CHEESE CLOTHS. 



CHEESE-PRESS. 



colour and taste it is intended to give the 

 cheese. As the curd appears, break it gently, 

 and in an equal manner, then emptying it into 

 the cheese vat, let it be a little pressed, in order 

 to make it eat mellow. Having stood for about 

 seven hours, salt and turn it daily for four or 

 five weeks, then it will be fit for the table. 

 The spinach besides improving the flavour, 

 and correcting the bitterness of the sage, will 

 give it a much more pleasing colour than can 

 be obtained from sage alone." 



Cream Cheese. Excellent cream cheeses are 

 supplied to the Philadelphia market by the 

 neighbouring Pennsylvania farmers. They 

 are round, generally from six to ten inches in 

 diameter, and about one inch thick. The mode 

 of preparing cream cheese is as follows. Ex- 

 pose cream to the air and it will be found to 

 grow thick gradually, so that in three or four 

 days the vessel containing it may be turned 

 upside down without loss. In eight or ten 

 days more, its surface will become coated over 

 with a kind of mucus and a woolly moss or 

 byssi. After this, it no longerretains the flavour 

 of cream, but of a very fat cheese. This rich 

 dainty differs from butter in containing l>th 

 curd, and scrum or whey, together with the 

 oily matter; whereas in butter the oil is ob- 

 tained separate from the whey and curd or 

 cheesy matter. 



Another mode of making cream cheese is 

 the following, given by the late Judge Cooper, 

 whose endorsement makes it worthy of the 

 highest credit. " Take of the top or surface 

 cream that has been collected for three or four 

 days in the cream-croak so as to be slightly 

 acid, one pint: on each of two common plates 

 lay a dry napkin four-doubled : put half a pint 

 of cream on each napkin. Next day have 

 ready another plate covered with a folded wet 

 napkin, turn the two cheeses one on top of the 

 other upon the wet napkin, cover them over 

 with the ends of this wet napkin, and change 

 it every day for a week till the cheese is ripe. 

 It must not be done in a cellar or damp place, 

 but in a room, otherwise it will mould.*' 



In Lincolnshire, England, as well as in the 

 neighbourhoods of Bath and York, rich and 

 excellent cream cheeses are made. The>e, 

 like all such kind of soft and rich cheeses, are 

 used when but a few days old, to be eaten with 

 radishes, salad, &c. 



For the mode of preparing the celebrated 

 Stilton cream cheese see p. 315. 



There are papers, by Mr. P. Miller, "On 

 making cheese resembling that of Gloucester 

 and Wiltshire" (Trans. High. Sor. vol. iii. p. 

 228); and "In Imitation of Double Glouces- 

 ter," by Mr. Bell (Ibid. vol. i. p. 155) ; and " On 

 communicating the Flavour of old to new 

 Cheese by Inoculation," by Mr. Robinson (Ibid. 

 p. 232). "On making Cheese from Potatoes 

 in Thuringia." (Farmer's Mag. vol. viii. 

 p. 14*.) 



CHEESE CLOTHS are large towels to put 

 inside the chessel or vat, while the cheese is 

 pressing. They are of home manufacture, and 

 should be of strong and open texture : every 

 time they are used for this purpose, they should 

 be wrung out of boiling water, and dried in the 

 sun, or before the fire. 



CHEESE COLOURING. See AXXOTTA. 



CHEESE-FLY and MAGGOT (Piophila m- 

 '). The small white larvse found in old 

 and putrescent cheese, produce a small two- 

 winged fly, about two lines in length, which 

 has a greenish-black, smooth, and shining 

 body. It is fully described in the Quart. Journ. 

 of Agr. vol. xii. p. 125. 



Dr. Harris describes the cheese-maggots 

 found in Massachusetts as the young of a fly 

 (Piophila r'i) not more than three-twentieths 

 of an inch long, of a shining black colour, with 

 the middle and hinder legs mostly yellowish, 

 and the wings tranapsrent like glass. See his 

 Report, &c. 



CHEESE-KNIFE. A large sort of knife, 

 or spatula, made use of in dairies for the pur- 

 pose of cutting or breaking down the curd 

 whilst in the cheese-tub. 



CHEESE-LEP. The bag in which dairy- 

 women keep the rennet for making cheese. 



CHEESE-MITES. This is the Icarus siro, 

 an almost microscopic apterous insect, fur- 

 nished with eight legs, on the four first of 

 which, between two claws, is a vesicle with a 

 Ion- neck, to which the insect can give every 

 kiml of inflexion. "When it sets its foot 

 down, it inlarges and inflates; and when it 

 lifts it up, it contracts it, so that the vesicle 

 almost entirely disappears." (De Geer, quoted 

 by Kirby, vol. xxxiv. p. 321.) It is not pos- 

 sible to .say ho\v this insect gets into cheeses. 

 The brown powder, so valued by epicures, in 

 which the mites live, is their excrement. 



CHEESE-PRESS. A press employed in 

 cheese dairies, to force the whey from the curd 

 when in the cheese vat. 



Cheese presses are of different fonns. The 

 most simple and primitive press is merely a 

 long beam, one end of which is placed in a 

 hole of the wall, and frequently it is fixed to a 

 bolt, or in the trunk of a tree. The sinker forms 

 the fulcrum, a weight consisting of two or three 

 undressed stones being placed on the other end 

 of the lever. A second kind is formed by a 

 large square stone, suspended by a screw be- 

 tween the side posts of a timber frame. The 

 chessel is placed underneath it, and the stone 

 is lowered upon the sinker by turning the 

 screw to the left h%nd. The cheese vat is re- 

 moved at pleasure by turning the screw to the 

 right hand, which elevates the stone. To pre- 

 serve the screw, a small block of timber is 

 placed underneath the stone during the period 

 that cheese-making is suspended. 



Another kind of press consists of a timber 

 frame formed of two perpendicular side posts 

 and a cross top with a parallel beam, which is 

 suspended from the top by two screws. The 

 cheese vat is placed upon the beam, which is 

 lifted up when the screws are turned to the 

 right hand; and the sinker of the chessel or vat 

 being pressed against the cross top, squeezes 

 or stanes the cheese. When the chessel re- 

 quires to be removed, the screws are turned to 

 the left hand. 



But more complicated presses, and therefore 

 in many instances more convenient, can be 

 adopted. The most complete, effective, and 

 approved press consists of a frame of cast iron 

 with a perpendicular piston, flat below to cover 

 2 D 2 317 



