258 CHESHIRE CHEESE. 



salt is then carefully and intimately mixed with the 

 curd, according to the experience, taste, and custom, 

 of the dairymaid. It is then put into the cheese-vat in 

 a coarse cloth, pressed lightly at first for an hour; then 

 taken out and turned, and the pressure increased until 

 the proper degree of consistence is attained. After- 

 wards it is turned every twelve hours for three or four 

 days, remaining in the vat until the curd becomes so 

 dry as not to moisten the cloth. During this time 

 skewers are passed through holes made in the sides 

 of the vat into the body of the cheese, the more effect- 

 ually to aid the expression of the whey, the pressure 

 being still continued. When they are withdrawn, the 

 whey flows through these miniature tunnels, which are 

 in a few moments obliterated by the superincumbent 

 weight. 



It is the practice of some dairymaids in this county 

 to take the cheese to a cool salting-house, leaving it 

 there for a week or ten days, turning it daily, and rub- 

 bing salt on the upper surface. Others immerse the 

 cheese in a brine almost sufficiently strong to float it, 

 with occasional turning ; others, again, after taking the 

 cheese from the press, place it in a furnace at a mod- 

 erate heat, and keep it closed therein for a night ; while 

 some run a hot iron over the whole, or over the edges. 

 The binder — a cloth of three or four inches in breadth 

 — is then passed tightly round the cheese, and secured 

 by pins, when it is removed to the cheese-room, and 

 placed on a kind of grass, which in Cheshire is called 

 sniggle, the newest or latest-made cheese being put in 

 the warmest situation. Here it remains, being turned 

 over three times a week while it is new, and less often 

 as it becomes matured, care being taken to keep each 

 one of the cheeses separate from all the others. The 

 room selected for a store is always that which can be 



