rev. 

 Mr. Brisbane, minister of Dunlop, has introduced 

 a traditionary story into his account of that pa- 

 rish, of a woman of the name ot" Gilmour having 

 been taught in Ireland, whither she had fled du- 

 ring the persecutions belbre the revolution in 1688: 

 and on her return to Scotland, introduced that art 

 into her ufitive parish. If it could be shown that 

 any such cheese was then made in Ireland, the 

 Btory Avovdd be more worthy of credit. It is not 

 certain that the name "Dunlop cheese" proceeds 

 from the parish, or from a dealer in cheese from 

 the parish of Stewarton, whose name was Dun- 

 lop. Be that as it may, that species of cheese 

 was begun to be made by some farmers in the 

 Bailliary of Cunningham, prior to the middle of 

 last centur}-; and it has gradually extended over 

 the counties of Ayr, Rentrew, and Lanark, and in 

 Galloway. It is not inferior in my opinion to the 

 best cheese that is made in England or in Holland, 

 and its character continues to gain estimation. 



Wherever as many milchcowsarekept upon one 

 farm, as their collected milk will form a cheese of 

 a tolerable size, every time the cows are milked, 

 twice in the twenty-four hours, the milk is passed 

 through a sieve, to remove impurities, such as 

 hairs, and collected into a tub of a size to contain 

 the whole milkings. The rennet is then mixed 

 with the milk, and a cloth thrown over the tub till 

 the milk coagulates, which generally happens in 

 ten or fifteen minutes. But as milk should be 

 coagulated at nearly animal heat, and as it must 

 have cooled considerably in mi'king, passing 

 through the sieve, and pouring into the tub, it 

 might be proper to throw in a "small quantity of 

 hot water, to make up the heat that has been lost 

 before the curd is formed. This is done in some 

 dairies, particularly when the Aveather is cold. 



When the cows on any farm are not so numer- 

 ous as to yield milk sufficient to make two cheeses 

 every day, the milk drawn at night is placed m 

 coolers in the milk-house till next morning, when 

 as much of it is heated as brings the whole, with 

 that of the morning's milking, to the proper tem- 

 perature for being coagulated; and the two milk- 

 ings are formed into one cheese. In snme of the 

 English dairies, the cream taken off the cold milk 

 is heated so as to mal<e the whole sufficiently 

 warm for being formed into curd; but in the Scots 

 dairies the cream is taken off the milk, and the 

 ekim-milk only heated, so as to bring the mass 

 into a proper temperature. Either way may do, 

 but I am partial to the Scotch method, because 

 when the cream is heated, the butyraceous matter 

 in it must be melted into oil; after which I would 

 be afraid the oily particles would more readily go 

 away with the whey than when the cream had 

 never been melted. I know that the English 

 dairy people say, that the fat that goes ofT with 

 the whey is recovered in the shape of whey-but- 

 ter; but I consider the butter collected from whey 

 as a species of fraud, committed either intention- 



ally for gain, or more commonly the result of ig- 

 norance, and slovenly and unskilful practice. 

 When milk is coagulated at the proper tempera- 

 ture, the curd sparingly broken, and the whey 

 taken off with as little squeezing as possible, the 

 whey reseml)les sea water, and contains no part 

 of the butyraceous matter that would be possible 

 to collect. It is only when the milk is overheated, 

 or too much broken and squeezed, that butter 

 worth collecting is ever found in the whey. 



After the greatest part of the whey has been 

 removed by gentle means without bruising the 

 curd, but cutting and turning it up softly, and 

 when the curd lias been brought to the consisten- 

 cy of butter, it is placed in a drainer and cut into 

 pieces about two inches square; a board or lid is 

 then placed over it to compress it with a weight 

 of 40 lbs. or 50 lbs. in order to squeeze out the re- 

 mains of the whey. As the curd consolidates by 

 this pressure, it is necessary to turn it up twice or 

 thrice, at a quarter of an hour between each turn- 

 ing, and cut the curd as before, and renew the 

 pressure till the whey is expelled. The curd is 

 then cut into small pieces with a knile made for 

 the purpose, and mixed carefully Avilh salt. The 

 salted curd is then placed in the cheese vat, with 

 a piece of thin canvas around it, and subjected to 

 pressure. It is then a cheese. After the cheese 

 has remained under pressure for three hours or so, 

 it is turned out, a dry cloth put round it, and again 

 put under pressure; and this is repeated, twico 

 every twenty-four hours, till the cheese is com- 

 |)letely formed. Generally forty-eight hours after 

 it is first put into the press is sufficient for it. 



In some of the dairies the cheeses are (after 

 having been once or twice underpressure, and be- 

 ginning to adhere) put into a hot bath of water 

 for half an hour or so, and being well dried, they 

 are again put under pressure in a dry cheese vat 

 with a dry cloth round them. The intention of 

 the bath is to draw out the whey and accelerate 

 the pressing of the cheese. The water is made 

 as warm as a person can endure the hand in it. 

 This plan, however, has never come into general 

 use, and it is the opinion of some that it has a 

 tendency to soften the cheese too much at the 

 time, and to render it tough afterwards; as every 

 application of hot water to curd has the effect &f 

 rendering it tough. 



The Scots cheeses are always salted in the 

 curd at the time they are about to be put under 

 pressure, and never in brine, nor by rubbing with 

 dry salt after thev come from the press, as is gene- 

 rally done in Holland and Cheshire. Any of 

 these methods of salting may do; but surely the 

 Scottish way is the easiest, and the salt can be 

 given more exactly than in the other methods. 



When the cheeses are taken from the pres.^, 

 they are exposed for three or four days to the heat 

 of the kitchen, or some other such place, and turn- 

 ed over twice or thrice every day till they harden 

 a little, and then thej' are removed to the store- 

 room, and turned every second or third day. In 

 many of the small dairies the cheeses are stored 

 in the barn, on boards laid on the floor. Others 

 place them on the floors of garrets or attic storeys 

 of their dwelling houses. Of these the barn is 

 preferable to the garrets, which are too warm in 

 summer, especially if the house is roofed with 

 slates or tiles, and fire constantly kept in the 

 house. The barn is cool, airy, not too dry, nor 



