552 



DAIRY. 



Dairy. 



Origin and 

 history of 



ihetoe. 



food at an early period of society, it could not be very 

 long- before they discovered the use of cheese : for milk, 

 on being allowed to stand for any considerable time, 

 spontaneously coagulates, and separates into curd and 

 whey. This would naturally enough suggest the idea 

 of attempting to detach, dry, and preserve the curd ; 

 and hence, not improbably, the origin of the manu- 

 facture of cheese. 



In the Book of Job ( unquestionably the most ancient 

 record in the world), mention is made of cheese. "Hast 

 thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like 

 cheese," chap. x. 10. And, in the first Book of Sa- 

 muel, chap. xvii. 1 8, when David, while yet a youth, 

 was sent by his father Jesse to the camp in the valley 

 of Elah, with refreshments for his brethren, " ten 

 cheeses," we find, were thought a proper present to 

 their commanding officer. " Carry these ten cheeses 

 unto the captain of their thousand, and look how thy 

 brethren fare." Cheese was also among the supplies 

 furnished at an after period to the same David and his 

 troops at Mahanaim, by Shobi, Machir, and Barzillai, 

 during the war with his rebel son, Absalom ; 2 Sam. 

 chap. xvii. 29. 



Cheese is mentioned by Homer, (B. C. 907.) It 

 formed no small part, we perceive, of the ample stock 

 of provisions found by Ulysses and his companions in 

 the cave of the cyclops Polyphemus. 



Tzgro} f/X'i rvpav /iglCov, <r]iiVcvlo ii tr/\y.ti 



'Agnail $' fitful. Odyss. 1. ix. 



Around the grot we gaze ; and all we view, 

 In order ranged, our admiration drew: 

 The bending shelves, with loads of cheeses prest; 

 The folded flocks, each separate from the rest. 



Euripides (B. C. 407), Theocritus, and other early 

 poets, also mention cheese. 



Hippocrates, who lived in the fourth century before 

 the Christian era, speaking of the ancient Scythians, 

 tells us, that they shook the milk of their mares in 

 wooden vessels ; and that the heavy and thick part 

 which subsides (when the fat part rises to the surface, 

 and the thin or serous part remains in the middle), was 

 by them kneaded and dried, and known by the name 

 of hippace. It was esteemed an excellent article of 

 food. No doubt this was cheese made of mares' milk. 

 Probably, though Hippocrates does not mention it, 

 they had a method of accelerating the process, by the 

 addition of the juice of some plant, or other coagula- 

 ting substance. In another place, he expressly men- 

 tions cheese (tv^o?), and says, the Scythians made it of 

 the milk of their mares, and employed it as food. Aris- 

 totle says, that milk consists of two parts, the watery 

 and the clieesy, and gives us a good deal of accurate 

 information respecting them both. But, in another 

 place, he incidentally, as it were, mentions a fat sub- 

 rtance also contained in milk, which, he says, in some 

 cases resembles oil ; by which, he no doubt means the 

 butyraceous part of milk. 



According to Ludolfus, excellent cheese, as well as 

 butter, was made by the ancient Ethiopians. Caesar, 

 m Iris Commentaries (L. vi. c. 22), speaking of the an- 

 cient Germans, says, " Agricultures 11011 student, ma- 

 jorque pars rictus coram in lactc, caseo, came consistit." 

 Strabo, likewise, (L. iv.) mentions their living upon 

 cheese ; but Pliny (L. x. ) says, that though they made 

 butter, they were ignorant of the art of making cheese. 

 Vet the oxygala, of wliich he speaks, was evidently a 

 S 



sort of cheese; and Columella has described the man- D*iry. 

 ner of its preparation. In making it, the milk was s "" ■"%/"*"■ 

 usually rendered sour, and the whey was pressed out. 

 Pliny likewise says, that oxygala was prepared from 

 the caseous parts of butter-milk, which remained be- 

 hind after the butter had been separated. Strabo, speak- 

 ing of the ancient Britons, tells us, that though they 

 had abundance of milk, some of them were so i.«no- 

 rant, that they did not know how to make cheese. 

 But when he says that some of them were thus igno- 

 rant, it evidently implies that he believed others of 

 them to be possessed of the art. Tacitus (Ger. cap. 23.) 

 informs us, that the food of the ancient Germans was 

 simple, consisting of wild fruits, fresh venison, and con- 

 crete milk (lac concretum). But whether by lac con- 

 cretum he means cheese or butter, or simply curdled 

 milk, is not known. That cheese was a common spe- 

 cies of food among the inhabitants of ancient Rome, 

 Ave learn from the first Eclogue of Virgil, where the 

 shepherd Tityrus, addressing his unfortunate neigh-, 

 bom - Melibceus, thus expresses himself. 



Quamvis multa meis exiret victima septis 



Finguis, et ingratae premeretur caseus urbi, 



Non tmquam gravis cere domum mihi dextra redibat. 



And, in the same inimitable poem, whilst Melibceu* 

 is driving, in despair, his exiled flock from those grown' s 

 which had been long the property of his ancestors, be 

 is told by his friend Tityrus that he might at least 

 have spent one night more with him ; and promised, 

 if he would still do so, pressed milk (probably cheese) 

 as part of the entertainment. 



Hie tamen hanc mecum poteras requiescere noctem 

 Fronde super viridi. Sunt nobis mitia poma, 

 Castaneae molles, et pressi copia lactis. 



In modern times, the use of cheese prevails, we be-, 

 lieve, universally, wherever human society has advan- 

 ced so tar as to have reached the pastoral state. No tra- 

 veller with whom we are acquainted states an excep- 

 tion to this rule. In Europe, certain countries, and 

 certain districts of countries, are particularly noted for 

 the manufacture of cheese. England, Holland, and 

 Italy, are the most celebrated countries in this respect ; 

 and in England, Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Wilt- 

 shire, and Cheshire; as in Italy, Parma, Piacenza and 

 Lodi are famed for their cheese. In Scotland, too, Dun- 

 lop cheese has long been highly esteemed. 



Of the different modes of manufacturing the prin- Different 

 cipal sorts of cheese, and of their comparative merits, modes of 

 we have now to give some account. But, first, it is to nianuf,tc - 

 be observed, in general, that cheese varies in quality, c j, e glg 

 according as it has been made of milk of one meal, of 

 two meals, or of skimmed milk ; and that the season 

 of the year, the method of milking, the preparation of 

 the rennet, the mode of coagulation, the breaking and 

 gathering of the curd, the management of the cheese 

 in the press, the method of salting, and the manage- 

 ment of the cheese-room, are all objects of the highest 

 importance to the cheese-manufacturer ; and yet, not- 

 withstanding this, the practice in most of these respects 

 is still regulated by little else than mere chance and 

 custom, without the direction of enlightened observa- 

 tion, or the aid of well-conducted experiment. 



In Gloucestershire, where the manufacture of cheese 

 is perhaps as well understood as in any part of the 

 world, they make their best cheeses of a single meal of 

 milk ; and, when this is done in the best manner, the 

 entire meal of milk is used, without any addition from 



