CHEESE MAKING. 383 



The Roquefort Cheese is an example of a mode of 

 curing by which a most exquisite flayor is developed in an 

 ordinary curd by means of fungous growth both within 

 and without the cheese. The manufacture has been for 

 many years under a sort of associated system much simi- 

 lar to our factory system, and takes precedence in point 

 of time to ours by a good many years, the milk being 

 sold to the company — which owns the caves where the cur- 

 ing is carried on — by some of the farmers, others sell the 

 curd, and still others the new cheese ; the curing, being 

 the most important part of the manufacture, is carried on 

 by a few individuals or companies. 



The milk used is taken from ewes — a race of sheep 

 being bred in the locality having extraordinary milking 

 qualities — as well as from cows ; but the quality of the 

 cheese seems to be quite independent of the milk used. 

 The evening's milk is strained into a copper cauldron 

 and heated slowly to a point never equal to boiling heat, 

 but varying according to the judgment of the operator 

 in regard to the season, the weather, the pasture, and 

 the quality of the milk. The richer the milk the less 

 heat is applied. The heated milk is put into widely 

 flaring pots for the cream to rise and is skimmed in the 

 morning. The morning's milk is put directly into the 

 cauldron with the evening's milk and heated to the same 

 temperature as the evening's milk was. The rennet is 

 then added in the proportion of one tablespoonf ul for 120 

 pounds of milk — a little more than fifty quarts. The 

 curd is cut and broken in the usual manner and the whey 

 is separated. The whey is dipped out of the vat with a 

 flat dish-shaped dipper, which is pressed into the curd 

 until no more can be taken up, when the curd is broken 

 up with the hands and put into the molds. 



The molds are of glazed earthenware of a flat cylindri- 

 cal shape, pierced with holes, and are about eight and a 

 half inches in diameter and three and a half in hight, so 



