CHEESE 319 



outside marks thirty degrees, 1 it shows but five in- 

 side the cheese caves. The difference is that be- 

 tween the heat of an oppressive summer and the cold 

 of a severe winter. It is in the depths of these cold 

 caves that the cheeses acquire their peculiar quali- 

 ties. The only care given them is an occasional 

 rubbing with salt and a scraping of their surface to 

 remove whatever moldiness may have developed. 

 This moldiness even gets into the inside by degrees, 

 where it forms blue veins. But that is in no way 

 detrimental ; on the contrary, the flavor of the cheese 

 gains by the formation of this mold, which is merely 

 another kind of rotting that adds its energies to 

 those of the usual change undergone by cheese. 

 Hence the makers are not content with letting na- 

 ture produce these signs of moldiness: they hasten 

 the process by mixing with the fresh curd a little 

 powdered moldy bread. The cheese would be bet- 

 ter if left to its own working, but this addition ac- 

 celerates the result, and to-day, alas, in the making 

 of Koquef ort, as in so many other branches of in- 

 dustry, there is greater eagerness for quick results 

 than for excellence. 



4 ' The cheese called Auvergne is made in the moun- 

 tains of Cantal. Cows' milk is used. When the 

 curd has formed, the dairyman, legs and arms bare, 

 mounts a table and tramples and compresses with 

 feet and hands the mass of fresh ^cheese to squeeze 

 out the whey. The curd is then separated, mixed 

 with pounded salt, and pressed in large round molds 



i Centigrade, not Fahrenheit. Translator. 



