MODE OF CURING THE CHEESE. 679 



The quantity of annatto employed is comparatively small — less tlian 

 naif an ounce to a cheese of 60 lbs. — but even this quantity is considered 

 by many to be an injurious admixture. Hence a native of Cheshire 

 prefers the uncoloured cheese, the annatto being added to such only as 

 are intended for the London or other distant markets. 



14°. Size of the cheese. — From the same milk it is obvious that cheeses 

 of different sizes, if treated in the same way, will at the end of a given 

 number of months possess qualities in a considerable degree different*. 

 Hence, without supposing any inferiority, either in the milk or in the ge- 

 neral mode of treatment, the size usually adopted for the cheeses of a 

 particular district or dairy, may be the cause of a recognized inferiority 

 in some quality which it is desirable that they should pn«;sess in a high 

 degree. 



15°. The method of curing has very much influence upon the after- 

 qualities of the cheese. The care with which they are salted — the 

 warmth of the place in which they are kept during the first two or three 

 weeks — the temperature and closeness of the cheese-room in which they 

 are afterwards preserved — the frequency of turning, of cleaning from 

 mould, and of rubbing with butter — all these circumstances exercise a 

 remarkable influence upon the after-f|ualities of the cheese. Indeed, in 

 very many instances the high reputation of" a particular dairy district or 

 dairy farm is derived from some special attention to one or other or to all 

 of the appajrently minor points to which I have just adverted. 



In Tuscany, the cheeses, after being hung up for some time at a proper 

 distance from the fire, are put to ripen in an underground cool and damp 

 cellar; and the celebrated French cheeses of Roquefort are supposed to 

 owe much of the peculiar estimation in which they are held, to the cool 

 and uniform temperature of the subterranean caverns in which the 

 inhabitants of the village have long been accustome;! to preserve them. 



In Ros^hire it is said to be the custom with some proprietors to bury 

 their cheeses under the sea sand at low water, and that the action of 

 the sea- water in this situation renders them more juicy and of an exquisite 

 flavour. 



16°. Ammoniacal cheese. — The influence of the mode of curing upon 

 the ([uality is shown very strikingly in the small ammoniacal cheeses of 

 Brie, which are very much esteemed in Paris. They are soft unpressed 

 cheeses, which are allowed to ripen in a room the temperature of which 

 is kept between 60° and 70° F. till they begin to undergo the putrefac- 

 tive fermentation and emit an ammoniacal odour. They are ge- 

 nerally unctuous, and sometimes so small as not to weigh more than an 

 ounce. 



A little consideration, indeed, will satisfy you, that by varying the 

 mode of curing, and especially the temperature .at which they are kept, 

 you may produce an almost endless diversity in the quality of the cheeses 

 you bring into the market. 



17°. Inoculating cheese. — It is said that a cheese, possessed of no 

 very striking taste of its own, may be inoculated with any flavour we 

 approve of, by putting into it with a scoop a small portion of the cheese 

 which we are desirous that it should be made to resemble. Of course 

 this can apply ouly to cheeses otherwise of equal richness, for we could 

 scarcely expect to give a single Gloucester the flavour of a Stilton, 



