186 THE OX AND THE DAIRY. 



and an inferior kind of butter called whey butter is made from 

 the cream or fat skimmed off. 



Cheeses are frequently coloured a practice which probably 

 arose from the notion of making the cheese look richer ; but 

 now it deceives no one. Yet if some cheeses were not coloured 

 they would not be so marketable, owing to the association that 

 subsists between the colour and the quality of the cheese. 

 The substance used for colouring is most commonly arnotto. 

 It is ground fine on a stone, and mixed with the milk at the 

 time the rennet is put in. The juice of the orange carrot, 

 and the flower of marigold, are also used for this purpose. 

 Chedder, a cheese made in Somersetshire, which is highly 

 prized, Stilton, Derby, and some other cheeses, are never 

 coloured : Cheshire slightly ; but Gloucester and North Wilt- 

 shire deeply. Foreign cheeses are only coloured very slightly, 

 if at all. The Dutch cheeses are made in a very similar man- 

 ner to the Gloucester cheeses, but the milk is generally 

 curdled by means of muriatic acid or spirits of salt : and great 

 care is taken to prevent fermentation, and to extract the whole 

 of the whey. For this purpose the curd is repeatedly broken 

 and pressed ; and before it is made up into the round shape 

 in which it is usually sold, the broken curd is well soaked in 

 a strong solution of common salt in water. This diffuses the 

 salt throughout the whole mass, and effectually checks fer- 

 mentation. When the cheeses are finally pressed, all the 

 whey which may remain is washed out with the brine ; salt is 

 likewise rubbed over the outside, and they are set to dry on 

 shelves in a cool place. The flavour of the cheese is perhaps 

 impaired by the stoppage of the fermentation ; but it never 

 heaves, and it acquires the valuable quality of keeping well 

 even in warm climates. From the place where this cheese is 

 commonly made, it is known by the name of Edarn cheese. 

 A finer cheese is made at Gouda and other places, by imitat- 

 ing the process in making Gruyere cheese ; but this cheese is 

 always full of small cavities, and will not keep so long as the 

 Edam. The cheese most commonly met with in Holland is 

 a large kind of skim-milk cheese, which is made very like 

 Cheshire cheese. It grows hard and dry, and has not much 

 flavour. To supply this defect, cummin seeds are mixed with 

 the curd, which those who are accustomed to it consider a 

 great improvement. On the whole, it is a better cheese than 

 our Suffolk skim-milk cheese, and forms an important part of 

 the provisions usually stored for a Dutch family. In France the 



