Book VII. CHEESE-MAKING. 10i5 



possible. During this part of the process salt is scattered over the curd, and intimately mixed with it ; 

 the proportion, however, has not been correctly ascertained, and is regulated by experience. 



7054. Management in the press. The breaking and salting completed, a cloth is 



spread over the cheese vat, and the broken curd being packed into it, and covered up 



with the cloth, a smooth round board is laid over the vat, which is usually filled to the 



height of one inch above the brim, to prevent the curd frcm shrinking below its sides, 



when the whey is squeezed out. 



7055. The whole is then put into a press for two hours, and as it is of the utmost importance that every 

 drop of whey should be expressed, skewers are thrust into the cheese through the holes in the lower part 

 of the vat to facilitate its escape. The two hours expired, the cheese is taken out and put into a vessel 

 of warm or hot whey for an hour or two, in order to harden its skin. On taking the cheese out of the 

 whey it is wiped dry, and when it has become cool, is wiped in a clean dry cloth, of a finer texture, and 

 again submitted to the press for six or eight hours The cheese is now turned a second time, and is taken 

 to the salting room, where it is rubbed on each side with salt ; after which it is wrapped in another dry 

 cloth, of a finer texture than either of the preceding cloths, and is again pressed for twelve or fourteen 

 hours; if any edges project these are paired off, and the cheese being laid upon a dry board, is turned 

 every day. In the salting-room cheese should be kept warm until it has had a sweat, or has become regu, 

 larlydry and somewhat stiff; as it is warmth that ripens cheese, improves its colour, and causes it when 

 cut to have a flaky appearance, which is the surest sign of superior excellence. 



7056. Management in the cheese-room. After the processes of salting and drying are 

 completed, the cheeses are deposited in the cheese-room or loft, which should be airy and 

 dry ; but on no account should hard and soft cheeses be placed in the same room, for 

 the dampness or moisture arising from the latter will cause the hard cheese to chill, 

 become thick coated, and often spotted. Throughout the whole process of cheese- 

 making, the minutest attention will be requisite ; for if the whey be imperfectly ex- 

 pressed, or the rennet be impure, or the cheese be not sufficiently salted, it will become 

 rank and pungent. For this defect there is no remedy. The imperfect separation of 

 the whey will cause cheese to heave or swell, as well as to run out at the sides. 



7057. In order to prevent as well as to stop this heaving, the cheese must be laid in a moderately cool and 

 dry place, and be turned regularly every day. If the heaving be very considerable, the cheese must be 

 pricked on both sides in several places, particularly where it is most elevated, by thrusting a skewer into 

 it : by this pricking, though the heaving will not be altogether prevented, a passage will be given to the 

 confined air, the heaving or swelling will consequently be considerably reduced, and the cavities of the 

 cheese will be less offensive to the eye. Another remedy for heaving in cheese consist in applying a 

 composition of nitre and bole armonia'c, which is vended in the shops under the name of cheese-powder. 

 It is prepared by mixing one pound of saltpetre with half an ounce of bole armoniac thoroughly together, 

 and reducing them to a very fine powder. About a quarter of an ounce of this is to be rubbea on a cheese, 

 when put a second and third time into the press, half on each side of the cheese at two different meals, 

 before the salt is rubbed on, that the cheese may be penetrated with it. This preparation is very binding, 

 and sometimes proves serviceable, but the nitre is apt to impart an acid taste ; and if too much be applied, 

 and the cheese should be exposed to too great heat, the quantity of air already confined in it will be in- 

 creased by fermentation, and the cheese will swell much more than it would if no powder had been rubbed 

 in. The greatest care, therefore, will be necessary whenever this remedy is adopted. 



7058. Hard and spoiled cheese may be restored in the following manner : take four ounces of pearlash, 

 and pour sweet white wine over it, until the mixture ceases to effervesce. Filter the solution, dip into it 

 clean linen cloths, cover the cheese with them, and put the whole into a cool place, or dry cellar. Repeat 

 this process everyday, at the same time turning the cheese, and, if necessary, continue it for several weeks. 

 Thus the hardest and most insipid cheese, it is affirmed, has frequently recovered its former flavour. 



Sect. VI. Catalogue of the different Sorts of Cheeses and other Preparations made 



from Milk. 



7059. Of cheeses, we shall first enumerate the British sorts, and next those peculiar 

 to foreign countries : the description of each will be such as to enable any ingenious 

 dairyist to imitate them. 



7060. The brick-bat cheese is so named from the form of the mould ; it is formed of new milk and cream 

 in the proportion of 'two gallons of the former to a quart of the latter. It is principally made in Wiltshire, 

 in the month of September, and should not be cut until it is twelve months old. 



7061. Chedder cheese, so named from the vale of that name in Somersetshire, where it is exclusively 

 made. It is made in cheeses about thirty pounds each, which have a spongy appearance, and the eye* 

 are filled with a limpid and rich, but not rancid oil. 



7062. Cheshire cheese is in universal esteem ; it is made from the whole of the milk and cream, the 

 morning's milk being mixed with that of the preceding evening, previously warmed. The general weight 

 issixtv pounds each cheese. 



70 8. Dimlop cheese (so called from its having been first brought to the Glasgow market by a carrier 

 who lived in the parish of Dunlop, in Avrshire,) has been made in the district of Cunningham in Ayrshire, 

 from time immemorial. The quality of this cheese has certainly not been equalled in any other part of 

 Scotland, and scarcely surpassed in England. According to Aiton, it is " milder in its taste, and 

 falter, than any English cheese whatever." The following directions are from this author's Dairy 

 Husbandry. 



7064. When as many con's are kept on one farm as that their hare been described, and placed in the milk-house till as much 

 milk milt form a cheese of any tolerable size erery time they are is collected as will form a cheese of a proper size, w hen the 

 milked {tn-ice a day), the mi'.k, as it comes from the cows, is cheese is to be made, the cream is skimmed from the milk m 

 passed through a sieve (provinciallv termed a milsey) to remove the coolers, and without being heated is, with the milk that is 

 impurities into a boyn (vat), and when the whole is collected, drawn from the cows at the time, passed through i the sieve into 

 it i, formed into curd hv a mixture of rennet. As milk requires the curd-vat; and the cold mi.k from winch the cream has 

 to be coagulated as nearly as possible at the temperature of been taken is heated, so as to raise the temperature ot ^thev.nolc 

 animal heat, and as it must cool considerablv during the oper- mass to near blood heat ; and the w hole is coagulated by mean, 

 ation of milking from several cows, and in passing through the of rennet carefully mixed with the milk. Ine cream IS put 

 sieve, it is necessarv for those who set their curd in the natural into the curd-vat, that its oily parts may not be me.ted, ana u:e 

 heat to make up some part of that which is lost, bv mixing a skimmed milk is heated as much as to raise the whole to near 

 quantitv of hot water into the curd vat. animal heat- The utmost care is ajwaj s taken to keep the 



7065." When the cons on a farm arc not so numerous as to yield milk in all stages of the operation free, not only from ever-. 

 walk sufficient to make a chase erery time they are milked, the admixture or impurity, but sUso fr»in being hurt DJ tool ...r 

 milk is siored about six or tight inches deep in the coolers that arising from acidity in any milky substance, putrid water, the 



3 X 



