578 RIND OF SALT, AND HOW IT IS APPLIED. 



gently and with care till the whey gradually drains out. Tlius the butter 

 and the curd remain intermixed, and the rich cheese of Siiltori is the result. 



Thus you will see that while ii is of importance that all the whey 

 should be extracted from the curd, yet that the (juickest way may not be 

 the best. More time and care must be bestowed in order to effect this 

 object, the richer the cheese we wish to obtain. You will see, also, how 

 the quality of the milk or of the pastures may often be blamed for de- 

 ficiencies in the richness or other qualities of our cheese, which are 

 in reality due to slight but material differences in our mode of manufac- 

 turing it. 



10°. The kind of salt used is considered by many to have some effect 

 upon the taste of the cheese. Thus the cheese of Gerome, in the Vos- 

 ges, is supposed to derive a peculiar taste from the Lorena salt with 

 which it is cured. In Holland, also, the efficacy of one kind of salt 

 over another for the curing of cheese is generally acknowledged, [British 

 Husbandry, ii., p. 424.] It is indeed not unlikely that the more or less 

 impure salts of different localities may affect the flavour of the cheese, 

 but wherever the salt may be manufactured, it is easy to obtain it in a 

 uniform and tolerably pure state, by the simple process of purification, 

 which I have already described to you (p. 565.) 



11°. The mode in which the salt is applied. — In making the large 

 Cheshire cheeses the dried curd, for a single cheese of 60 lbs., is broken 

 down fine and divided into three equal portions. One of these is 

 mingled with double the quantity of salt added to the others, and this 

 is so put into the cheese-vat as to form the central part of the cheese. 

 By this precaution the after-salting on the surface is sure to penetrate 

 deep enough to cure effectually the less salted parts. In the counties of 

 Gloucester and Somerset the curd is pressed without salt, and the cheese, 

 when formed, is made to absorb the whole of the salt afterwards through 

 its surface. This is found to answer well with the small and thin 

 cheeses made in these counties, but were it adopted for the large cheeses 

 of Cheshire and Dunlop, or even for the pine-apple cheeses of Wiltshire, 

 there can be no doubt that their quality would frequently be injured. It 

 may not be impossible to cause salt to penetrate into the very heart of a 

 large cheese, but it cannot be easy in this way to salt the whole cheese 

 equally, while the care and attention re(}uired must be greatly increased. 



12°. Addition of cream or butter to the curd. — Another mode of im- 

 proving the quality of cheese is by the addition of cream or butter to the 

 dried and crumbled curd. Much diligence, however, is required fully 

 to incorporate these, so that the cheese may be uniform throughout. Still 

 this practice gives a peculiar character to the cheeses of certain districts. 

 In Italy they make a cheese after the manner of the English., [II latte e i 

 suoi prodotti, p. 277], into which a considerable quantity of butter is 

 worked; and the Reckem cheese of Belgium is made by ad. ing half an 

 ounce of butter and the yoke of an egg to every pound of pressed curd. 



13°. The colouring matter added to the cheese is thought by many to 

 affect its quality. In foreign countries saffron is very generally used to 

 give a colour to the milk before it is coagulated. In Holland and in 

 Cheshire annatto is most commonly employed, while in other dis- 

 tricts the marigold or the carrot, boiled in milk, a?? the usual colouring 

 matters. 



