MODE OP PREPARING CHEESES. S8o 



cheese, but is taken out whole, and put into a sieve to drain gradu- 

 ally ; while draining, it is gently pressed till it becomes tirm and 

 dry, when it is placed in a vat, a box made exactly to fit it ; and it 

 is so extremely rich, that without this precaution, it is apt to bulge 

 out. and break asunder. It is afterwards kept on dry boards, and 

 turned daily, with cloth binders round it. which are tightened as 

 occasion requires. After being taken out of the vat, the cheese is 

 closely bound with cloth till it acquires sufficient firmness to sup- 

 port itself: when these cloths are removed, each cheese is brush- 

 ed once every day for two or three months, and if the weather be 

 moist, twice every day ; the tops and bottoms are treated in a simi- 

 lar manner daily before the cloths are taken off. Stilton cheese 

 derives its name from the town where it is almost exclusively sold ; 

 it is made principally in Leicestershire, though there are also many 

 who manufacture it in the counties of Huntingdon, Rutland, and 

 Northampton. Sometimes the cheeses are made in a net, resem- 

 bling a cabbage net, which gives ihem the form of an acorn ; but 

 these are neither so good nor so richly flavored, as those made in 

 vats, having a thicker coat and being deficient in that mellowness 

 which causes them to be in such general request. {Bath Papers, 

 vol. iii. p. 132, 153.) Stilton cheese is not reckoned to be suffi- 

 ciently mellow for cutting, until it is two years old, and is not sale- 

 able unless it is decayed, blue, and moist. In order to mature them 

 the more rapidly, it is a frequent practice to place the cheeses in 

 buckets, which are covered over with horse-dung. Wine is also 

 reputed to be added to the curd, in order to accelerate the ripening 

 of the cheese. 



Cottenham Cheese, from the town of that name in Cambridge- 

 shire, is a thicker kind of cream cheese than the Stilton ; its supe- 

 rior delicacy and flavor are attributed to the fragrant nature of the 

 herbage oi» the commons on which the cows are pastured, and ac- 

 cordmg to Professor Martyn, to the prevalence of the grasses, Poa 

 aqnatica and praiensis. 



Suffolk, or Skim Cheese, is made of skimmed milk; it forms a 

 part of every ship's stores, not being so much affected by heat as 

 richer cheese, nor so liable to decay in long voyages. 



Wiltshire Cheese is made of new milk coagulated as it comes 

 from the cow ; sometimes a small quantity of skimmed milk is add- 

 ed. In some dairies it is manufactured in winter as well as sum- 

 mer ; in the former case it is liable to become scurfy and white- 

 coated ; the last of which defects is frequently cojicealed by a coat 

 of red paint. 



Dutch Cheese is prepared much in the same manner as the Che- 

 shire Cheese, excepting that muriatic acid is used instead of ren- 

 net, which renders it pungent, and preserves it from mites ; IJuit of 

 Gouda is preferred. 



Parmesan Cheese was formerly supposed to be made from the 

 milk of goats, but it is merely a skim-milk chcoe. the curd hariien- 

 ed by heat, well salted, pressed, and dried, long kept, and rich in 

 flavor from the rich herbage of the meadows of the I*o. where (he 



