822 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK n. 



flavour by which it has long been characterised. They also leave out 

 the cream. 



In making Gloucester Cheese, the milk is poured into the proper 

 vessel, immediately after it has been drawn from the cow ; but being 

 thought too hot in the summer, it is lowered to a temperature of about 

 84 or 86 Fahr. by the addition of skim-milk, or sometimes by 

 pouring in water. The rennet is then added at the rate of a pint to 

 100 gallons of new, or 150 gallons of skim-milk. When the curd is 

 ready, it is cut with the curd-breaker, this being drawn repeatedly 

 through the mass. The whey is then taken out, the curd pressed by 

 hand, and crumbled into small pieces like peas. The curd is next 

 put into vats, which are submitted to the action of the press for ten 

 minutes or a quarter of an hour, until the remaining whey is extracted. 

 The material is then removed into the cheese-tubs, again broken 

 small, and scalded with a pail full of water mixed with whey in the 

 proportion of three parts of water to one of whey, and the whole 

 briskly stirred. 



This operation should be performed with great nicety, or the curd is 

 liable to be toughened instead of simply rendered firm. The fluid in- 

 tended to scald the curd should not be above 96 F., nor should the 

 curd be warmed beyond about 84. After standing a few minutes for 

 the curd to settle, the liquor is strained off, and the curd collected 

 into a vat ; and when the latter is about half filled, a little salt is 

 sprinkled over it, and worked into the cheese. The vat is now filled 

 up, and the whole mass of cheese turned twice or thrice in it, the 

 edges being pared, and the middle rounded at each turning. Lastly, 

 the cheese is put into a cloth, and, after undergoing another pressure, 

 it is carried to the shelves, where it is generally turned once a da} r , 

 until it becomes sufficiently close and firm to admit of being washed. 



In the manufacture of these cheeses, the curd is not so often 

 broken as in the Cheshire the cheese is not skewered while it is in 

 the press, and part of the cream is usually taken away in order to make 

 butter. The scalding is to wash out any remaining whey, or, perhaps, 

 to dissolve any portion of butter that might have been separated before 

 the rennet had coagulated the milk. 



Cheddar Cheese was first made in the village of Cheddar, in the 

 Mendip Hills, in Somersetshire. The process, as now practised, is 

 thus described by Mr. George Gibbons in the " Journal of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society of England," vol. xxv., second series, 1889: 



As soon as drawn, the milk should be taken to a receiver, about 

 eighteen inches square, placed in the most convenient position outside 

 the dairy, so that by a short open shoot it can pass through the wall 

 into the cheese-tub, being thoroughly strained in the process, and thus 

 doing away with the necessity of the milkers entering the dairy. The 

 evening's milk can generally remain in the cheese-tub during the night ; 

 when the temperature is high, an occasional stirring is useful ; but in 

 damp, hot, moist weather, or during electrical disturbances, some of it 

 should be placed in other vessels. 



In the morning the first duty of the careful cheese-maker will be to 



