CHEESE-MAKING. 97 



tureless, and wanting in cohesion ; or it may, as indeed it 

 commonly does, ripen out into fair cheese, and occasionally 

 into very good. But this is all a problem a lottery before- 

 hand ; and at the best, where the acid is not regularly and 

 systematically developed, there is a lack of uniformity in the 

 cheese which detracts seriously from its value in the market. 



Now I say that the practice of keeping a few pounds of curd, 

 unsalted, to put into the next day's cheese, is an excellent 

 practice, and second only to the Cheddar method of developing 

 acidity by means of warmth. The curd that is kept becomes 

 perceptibly acid in twenty-four hours, and leavens the whole 

 lump with which it is mixed. The acid of cheese and the leaven 

 of bread are both ferments. In oat-cake making, the leaven is 

 got in just the same way as acid is in Lancashire cheese-making 

 by leaving a portion to " sour " for the next time of baking. 



The exact quantity of curd to be kept cannot exactly, but it 

 may approximately, be stated to be about 10 per cent.; this 

 would of course be 3 Ibs. of old curd in a cheese of 30 Ibs. 

 But it is obvious that the amount of kept curd will be 

 governed by the degree of acidity which it will probably attain. 

 In summer the quantity will be less than in winter, unless in 

 the latter period of the year artificial warmth is employed to 

 promote acidity in the curd. 



In "The Fylde." 



Twenty-five years ago it fell to my lot to make an inquiry 

 into Lancashire cheese-making in the Fylde country. It would 

 be hard to find a finer tract of country for dairying, or a better 

 class of cattle than those of the Fylde. The cheese, however, 

 has not at present been able to acquire a distinctive national 

 reputation like that of the Cheshire, the Cheddar, the Stilton, 

 the Leicester, the Gloucester, or the Derby. But it has a great 

 local name in the county to which it belongs. I visited a 

 number of farms and watched the process. In almost every 

 instance where good cheese was made, I found that curd was 

 kept from one day to another, unsalted or nearly so, and 

 at a temperature which induced acidity say, about 65 



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