334 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK n. 



page 326), soon after the middle of the nineteenth century, and it may 

 be doubted if now there are any people left who make Dunlop cheese. 

 The Cheddar system, indeed, has taken deep root in Scotland, as in 

 many other countries, and Scotch Cheddars have a high reputation 

 in the English market. The Cheddar system is cosmopolitan in its 

 adaptiveness, far more so than any other. 



First Class Leicestershire Cheese cannot be surpassed, either in 

 quality or the price it will command, save perhaps by the best Cheddars 

 and the genuine Stiltons. Low-lying land, having a cold, marly sub- 

 soil, carrying a few rushes here and there, and not having been ploughed 

 for a century or two, if ever land, indeed, whose herbage is ancient 

 and indigenous to the soil is believed to produce the finest qualities 

 of cheese, whose flavour is rich, clean, full, whose texture is firm and 

 flaky, rather than waxy, and whose mellowness is attractive to the con- 

 noisseur in cheese. The methods on which it is made vary a good 

 deal, and each dairymaid follows her own ideas. In spring and autumn 

 the milk is " set " for coagulation at 80 to 84 F., and in summer at 76 

 to 78, sufficient rennet being employed to coagulate it in an hour and 

 a quarter or so. Success depends on extracting all the whey, and in 

 curing well without over-salting. The cheese is salted partty in the 

 curd, and partly on the outside of the newly-formed cheese. 



Derbyshire Cheese, made on the Carboniferous Limestone soil in the 

 northern half of the county, is a good, practical, sound, every-day 

 article of food, sometimes as excellent and attractive as the Leicester- 

 shire cheese. It is made in a similar manner, but the salting is all 

 done on the outside. Mr. George Sheldon, of Low Fields, Derbyshire, 

 made the useful and valuable discovery that the cheese was greatly 

 improved by the addition of about one-fifth of the previous day's curd, 

 which had been allowed to become more or less acid. The discovery 

 was accidental, a few pounds of curd having been mislaid ; but the 

 whole year's cheese, upwards of six tons, made in that way, realized 

 87s. per cwt. The milk is coagulated at about 80 F., and in an hour ; 

 the curd is then broken, and the whey extracted, the latter by re- 

 peated cutting, "crimming," and pressure the cheese is in press three 

 or four days, or a week, being turned and dry-clothed once or twice 

 a-day, after which it is taken to the room over the kitchen to ripen. 

 Excellent cheese is made in the Fylde of Lancashire, much on the 

 foregoing plan, the best dairies using sour curd as Mr. Sheldon did in 

 Derbyshire. 



Green Cheese is made by steeping in milk two parts of sage with one 

 of marigold leaves and a little parsley, all well bruised ; and then 

 mixing it with the curd which is prepared for the press. It may be 

 mixed irregularly or fancifully, according to the pleasure of the maker. 

 The management is in other respects the same as for ordinary cheese. 

 Green cheeses are manufactured in various counties, but only to a 

 small extent. 



Skim Cheese was formerly made in the county of Suffolk, whence it 

 was often called Suffolk Cheese. The curd is broken in the whey, 

 which is poured off as soon as the former has subsided. The remain- 



