CREAM-CHEESE AND MASCARPONI. 549 



I would remark, however, that, this cream examined by Berzelius 

 must have been of an exceedingly poor quality — little richer, indeed, 

 than common milk, since 100 lbs. of it would only have yielded 4^ lbs. 

 of butter. Cream of good quality in this country, when skilfully 

 churned, will yield about one-fourth of its weight of butter, or one wine 

 gallon of cream, weighing 8| lbs., will give nearly 2 lbs of butter.* 



4°. Cream-cheese. — You will now readily understand the nature of 

 what is called cream-cheese — how it dilfers from ordinary cheese and 

 from butter, and why it so soon becomes first sour, and then rancid. 



In preparing this cheese the cream in this country is generally, I be- 

 lieve, either tied up in a cloth or put into a shallow cheese vat, and al- 

 lowed to curdle and drain without any addition. The cheesy matter and 

 butter remain thus intimately intermixed, and it is more or less rich, ac- 

 cording as the proportion of butter to the cheesy matter in the cream is 

 greater or less. This cheese becomes soon rancid and unpleasant to the 

 taste, because the moist curd, after a certain length of exposure to the 

 air, not only decomposes and becomes unpleasant of itself, but acquires 

 the property of changing the butter also and of imparting to it a dis- 

 agreeable taste and smell. 



In Italy, cream-cheeses, called mascarponi, are made by heating the 

 cream nearly to boiling, and adding a little sour whey as the oily matter 

 begins to separate. The whole then coagulates, and the curd is taken 

 out and set to drain in shapes. As the sour whey is apt to give this 

 cheese an unpleasant flavour or a yellow colour, it is said to be better to 

 take 20 grains of Tartaric acid for each quart of cream, to dissolve it in 

 a little water, and to add this, instead of the sour whey, to the hot cream. 

 The acid runs oflf in the whey of the cream, and the cheese is colour- 

 less and free from foreign flavour. The mascarponi, like the English 

 cream-cheeses, are covered with leaves or straw, are littled pressed or 

 handled, and must be eaten fresh. 



§ 9. O/" the separation of butter by churning or otherwise. 



Milk is a kind of natural emulsion in which the fatty matter exists in 

 the state of very minute globules, suspended in a solution of casein and 

 sugar. Cream is a similar emulsion, ditfering from milk chiefly in con- 

 taining a greater number of oily globules and a much smaller proportion 

 of water. In milk and cream these globules appear to be surrounded 

 Wth a thin white shell or covering, probably of casein, by which they 

 are prevented from running into one another, and collecting into larger 

 oily drops. 



But when cream is heated for a length of time, these globules, by their 

 lightness, rise to the surface, press nearer to each other, break through 



not actually boil, nor must the skin of the cream be broken. The dishes are now removed 

 into the dairy, and allowed to cool. In summer the cream should be churned on thr; fol- 

 lowing day — ill winter it may stand over two days. The quantity of cream obtained is said 

 to be one-fourth greater by this method, and the milk which is left is proportionably poor. 

 When milk on which no cream floats is heated nearly to boiling in the air, a pellicle of 

 cheesy matter forms on its surface. Such a pellicle may form in a less degree in the scald- 

 ding process of Devonshire, and may thus increase the bulk of the cream. The Corstor- 

 phine cream of Mid-Lothian resembles the clouted cream very much, and is made in a very 

 similar way. 



* A series of analyses of cream, collected under diffferent circumstances, might throw some 

 useful light upon the manufacture and preservation >f butter. 



