310 OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



straw in a round deal box ; and a lot of others that I 

 can't remember now." 



" Jules has just told us the best known kinds of 

 cheese ; I will add a few words on the way they are 

 made. 



' ' Fresh cheeses are those that are eaten soon after 

 being made. They are white and soft. They are 

 made of either skimmed or unskimmed milk, and 

 in the latter case they are incomparably better. 

 When the rennet has brought about coagulation, the 

 curdled milk is poured into round molds of tin or 

 glazed earthenware, with holes in the bottom for the 

 escape of the whey contained in the curdled mass. 

 As soon as this has drained enough and is sufficiently 

 firm, the cheese is done, and it is taken from the 

 mold ready for the table without any other prepara- 

 tion." 



"That 's the cheese I like best," Emile declared. 

 "It 's the kind we spread on slices of bread to make 

 those delicious sandwiches." 



"That is very true, but it has the fault of not 

 keeping long. In a few days it turns sour and un- 

 eatable. All the other cheeses would do the same, 

 all would spoil and become sour if certain measures 

 were not taken to prevent this. These measures 

 consist in the use of salt, which is rubbed and 

 sprinkled on the outside of the cheese, and some- 

 times even mixed with the curd itself. All cheeses, 

 then, that are to be kept a long time receive more or 

 less salt, while fresh cheese is not salted at all. 



"Of these salted cheeses some are soft, some hard. 



