Book VII. CHEESE-MAKING. 



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7083. Lincolnshire cheese is made by adding the cream of one meal's milk to that which comes immedi 

 ately trom the cow ; it is pressed gently two or three times, and is turned for a few days previously to 

 being used. It is chiefly made in spring, but the richest is that made in autumn. It will not keen above 

 Inree months. r 



7084. Norfolk cheese is made from the whole of the milk and cream; the size is from thirty to fifty 

 pounds ; it is generally coloured yellow, and is reckoned a good keeping cheese. 



7085. Soft, or slip-coat cheese, is made from new milk hot from the cow, and the afterings • and what is 

 required to make one pound of butter, will, in general, make one pound of cheese : this is a small soft rich 

 cheese, which must be used immediately. 



•708(5. Stilton cheese, which, from its peculiar richness and flavour, has been called the Parmesan ot 

 England, is made in the following manner : — The night's cream is put to the morning's milk with the 

 rennet; when the curd is come, it is not broken as is usual with other cheese, but is taken out whole and 

 put into a sieve to drain gradually ; while draining, it is gently pressed till it becomes firm and dry when 

 it is placed in a vat, a box made exactly to fit it ; as it is so extremely rich, that without this precaution 

 it is apt to bulge out, and break asunder. It is afterwards kept on dry boards, and turned daily, with cloth 

 binders round it, which are tightened as occasion requires. After being taken out of the vat,' the cheese 

 is closely bound with cloth till it acquires sufficient firmness to support itself: when these cloths are re- 

 moved, each cheese is brushed once every day for two or three months, and if the weather be moist, twice 

 every day ; the tops and bottoms are treated in a similar manner daily before the cloths are taken off. 

 Stilton cheese derives its name from the town where it is almost exclusively sold ; it is made principally 

 in Leicestershire, though there are also many who manufacture it in the counties of Huntingdon Rut. 

 Knd, and Northampton. Sometimes the cheeses are made in a net, resembling a cabbage net, which' gives 

 fiem the form of an acorn ; but these are neither so good nor so richly flavoured as those made in vats 

 r.aving a thicker coat, and being deficient in that mellowness which causes them to be in such general re! 

 quest. {Bath Papers, vol. iii. p. 152, 153.) Stilton cheese is not reckoned to be sufficiently mellow for 

 cutting until it is two years old, and it is not saleable unless it is decayed, blue, and moist. In order to 

 mature them the more rapidly, it is a frequent practice to place the cheeses in buckets, which are covered 

 over with horse-dung. Wine is also reputed to be "dded to the curd, in order to accelerate the ripening 

 of the cheese. 



7087. Cottenham cheese, from the town of that name in Cambridgeshire, is a thicker kind of cream 

 cheese than the Stilton : its superior delicacy and flavour are attributed to the fragrant nature of the 

 herbage on the commons on which the cows are pastured, and, according to Professor Martvn to the 

 prevalence of Pi a aquatica and pratensis. 



7088. Suffolk, or skim cheese, is made of skimmed milk ; it forms a part of every ship's stores, not being 

 so much affected by heat as richer cheese, nor so liable to decay in long voyages. 



7089. Wiltshire cheese is made of new milk coagulated as it comes from the cow : sometimes a small 

 quantity of skimmed milk is added. In some dairies it is manufactured in winter as well as summer ; in 

 the former case it is liable to become scurfy and white coated ; the last of which defects is frequently con- 

 cealed by a coat of red paint. 



7090. Of foreign cheeses, the most common is the Dutch cheese; this is prepared much 

 in the same manner as the Cheshire cheese, excepting that muriatic acid is used instead 

 of rennet, which renders it pungent, and preserves it from mites ; that of Gouda is 

 preferred. 



7091. Parmesan cheese (formaggio di grana, cheese used in a granular form,) is made in the Duchy 

 of Parma, and in various places in Lombardy. It was formerly supposed to be made from the milk of 

 goats, but it is merely a skim-milk cheese, the curd hardened by'heat, well salted, pressed, and dried, long 

 kept, and rich in flavour from the rich herbage of the meadows of the Po, where the cows are pastured. 



7092. The process, according to Pryce, (Bath Papers, vol.vii.) off, water poured round the bottom of the cauldron outside to 

 is as follows :— The evening's milk, after having been skimmed cool it, so as to admit of a cloth being passed below the curd, 

 in the morning, and standing till ten o'clock, and the morn- which is thus brought up and placed in a tub to clear. When 

 ing's milk skimmed about two hours after it is drawn from the drained, it is put into a wooden hoop, and about half a hundred 

 cow, are mixed together. The mixture is then suspended in weight laid on it for half an hour ; the cloth is then removed, 

 a copper cauldron over a wooden tire {.fig. 53.), and frequently and the cheese being replaced in the hoop is laid on a shelf; 

 stirred till it attains about 82° of Fahrenheit ; the rennet is here it remains for two or three days, at the end of which, it 

 then put in, and Ihe copper being removed from the tire, the is sprinkled over with salt ; Ihis sprinkling is repeated every 

 coagulation quickly takes place, and the curd is afterwards second day for about thirty days if it be summer, and tor 

 worked with a stick till it is reduced to a small grain. The about forty or fifty-five davs if it be winter, after which no 

 whej now occupies the surface, and a part of it being taken out, further attention is required". The best Parmesan cheese is that 

 the cauldron is again turned over the fire, and its contents which has been kept for three or four years, but none is ever 

 brought to nearly a boiling heat. A little saffron is now added carried to market for sale until it has been kept at least six 

 to impart colour, the whole being all ihe while well stirred, months. A short account of a Parmesan cheese dairy, situated 

 and the superintendant examining it from time to time with his thirteen miles from Milan, is given in Cadell's Journey in 

 finger and thumb, to ascertain the exact moment when the Camiola, 8vo, 1818, and quoted in Farm. Mag. vol. xxi. p. 161. 

 curd shall have become sufficiently solid. When this is the The process is there carried on in conformity with what is 

 ease, the cau'dron is removed from the fire, and the curd above stated. 



allowed to subside; three fourths of the whey is then drawn 



*7093. Swiss cheese is of several varieties, mostly of skimmed or partially skimmed milk, and manu- 

 factured like the Parmesan. Its varied and rich flavour is more owing to the herbage of the pastures 

 than the mode of making ; and some sorts, as the Gruyere tso called from the bailiwick of that name in 

 the canton of Eribourgi, are flavoured by the dried herb of itfelilotus officinalis (Jig. 43.) in powder. 

 Gruyere cheeses weigh from forty to sixty pounds each, and are packed in casks containing ten cheeses 

 each, and exported to the most distant countries. This cheese requires to be kept in a damp place, and 

 should frequently be washed with white wine, to preserve it from the depredations of insects. Neufchatel 

 is celebrated for a very fine sort of cheese made there, which, in shape, resembles a wash-hand ball. 



7094. Westphalia cheese is of the skim-milk kind, and of a different character from any of those hitherto 

 described. The cream is allowed to remain on the milk till the latter is in a sub-acid state; it is then 

 removed, and the milk placed near a fire spontaneously to coagulate. The curd is then put into a coarse 

 bag, and loaded with ponderous stones to express the whey : in this dry state it is rubbed between the 

 hands, and crumbled into an empty clean milk vat, where it remains from three to eight days, according 

 as the cheese is intended to be strong or mild. During this part of the process, which is called mellowing, 

 the curd undergoes the putrid fermentation, and acquires a coat or skin on the top, before it is taken out 

 of the vessel, and kneaded into balls or cylinders, with the addition of a considerable portion of carraways, 

 salt, and butter ; or occasionally a small quantity of pounded pepper and cloves. When over-mellowed, a 

 third part of fresh curds, likewise crumbled into small pieces, is superadded, to prevent or correct its 

 putrid tendency. As the balls or cheeses do not exceed three or four ounces each in weight, they soon dry 

 in the open air, and are then fit for use. When nearly dry they are sometimes, for the palate of epicures, 

 suspended in a wood-fire chimney, in a net, for several weeks or months ; and both their taste and flavour 

 are said to be remarkably improved, whether kept in a dry air, or subjected to the action of smoke. This 

 sort of cheese M. Hochheimer, who describes it, affirms to be preferable to the Dutch, Swiss, and even 

 Parmesan cheese. It is sometimes to be had in London, but is not very common. 



7095. Blue milk cheese is made in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, by Mr. Johnston, of Hill House. It 

 is similar to the Stilton, to which it is said to be not inferior. Mr. Johnston never puts his curd into a 

 cheese press, but into a bag or net, in which it is suspended, and frequently shifted, till it is sufficiently 

 dry and solid. The cheeses are small ; about five or six pounds each. 



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