182 CHEESE. 



The dairy requires too apnrtmeiits ; and a clean cool 

 room in the cellar for the miik, and a dark room above 

 ground for drying and keeping the cheese. Cheese 

 sliould not be set to dry in the safne room where the 

 milk is set, for they commiiaicate an acid matter to 

 the surrounding air, v/hich will have a tendency to make 

 the milk sour. The room must be perfectly dark, to 

 keep out Hies, and every thing belonging to the dairy 

 must be kept quite clean. To prevent skippers, take a 

 pod of red pepper, and put it into a piece of fine linen, 

 moisten it with a little butter, and rub the cheese witli 

 it frequenth^ To prevent flies from depositing their 

 eggs in the cracks of cheeses, let them be lilled with 

 paste made of butter and flour. To give them a fine 

 color, let a little annatto be put in the milk. This is 

 harmless. But beware of coloring them with any thing 

 that is poisonous. 



But no good cheese can be made unless the runnet be 

 good. The rank and putrid taste, which is so often in 

 cheeses made in this country, is attributed to a putridity 

 in the rennet. In order to have the rennet in perfection, 

 the calf should have lived on new milk only, and be 

 quite in health at the time of being killed. Under these 

 circumstances, the maw-skin is always found to contain, 

 when taken out of the calf, more or less of a firm, white, 

 curd-like matter. A good method of making the rennet 

 i^ as follows : Empty the maw of its curd ; wash it slight- 

 ly ; soak it in strong brine till it is well salted ; dry it on 

 boughs mads for the purpose ; then take two quarts of 

 .strong brine that will bear an ei^g. blood-warm, and let 

 the maw steep in this twenty-four hours, when the liquor 

 will be fit for use ; bottle it up, and cork it tight, and it 

 will keep ibr a twelve month. About a tea-cup full will 

 be sufficient for the miik often cows. Some direct spi- 

 ces, and a lemon sliced, to be put into tliis liquor. Or 

 the runnet bag may be salted and dried, as before di- 

 rected, and pieces of it occasionally used, by being pre- 

 viously soaked in warm water, and a quantity of this 

 water used, in proportion to the quantity of milk to be 

 turned. 



The following method of cheese making is recom- 

 mended in the Massachusetts Agricultural Repository. 

 The milk i:-: unJVi.'rsa]!y set for cheese as soon as it 



