SUPPLEMENT. 681 



Sicilian caciocavallo is made of cows' or goats' milk, and coagulated like sheep's milk 

 cheeses. When curdled it is not heated in water but broken with a piece of wood, the 

 whey removed, dried, and taken from the tub to the trough. Then the curd is sliced, 

 replaced in the tub, cooked in boiling whey, removed to the trough, pressed to solidity, 

 cooled, placed and left for twenty -four hours on a stand or table, sliced, thrown into boil- 

 ing whey, recooked till viscid, gathered, pressed, drawn by hand, reduced to paste, 

 formed in pumpkin-shaped pieces, salted for twenty-four hours, and hung, prepared 

 for use, in the cheese-house. 



Proratura cheese is made of cows' milk. The cows are only milked mornings, when 

 their milk is poured into a large pine, tub-shaped receptacle. Only when the atmos- 

 phere is cold is it previously slightly heated. Dissolved kid rennet is poured into it, the 

 mixture turned with the rotolo, and then left quiet. Upon coagulation the curd is not 

 allowed to become lumpy, but is pressed and softened with the rotolo. When the curd 

 f.inks in the vat a sieve of pierced tin is placed and held over it with weights. If much 

 whey rises it is used for ricotta; if little, the sieve is removed, and it is left on the curd 

 to facilitate "growth," as before denned. When ductile it is cut in small pieces, placed 

 in another pine vat, and previously prepared hot water poured upon it. Here the curd 

 is kept till cooked, when the water is drawn off. It is then, in portions, gathered, and 

 stirred with a wooden spoon, and formed, by hand previously wet in cold water, into 

 two-pound balls, which are put, and left for some hours, in tubs of cold water, and 

 finally slightly salted. 



BUTTER-MAKING IN ITALY. 



Butter, when made in families who have little milk, is made" in cylindrical churns, in 

 which the cream is shaken by movement of the churn-handle. Factories use large 

 cylindrical churns on trestles, in which are wings turned by machinery. The butter 

 they produce is cleaner than that made by hand-churns. 



In Pavia, cream of 6 or 7 E. is shaken in round boxes called "puraggie." Each box 

 has a spoon fastened to an axle. This axle is turned by a crank, and revolves the spoon 

 around the inside periphery of the box. The process requires two men. Some use a 

 cradle-churn, which saves labor and produces equally good butter. In Cremona the 

 American machine is in general use, namely, a horizontally fastened tub, in the interior 

 cf which is a reel similar to that used in silk-making. 



The dairyman of Parma beats the milk with a cream-whipper, and skillfully lets the 

 floating cream, which gathers iii the bucket, overflow into a line-edged wooden bowl, and 

 thence into the churn. In summer it is customary to add 10 pounds of ice to every 30 

 quarts of cream, while in winter some cream is heated and turned into the churn with 

 the rest. The temperature is always kept from 10 to 15 Keaumur. When in the 

 churn two men alternately beat the cream with a butter-beater joined to a straining- 

 frame, raising and lowering it by leverage. Butter should begin to form in three-quar- 

 ters of an hour. When it is necessary to hasten formation, water is added where ad- 

 visable to retard it, ice. If made before the time mentioned, it is soft if after, hard 

 and set. When prepared it is taken from the churn, worked with the hands, formed 

 into blocks, and left to drain. The blocks are frequently adorned with impressions 

 made with a wooden stamp. The skimmed milk is used for the ricotta cheese. 



In Catanzaro butter is made with the old-fashioned churn, a, miserable mechanism, 

 causing loss of milk and time. The manner of keeping butter there, though simple, is 

 exceedingly ingenious, consisting in inclosing it in small bladders, in which it can be 

 conveniently kept and carried without danger of change. 



At Modica, where the butter is delicious, it is not made directly from the cream, but 

 from the "ricotta," which is obtained by boiling the small milk after extracting the 

 casein e. 



The butter-maker of Sardinia puts the "ricotta" in a bowl of cold water, and shakes 

 and presses -it between his fingers. In a half hour a white scum appears on the surface 

 of the water, and by continued movement and pressure of the "ricotla" increases during 

 the succeeding half hour. This scum is the butter of the "ricotta." 



Dairy associations and cheese factories. It is hard to determine the epoch in which the 

 first dairy associations were formed. It is known that they, were numerous in Savoy in 

 the Middle Ages, and that they have existed since remote times in the French Jura and 

 on the Alpine slopes. Where land is owned in small plots, as in the mountainous parts 

 of Upper Italy, and where large dairies, consequently, do not exist, the making of cheese 

 is impossible, unless assumed by a manufacturer who would buy the milk from the cow- 

 owners, or unless these, in partnership, prepare it. 



The advantages of dairy associations and cheese factories are numerous. One cheese- 

 making establishment, set of machines, and utensils answer for many milk-owners, 

 lessen the cost of production, increase and improve the product, facilitate sales, save 



