150 DOMESTIC ANi:iIALS. 



air is essential. The cheeses are in perfection in about six months, and 

 will keep two years. A quantity of elastic fluid is disenpfaged in the 

 ripening, and forms those round eyes which are a peculiar feature in 

 these cheeses. The smaller and rounder the eyes, the better the cheese 

 is reckoned. They should contain a clear salt liquor, which is called 

 the tears ; when these dry up, the cheese loses its flavor. 



In Cheshire the making of cheese is carried on in great perfection, 

 and the greatest pains are taken to extract every particle of whey. For 

 this purpose, the curd is repeatedly broken and mixed, the cheeses are 

 much pressed, and placed in wooden boxes, which have holes bored 

 into them. Through these holes sharp skewers are stuck into the cheese 

 in every direction, so that no particle of whey can remain in the curd. 

 The elastic matter formed also escapes through these channels, and the 

 whole cheese is a solid mass without holes, which in this cheese would 

 be looked upon as a great defect. The salt is intimately mixed with 

 the curd, and not merely rubbed on the outside. This checks internal 

 fermentation, and prevents the formation of elastic matter. 



Gloucester and Somersetshire cheeses are similarly made, with this 

 diff'erence, that the curd is not so often broken or the cheese skewered; 

 and a portion of the cream is generally abstracted to make butter. 

 After the curd has been separated from the whey, and is broken fine, 

 warm water is poured over it, for the purpose of washing out any re- 

 maining whey, or perhaps to dissolve any portion of butter which may 

 have separated before the rennet had coagulated the milk. 



Stilton cheese is made by adding the cream of the preceding even- 

 ing's milk to the morning's milking. The cream should be intimately 

 incorporated with the new milk; great attention should be paid to the 

 temperature of both, as much of the quality of the cheese depends on 

 this part of the process. To make this cheese in perfection, as much 

 depends on the management of the cheese after it is made as on the 

 richness of the milk. Each dair3^-w^oman has some peculiar method 

 which she considers the best; and it is certain that there is the greatest 

 diff'erence between cheeses made in contiguous dairies. The rennet 

 should be very pure and sweet. When the milk is coagulated, the whole 

 curd is taken out, drained on a sieve, and very moderately pressed. It 

 is then put into a shape in the form of a cylinder, eight or nine inches 

 in diameter, the axis of which is longer than the diameter of the base. 

 When it is sufficiently firm, a cloth or tape is wound round it to prevent 

 its breaking, and it is set out on a shelf. It is occasionally powdered 

 with flour, and plunged into hot water. This hardens the outer coat, 

 and favors the internal fermentation which ripens it. Stilton cheese is 

 generally preferred when a green mould appears in its texture. To ac- 

 celerate this, pieces of a mouldy cheese are sometimes inserted into 

 holes made for the purpose by the scoop, called a taster^ and wine or ale 

 is poured over for the same purpose ; but the best cheeses do not re- 

 quire this, and are in perfection when the inside becomes soft like but- 

 ter, without any appearance of inouldiness. In making very rich cheeses, 

 the whey must be allowed to run off" slowly, because, if it were forced 

 rapidly, it might carry off" a great portion of the fat of the cheese. This 

 happens more or less in every mode of making cheese. To collect 



