1046 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part III. 



stench of the byre, dutvjhill, or any other substance ; and like- 

 wiie to prevent the milk from becoming sour, which when it 

 happens greatly injures the cheese. 



70G6. The temperature at which the milk is kept from the 

 time it is drawn from the cows till it is formed into cheese, 

 ready to be put up to dry, is a matter of great importance, and 

 should be carefully attended to. The milk, when taken from 

 the cow, ought to be as soon as possible cooled to below 55", 

 or between that and 50" on Fahrenheit's scale : to cool it 

 speedily, and to facilitate the separation or rising of the cream, 

 a small quantity of clean cold water is generally mixed with 

 the milk in each cooler; and when the stone or iron coolers 

 that have been described are used, the milk will cool in them 

 much sooner than in the wooden dishes formerly in use. If 

 the milk is kept warmer than 55 of temperature, it will not 

 properly cast up the cream, which it is thought necessary it 

 should do even when the whole is to be formed into cheese, 

 and the milk will soon become sour, and acquire a bad taste, 

 if it is not brought to near that degree of temperature ; but if 

 it gets into a lower temperature than about 50** the milk ac- 

 quires an insipid and unpleasant taste, of which it cannot be 

 again divested ; it does not coagulate nearly so well, and the 

 cheese made from it is soft and inadhesive, the curd difficult 

 to be separated from the whey, and the milk and cheese are 

 never well tasted. 



7067. Milk ought to be coagulated at nearly its natural heat 

 when dranmfrom the cow, or from 90 to 95 degrees of tempera- 

 ture, and for that pupose a thermometer ought to be used in 

 the milk-house. If coagulated much warmer, the curd is 

 tough, harsh, and too adhesive; much of the butteraceous 



becomes hard, drv, tough, and tasteless; and if the milk is too 

 cold when coagulated, the curd is soft, does not part with the 

 serum, and the cheese continues to be so soft that it is with 

 difficulty that it can be kept together. Even when the utmost 

 pains are taken to extract the whey, and to give it solidity and 

 firmness, putrifting holes, which in dairy language are termed 

 " eyes," whey-Mops, or springs, frequently break out on the 

 cheese ; and it is always soft, tough, and of an insipid taste. 



7068. Whenever the milk is completely coagulated, the curd is 

 broken, in order to let the serum or whey be separated and 

 taken off. Some break the curd slightly at first, by making 

 cross-scores with a knife or a thin piece of wood, at about one 

 or two inches distance, and intersecting each other at right 

 angles ; and these are renewed still more closely after some of 

 the whey has been discharged. But others break the whole 

 curd rather more minutely at once with the skimming dish, 

 the hand, or any thing convenient ; but they do not break or 

 churn it, as is done in England. When this last method is 

 pursued, the whey comes oti' rather too white and rich, or with 

 too much of the cream at first ; but it comes most copiously, 

 and it is only for a few minutes at first that the whey is too 

 rich. By the method first mentioned, the whey does not come 

 off so copiously nor so rich at first, as when the curd is more 

 minutely broken. 



7069. When the coagulum has been formed at a proper tempera- 

 ture, neither too cold nor too hot, breaking the curd minutely, 

 but gently and softly, seems to be most proper : for though the 

 whey is a little too white at first, that is soon over; it comes 

 off abundantly pure in a few minutes after ; and it flows more 

 copiously than when the curd is slightly broken at first. 'I he 

 advantage of a speedy discharge of the whey, as it saves time, 

 and prevents the curd from becoming too cold and acquiring 

 any bad taste or flavour (which it often contracts when neg- 

 lected at that stage of the operation), is an ample compensation 

 for any small quantity of the oily parts that may come off at 

 first breaking. 



7070. But if the milk has been either too cold or too hot tvhen 

 eoamlated, I would recommend breaking the curd as slightly 

 and easily as possible at first : if too hot, the whey naturally 

 comes offcopiously, but it is too white, and contains a portion 

 of the butteraceous matter in the curd ; and the complete 

 breaking at first adds to that evil, and brings off still more of 

 the oily substance from the curd, to the impoverishment of the 

 cheese. Such quick agitation too tends to render the warm 

 curd still more tough and adhesive. WTien the milk has been 

 too cold at the time the cuid was formed, it will be by far too 

 soft to be minutely broken at first ; and when that is done, 

 some of the curd will come off with the whey : in that case the 

 curd should be dealt with as gently as possible. 



7071. After the curd has been broken, the whey ought to be 

 taken off as speedily as it can be done, and with as littlefurther 

 breaking or handling the curd as possible. It is still necessary, 

 however, to turn it up, cut it with a knife, or break it gently 

 with the hand, in order to facilitate the separation of the whey 

 from the curd. 



7072. When the curd has consolidated a little, it is cut with the 

 cheese knife, gently at first, and more minutely as it hardens, 

 so as to bring ptfthe wher. When the whey has been mostly 

 extracted, the curd is taken up from the curd-boyn, and being 

 cut into pieces of about two inches in thickness, it is placed 

 into a sort of vat or sieve with many holes ; a lid is placed over 

 it, and a slight pressure, say from three to four stones avoirdu- 

 poise ; and the curd is turned up and cut small ever^ ten or fif- 

 teen minutes, and occasionally pressed with the hand sMong as 

 it continues to discharge serum. When no more whey can tie 

 drawn off by these means, the curd is cut as small as possible 

 with the knife, the proper quantity of salt minutely mixed into 

 it in the curd-boyn, and placed in the chessart within a shift of 



7073. AU these operations ought to be carried on tvith the least 

 possible delay, and yet without precipitation. The sooner the 

 whey is removed after the coagulation of the milk, so much 

 the better. But if the curd is soft, from being set too cold, it 

 requires more time, and to be more gently dealt with ; as other- 

 wise much of the curd and of the fat would go off with the 

 whey. And when the curd has been formed too hot, the same 

 caution is necessary. Precipitation, or handling the curd too 

 roughly, would add to its toughness, and expel still more of 

 the oily matter : jmd, as heis been already mentioned, hot water 

 or whey should be put on the curd when it is soft and cold ; 

 and cold water put on when the curd is set too hot. 



7074. After the cheese is put into the press it remains for the 

 first time about an hour, or less than two hours, till it is 

 taken out, turned upside down in the cheese-vat, and a new 

 cloth put round it every four or six hours till the cheese is 

 completed ; which is generally done in the course of a day and 

 a half, tv, Oj or at most three days after it W2is first put under 

 the press. 



7075. The process of salting is very differently conducted in 

 the Scotch dairiesfrom what it is in England. In Scotland, the 

 salt is minutely mixed into the curd after it has been rendered 

 as dry as possible, and cut very small by means of the cheese- 

 knife, as has been already mentioned. This seems to answer 

 the purpose just as well as the mode pursued in England, to be 

 afterwards described, which is far more troublesome, and must 

 be much more expensive, both in waste of salt, in apparatus, 

 and in labour. The greatest defect I can perceive in the salt- 

 ing in Scotland is, that the salt is generally applied to the 

 cheese merely by guess, whereas it ought to be more carefully 

 regulated. Half an ounce of salt to every English pound of 

 cheese, or at most thirteen ounces to twenty-four pounds 

 English, is a sufficient quantity. Too much salt renders the 

 cheese dry, tough, and hard ; and if a sufficient quantity is not 

 given, the cheese will become putrid. 



7076. Cheeses made in Scotland are never washed or greased 

 with butter, as is done in Cheshire. The Scots cheeses contain 

 the grease internally, and not on the outside. 



7077. When the cheeses in Scoitand are ultimately taken from 

 the press, and which is generally after two or three days froin 

 the time they were first placed under it, they are exposed for 

 a week, to the drought and heat of the farmer's kitchen ; 

 not to excite sweating, but merely to dry them a little before 

 they are placed in the store, where a small portion of heat or 

 drought is admitted. While they remain in the kitchen, they 

 are turned over three or four times every day ; and whenever 

 they begin to harden a little on the outside, they are laid up on 

 the shelves of the store, where they are turned over once every 

 day or two days for a week or so, till they are dry ; and twice 

 every week afterwards. 



7078. The store-houses fbr cheese in Scotland are in proportion 

 to the size of tlie dairy, generally a small place adjoining the 

 milk-house, or at the end of the bam or other buildings, where 

 racks are placed, with as many shelves as hold the cheeses 

 made for the season. Where no particular place is prepared, 

 the ra( ks are placed in the bam, which is generally empty 

 during summer ; or some lay the cheeses on the floor of a garret 

 over some part of their dwelHng-house. 



7079. Wherever the clieeses are stored, they are not sweated or 

 put into a warm place, but kept cool, in a place in a medium 

 state iHjtween damp and dry, without the sun being allowed to 

 shine on them, or yet a great current of air admitted. Too 

 much air, or the rays of the sun, would dry the cheeses too fast, 

 diminish their weight, and make them crack ; and heat would 

 make them sweat or perspire, which extracts the fat, and tends 

 to induce heaving. But when they are kept in a temperature 

 nearly similar to that of a barn, the doors of which are not 

 much open, and but a moderate current of air admitted, the 

 cheeses are kept in proper shape, neither so dry as to rend their 

 skins, nor so damp as to render them mouldy on the outside, 

 and no partial fermentation is excited, but the cheese preserved 

 sound and good. 



70S0. On the comparative taste of the Scots and English cheese 

 it is difficult to offer any opinion : there is not only such a 

 diversity in the taste, not only of cheeses made in different dai- 

 ries, at the diffurent seasons of the year, stages of the cow's milk, 

 state of the weather, and many slighter accidents; but there 

 is also such a diversity in the taste of the consumers, that it is 

 imjiossible to speak with any degree of precision as to the 

 standard of perfection of the taste of cheese. The taste of man- 

 kind as to cheese varies so much that it is found necessary to 

 bring forward bo;h Scots and English cheeses, of different 

 sorts and ages, some sound and others unsound or putrid, and 

 to ask each lady and gentleman at table which they prefer. 

 Do you eat Scots or English ? coloured or white ? old or 

 new ? sound or unsound ? &c. The taste of some is so 

 vitiated, as to like best the putrid parts, which abound with 

 animalcula, and touch the olfactory nerves before they reach 

 the mouth ; others prefer that which is sound. The Scots 

 cheese is generally less smart, acrid, and pimgent in the taste 

 than the English cheese. It is not so high flavoured, owing 

 probably to the inferiority of the pasture and climate, or partly 

 to the mode of manufacturing it. It is milder in the taste, and 

 generally fatter, than the English cheese. A small morsel of 

 English cheese after a good dinner may be better felt in the 

 mouth than the softer and milder cheese of Scotland ; but if 

 any considerable quantity is to be eaten, the latter will not be 

 felt so hot and heavy in the stomach as the same quantity of 

 English cheese. 



thin c2invass, and put under the press. 



7081. Gloucester cheese is in very considerable demand from its mild taste, which suits most palates, 

 especially those of the young and of simple habits : there are two kinds, double and single, the first made 

 from the milk and cream, and the latter with the milk deprived of about half the cream : the latter are of 

 course the least valuable; but as they may be often mistaken for the former, upright dairymen. Marshal 

 observes, impress a heart-shaped stamp upon them to distinguish them from the former. They are made of 

 various sizes, from twenty to seventy, or even eighty pounds weight, but generally from fifty to sixty pounds. 



7082. Green, or sage-cheese, is made by steeping over night in a proper quantity of milk, two parts of 

 sage, one part of marigold leaves, and a little parsley, after they have been bruised. On the following 

 morning, the greened milk is strained ofF, and mixed with about one third of the whole quantity intended 

 to be run or coagulated. The green and white milks are run separately, the two curds being kept apart 

 until they be ready for vatting : these may be mixed, either evenly and intimately, or irregularly and 

 fancifully, according to the pleasure of the manufacturer. The management is the same as for common 

 cheese. Green cheeses are made in the vale of Gloucester, as also in Wiltshire. 



