554. 



DAIRY. 



ftairy. 



Cheshire 



theeje. 



Milking 

 and cool- 

 ing the 



milk. 



Meals of 

 milk to a 

 cheese. 



but being perfectly harmless, no bad consequences can 

 arise from its use. The quantity employed is very ge- 

 nerally judged of by the shade of colour to be imparted, 

 without any very certain rule ; and the degree of co- 

 lour in most cases is adapted to the name under which 

 the cheese is intended to be sold. In north Wiltshire, 

 says Mr Marshall, a new species of prepared annotto has 

 lately been discovered, which gives the milk and the 

 curd a beautiful yellow hue. 



Skimmed milk cheese is made only in those districts 

 where butter is the chief object ; and the milk is used 

 after it has been two or three times skimmed. 



In Cheshire, where they make cheeses of the largest 

 size, (60 or 1 00 pounds,) they milk their cows in sum- 

 mer at six o'clock morning and evening ; but in winter, 

 at day-light in the morning, and just before dark in the 

 evening. After the milk has been strained to free it 

 from any impurities it may have caught during the 

 milking, it is conveyed into a cooler placed upon feet 

 like a table. This is a leaden cistern, nine inches deep, 

 five feet long, and two and a half wide, With a cock or 

 spigot at the bottom for drawing off the milk. This, 

 when sufficiently cooled, is drawn off into pans, and the 

 cooler again filled. In some cases the cooler is large 

 enough to hold a whole meal's milk at once. The rapid 

 cooling thus produced (which, however, is necessary 

 only in hot weather and during the summer season,) is 

 found to be of essential utility in retarding the process 

 of fermentation, and thereby preventing ascescency from 

 commencing in the milk before two meals of it can be 

 put together. Some have thought that the cheese might 

 be improved by cooling the evening's milk still more 

 rapidly ; and that this might be effected by repeatedly 

 ■drawing it off from, and returning it into the cistern. 

 When the milk is too cold, a portion of it is Warmed 

 over the fire and mixed with the rest. 



A cheese in this county is seldom made of one meal. 

 And even when two cheeses are made in the day, (that 

 is, one in the morning and another in the evening,) 

 two meals of milk are generally put together. Nay, in 

 the beginning and end of the season, when the cows do 

 not afford so large a quantity, or when there are fewer 

 of them in milk, even three, four, or sometimes five or 

 six meals are employed in making one cheese. Now, 

 as the goodness of cheese depends greatly on the quan- 

 tity of cream left in the milk, and as cream necessarily 

 separates from milk on being allowed to stand, it has 

 been doubted by some, whether cream, once separated, 

 ean be again so intimately united with milk, as not to 

 Undergo decomposition in the after process of making 

 cheese. From some idea of this sort, it has become 

 customary to withdraw a part of the cream from the 

 evening's milk, when a two-meal cheese is to be made 

 in the morning. But the best farmers condemn this 

 practice, reunite the whole cream to the milk, and be- 

 lieve that when thus again blended, the mixture differs 

 in no respect from new milk, in as far as cheese-ma- 

 king is concerned. The test of experiment, however, 

 is necessary to decide this point. If a cheese, made in 

 the morning wholly of the night's milk, on which the 

 cream had risen, be found to be as rich and good as one 

 made of new milk, all the other circumstances being 

 the same, we shall have a proof that milk and cream af- 

 ter being separated, may be again so united as to become 

 the same as new milk. All agree, that in making a one 

 meal cheese of the best quality, no part of the cream 

 should be abstracted. The cheese is sometimes made in 

 the evening, but most frequently in the morning. When 

 two meals of milk are used, uiuess the weather be very 



hot, a portion of the creamed milk of the former meal, flair/. 

 as a half, a third, or more frequently only three or four — ~v— ■"•' 

 gallons are reserved, and being placed in a brass pan 

 over a furnace, or in a vessel of hot water, is made scald* 

 ing hot. Half of it. is then poured into the cheese tub 

 among the cold milk, and the remainder into the pan in 

 which the cream of this same milk had been placed. The 

 hot milk and cream being now intimately mixed, are 

 poured into the cheese tub, and the warm milk added 

 that had just come in from the cow. This is called 

 melting the cream, and is thought to be the best method 

 known of uniting two or more meals of milk. The 

 rennet is now applied. In making cheeses of the in- 

 ferior kind, as from skimmed milk, where, from its ten- 

 dency to acidity, there is a risk that it will break or 

 curdle while over the fire, the whole is brought to a pro- 

 per temperature by the addition of hot water. 



The colouring matter (annotto) in Cheshire, is added Colouring 

 by tying up as much of the substance as is thought suf- 

 ficient in a linen rag, and putting it into a half pint of 

 warm water to stand over night. The whole of this in- 

 fusion is, in the morning, mixed with the milk in the 

 cheese tub, and the rag dipped in the milk and rubbed 

 on the palm of the hand as long as any of the colouring 

 matter can be made to come away. 



The temperature of the milk when coagulating, we Tempera- 

 have already shewn to be of the greatest consequence ; tlire "" ce > 

 and yet in this point there are scarcely two dairies a g ulatI0IR 

 whose practice is the same. In those of Cheshire it is 

 commonly estimated that the lowest degree of heat 

 which the milk ought to have when the steep is put to 

 it, is one half of what it has when newly drawn from 

 the cow ; and the highest about twice the natural 

 warmth. It is thence concluded, that when a one meal 

 cheese is to be made, no great error will be committed, 

 if b}' the time a large dairy of cows has been milked, and 

 the milk deposited in the tub for coagulation, the ren- 

 net be immediately applied. But this, it must be evi- 

 dent, is a very uncertain rule, seeing it is liable to be in- 

 fluenced by the season of the year, the state of the wea- 

 ther, and the time employed in milking. Universally, 

 therefore, in all dairies where cheese of a superior quali- 

 ty is produced, the milk is coagulated at a fixed degree 

 of heat ; that, namely, which has been- found by ex- 

 perience to be the best. Mr Rudge is of opinion, that 

 the average temperature necessary to be observed, may 

 be betwixt blood and summer heat, or 90° of Fahren- 

 heit. But the experiments of Mr Marshall, formerly 

 stated, seem to be the most satisfactory on this subject. 

 It is found, however, that milk produced on poor clays 

 requires to be coagulated at a higher temperature than 

 that which is produced from rich pastures. Something, 

 therefore, it would appear, does depend upon the pas- 

 ture in cheese-making as well as in the making of butter, 

 though not nearly so much, we know, as on management 

 in both these operations. 



As soon as coagulation has taken place, the curd is Gathering 

 broken and gathered. Various methods of doing tiiis the • curdi > 

 prevail. The following seems to be judicious. A 

 cheese knife is employed to cut the curd in various di- 

 rections, and this being allowed to subside for a short 

 time, is again cut by the knife more freely than before, 

 and the operation continued till the whole be reduced 

 to small uniform particles. This business may occupy 

 about the space of forty minutes ; after which the cheese 

 tub is again covered with a cloth, and allowed to re- 

 main for nearly the same time. When the particles have 

 subsided, the whey is laded off, and the curd properly 

 pressed, by the bottom of the skimming dish, the bands.- 



