THE DAIRY. 309 



that there is no possible remedy for the defects of previous 

 management; for if the rennet be impure, the whey not wholly 

 expressed, or the salting imperfectly or insufficiently perform- 

 ed, the cheese will prove of inferior quality. When a cheese 

 has a disposition to heave or swell, or run out at the sides, it 

 may be regarded as an indication that the whey had been im- 

 perfectly separated.* 



New cheese to fit it for market requires to be well dried; 

 when taken out of the mould they are to be laid on a shelf, 

 and the surface of each alternately exposed to the air. This 

 laborious operation was formerly performed by hand, but ma- 

 chines answering every desirable purpose have been invented, 

 and may be found described in the chapter of Implements. 



Great variations take place in the manner of performing the 

 operations of the cheese manufacture and certain districts are 

 distinguished by their peculiarities of practice. The richness 

 and flavour of cheese, very much depend upon the quantity of 

 cream which the milk contains. In some places, most cele- 

 brated for rich cheese, the cream of one milking is skimmed 

 off and mixed with the entire milk of the subsequent milking. 

 In this way the milk which produces cheese has its own cream 

 and that also of a previous milking. 



We learn from the Transactions of the Highland Agricul- 

 tural Society of Scotland,! that the flavour of an old cheese 

 may be communicated to a new one of whatever species, by 

 the insertion of some portions being intermixed with it. This 

 is done by extracting small pieces with the sample-scoop from 

 each cheese, and interchanging them, by which means the new 

 one, if well covered up from the air, will, in a few weeks, be- 

 come thoroughly impregnated with the mould, and with a 

 flavour hardly to be distinguished from the old one. The 

 cheeses selected must be dry, and the blue mould should be 

 free from any portion of a more decayed appearance. 



* In order to prevent or stop this heaving, the cheese mnst be laid in a mode- 

 rately cool and dry place, and be turned regularly every day. It should be 

 pricked on both sides, in several places, particularly where it is most elevated, 

 bv thrusting a skewer into it, by which a passage is given to the confined air. 

 This pricking, with a cheese-skewer or awl, which should be repeated as often 

 as necessary, will not altogether prevent the swelling; yet, by giving vent to 

 the confined air, it renders it less considerable and the cavities of the cheese 

 will neither be so disagreeable, nor consequently so unsightly or unpleasant to 

 the eye. LOUDON says that hard and spoiled, cheese maybe restored as follows: 

 Take four ounces of pearl-ash 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 every day, 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. 



t Vol. iii. N. S., p. 232. 



