Book VII. CHEESE-MAKING. 1043 



7031. As winter-made butter is mostly pale or white, and, at the same time, of a poorer quality than that 

 made during the summer months, the idea of excellence has been associated with the yellow colour : 

 hence, various articles have been employed in order to impart this colour. Those most generally usedj 

 and certainly the most wholesome, are the juice of the carrot, and of the flowers of the marigold, carefully 

 expressed, and strained though a linen cloth. A small quantity of this juice (and the requisite proportion 

 is soon ascertained by experience) is diluted with a little cream, and this mixture is added to tne rest of 

 the cream when put into the churn. So small a quantity of the colouring matter unites with the butter 

 that it never imparts to it any particular taste. * 



70."2. The butter most esteemed in Lontlon is that of Epping and to market in dishes, containing half a pound each, out of which 

 Cambridge : the cows which produce the former feed during it is taken, washed, and put into different forms by the butter- 

 summer in the shrubby pastures of Epping forest, and the men of Bath and Bristol. The butter of Gloucestershire and 

 leaves of the trees and numerous wild plants which there of Oxfordshire is very good ; it is made up in half-pound packs 

 abound are supposed to improve the ilavour of the butter. It or prints, packed up in square baskets, and sent to the London 

 is brought to market in rolls from one to two feet long, weigh- market by wajjgon. 



ing a pound each. The Cambridgeshire butter is produced 703 1. The butter of the mountains of M'ales and Scotland, and 



from the milk of cows that feed one part of the year on chalky the moors, commons, and heaths of England, is of excellent 

 uplands, and the olher in rich meadows or fens; it is made up quality, when it is properly managed; and though not equal in 

 into long rolls like the Epping butter, and generally salted, not quantity, it often is confessedly superior to that produced from 

 cured, before brought to market. By washing it, and working the richest meadows. Bad butter is more Irequently the result 

 the salt out of it, the London cheesemongers often sell it at a of m ismanagement, want of cleanliness, and inattention, than 

 high price for fresh Epping butter. of any other cause. Ireland would produce the finest butter 



7033. The Suffulk aiuf Yorkshire butter is often sold for that of in the empire, were it not for the intolerablv tilthy state of their 

 Cambridgeshire, to which it is little inferior. The butter of cows, and the want of cleanliness in their dairies. 

 Somersetshire is thought to equal that of Epping ; it is brought 



703.5. In packing fresh butter, or butter salted only for immediate use, the leaves of cabbage, white beet, 

 or of the garden orache ( J'trij)lex hort^nsis) are to be preferred. The bottom of the basket should be 

 bedded with a thick cloth, folded two or three times; then a thin gauze, dipped in cold water, spread over 

 it, on which the prints or rolls of butter are to be placed, each with one or more leaves beneath, and 

 smaller ones over it. The lowermost laj'er being adjusted, fold half of the gauze cloth over it, put in 

 another layer in the same way, and then cover with the remainder of the gauze. The butter should be 

 put into the basket, as well as' taken from thence, without being touched. 



7036 If'hep butter, as its name implies, is butter made from the whey which is taken from the curd, 

 after the milk is coagulated for the manufacture of cheese. It is chiefly made in those counties where 

 cheese is manufactured, and where it forms no inconsiderable part of the profits of the dairy. In the 

 county of Derby more butter is said to be made from whey than from the cream of milk, or from milk 

 churned altogether. 



7037. JV/ie^ is divided into two sorts, green and white, the former escaping readily from the curd, while 

 the latter is freed from it by means of pressure. " There are different methods of extracting the whey. 

 In some dairies the whole whey, when taken from the cheese-tub, is put into pails or other vessels, v/here 

 it remains for about twenty-four hours ; when it is creamed, and the whey is applied to the use of calves 

 and pigs, which are said to thrive as well on it, after the cream has been taken from it, as before. The 

 cream, when skimmed off the whey, is put into a brass pan and boiled, and afterwards set in pans or jars, 

 where it remains till a sufficient quantity for a churning be procured, which, in large dairies, happens 

 generally once, but sometimes twice, in the week." In Ayrshire whey is given to horses. 



7038. Butler fornwig an important article of commerce as well as food, the legislature 

 has passed various statutes respecting its package, weight, and sale. The principal of 

 these are the 36th and 38th of Geo. III. 



Sect. V. Process of Cheese-making. 



7039. The production of cheese includes the making of rennet, the selection of a colour- 

 ing matter, the setting of the curd, and the management of the cheese in the press. 



7040. The millt fresh drawn from the cow is to be immediately strained into the dishes or shallow 

 troughs, if these are used, in order to promote cooling, as the surest guard against fermentation. The 

 same object may be attained by repeatedly drawing off the milk from the coolers, and pouring it back 

 again. 



7041. To understand what rennet is, and its uses, it is necessary to premise that milk is 

 no sooner taken into the stomach, than it becomes curdled by the operation of the gastric 

 juice, as every one who has seen much of infant children must have observed. What is 

 called rennet is nothing more than the stomach of an animal in which the gastric juices 

 are preserved by means of salt. 



7042. The application of any kind of acid will cause milk to coagulate, as well as the infusion of several 

 plants, as ladies' bedstraw (Galium verum), butter-wort (Pinguicula vulgJlris), and others. With the 

 former plant the Jews coagulate the milk for all their cheese ; the Mosaic law prohibiting them to mingle 

 meat with milk, and rennet they consider as meat. 



7043. The maw or stomach of ruminating animals, which admit of obtaining the gastric juice Ln a less 

 mixed state than those of others, and chiefly of a young calf that has been killed before the digestion is 

 perfected, is almost universally preferred as rennet. ITiis bag or maw is cleaned and salted in different 

 ways in different districts ; but the following method, described by Marshal in his Rural Economy of 

 Nojfolk, is considered as one of the best. " Take a calf's bag, maw, or stomach ; and havine^ taken out 

 the curd contained therein, wash it clean, and salt it thoroughly inside and out, leaving a white coat of 

 salt over every part of it. Put it into an earthen jar, or other vessel, and let it stand three or four days ; 

 in which time it will have formed tlie salt and its own natural juice into a pickle. Take it out of the jar, 

 and hang it up for two or three days, to let the pickle drain from it. Re-salt it, place it again in a jar, 

 cover it tight down with a paper pierced with a large pin, and in this state let it remain till wanted for 

 use. In this state it ought to be kept twelve months ; it may, however, in case of necessity, be used 

 a few days after it has received a second salting ; but it will not be so strong as if kept a longer time." 



7044. In order to prepare this jennet for use, Marshal gives the following directions : " Take a hand- 

 ful of the leaves of sweet-briar, the same quantity of the leaves of the dog-rose, and the like quantity of 

 bramble leaves ; boil them in a gallon of water, with three or four handfuls of salt, about a quarter of an 

 hour; strain off the liquor, and, having let it stand till perfectly cool, put it into an earthen vessel, and 

 add to it the maw, prepared as above. To this is added a good sound lemon, stuck round with about a 

 quarter of an ounce of cloves, which give the rennet an agreeable flavour." 



704.5. The strength of the rennet thus prepared will increase in proportion to the length of time during 

 which the bag remains in the liquor ; the quantity to be used for the purpose of coagulating milk can, 

 therefore, be ascertained only by daily use and occupation. In general, however, it may be stated, upon 

 the average, that somewhat less than half a pint of wine measure will suffice lor fifty gallons of milk, 

 for which quantity, in Gloucestershire, the practice is to employ about one third of a pint. Throughout 

 the whole process of preparing and preserving rennet, too much attention cannot be given to its clean. 



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