D A I R Y. 



555 



Binding, 

 filleting, 

 and mana- 

 ging ill the 

 press. 



Dairy. ©r a semicircular hoard and weight, adapted to the size 

 N— T"'""'' of the tub. The cheese knife is now employed as before 

 to cut or pare the curd, thereby promoting the free se- 

 paration of the wiiey ; and pressure is again applied till it 

 be all drained oft'. The curd is then put into two or 

 Breaking three separate vessels, and the dairy-maid and her as- 

 „im va- sistant break it with then hands as small as possible. 

 Un °' During this part of the process, salt is scattered over the 



curd, and intimately mixed with it. The proportion of 

 salt is not well ascertained, and is regulated merely by 

 estimation. 



Sometimes the skimming dish and hand only are used 

 in breaking the curd, particularly when the milk has 

 been set to steep rather cool, and the curd is of course 

 tender. When it has been properly broken and salted, 

 it is collected into the cheese vat ; and this is done in the 

 same manner as formerly described. When tinned in 

 the vat previously to its being put into the press, it is 

 rinsed with warm whey, and wrapped in a finer cloth ; 

 pains being taken to put the edges of the cloth com- 

 pletely within the vat, so as perfectly to inclose the 

 whole cheese. 



To prevent squeezing over the sides of the vat when 

 the press is let down, a hoop or binder of tin or white- 

 iron, about tlvree inches in breadth, is put round the 

 cheese, and the lower edge of it placed within the brim 

 of the vat. Sometimes cheese fillets of a coarse sort of 

 strong broad tape are used instead of the tin binders. 

 One end of the fillet is thrust down with a wooden knife 

 betwixt the cheese cloth and vat, and then drawn tight- 

 ly several times round the cheese and fastened with 

 strong pins. The operation of skewering commonly 

 continues till the morning after the cheese has been put 

 in the press, and the oftener it is turned and shifted 

 during that interval the better. Seldom is it allowed to 

 remain more than half an hour, never above two or 

 three hours after its being first put to the press till it be 

 again taken out. The cheese or cheesling is now 

 placed without its cloth in a vessel of hot whey or wa- 

 ter, to stand for an hour or two. This is to harden its 

 skin and prevent blistering. It is then wiped dry, and 

 covered with a clean dry cloth ; again placed in the vat 

 (which is also wiped dry), and put under the press. 

 Sometimes to allow the escape of extricated air, and pre- 

 vent blistering, the upper surface of the cheese at the 

 two first turnings is pricked all over with a small bod- 

 kin an inch or two deep. It is taken out, Avrapped in 

 a clean dry cloth, and replaced in the vat twice a day 

 at least, during two days, when it is finally removed. 

 In the two last turnings, cloths of a finer texture are 

 employed, that no mark of them may remain on the 

 cheese. Some think it necessary to bare- vat the cheese, 

 in order that every mark of the cloth may be effaced. 

 lt,n g- The next operation is salting ; and this is done, either 



by laying the cheese immediately after it comes out of 

 the press on a clean fine cloth in the vat, immersed in 

 brine, to remain for several days, turning it once every 

 day at least ; or by covering the upper surface of the 

 cheese with salt every time it is turned, and repeating 

 the application for three days successively, taking care 

 to change the cloth twice during the time. In each of 

 these methods, the cheese, after being so treated, is taken 

 out of the vat, placed upon the salting-bench, and the 

 whole surface of it carefuDy rubbed with salt daily for 

 eight or ten days. If it be large, a wooden hoop or a 

 fillet of cloth is employed to prevent renting. The 

 cheese is then washed in warm water or whey, dried 

 with a cloth, and laid on what is called the drying-bench. 

 It remains there for about a week, and is thence remo-. 



store- 

 house. 



ved to the keeping-house. In Cheshire, it is found that Ddiry> 

 the greatest quantity of salt used for a cheese of sixty > ™" ~Y~- m/ 

 pounds is about three pounds ; but the proportion of 

 this retained in the cheese has not been determined. 



When after salting and drying, the cheeses are de- Manage- 

 posited in the cheese-room or store-house, they are mentinth 

 smeared all over with fresh butter, and placed on shelves 

 fitted to the purpose, or on the floor. During the first 

 ten or fifteen days, smart rubbing is daily employed, and 

 the smearing with butter repeated. As long, however, 

 as they are kept, they should be every day tinned ; and 

 the usual practice is to rub them three times a week in 

 summer and twice in winter. 



The cheese-rooms in Cheshire are generally placed 

 over the cow-houses. This is done to afford them, from 

 the heat of the cattle below, that uniform and moderate 

 degree of temperature which is supposed to be essential 

 to "the proper ripening of the cheese. Dry coarse grass 

 or rushes are placed as litter on the floor. 



Such are the most approved methods in the principal Mr Mar- 

 cheese districts. But others are also practised. Theme- shall's me- 

 thod detailed by Mr Marshall in his Rural Economy of lhoc '* 

 Norfolk, as the one which he himself followed, appears 

 to us so good, that we deem it right to lay it before our 

 readers. " The practice," says he, " in my dairy, has been 

 uniformly this : As soon as the curd is come at the top firm 

 enough to discharge its whey, the dairy woman tucks up 

 her sleeves, plunges her hands to to the bottom of the 

 vessel, and, with a wooden dish, stirs the curd and whey 

 briskly about ; she then lets go the dish, and by a cir- 

 cular motion of her hands and arms, violently agitates 

 the whole ; carefully breaking every part of the curd ; 

 and at intervals, stirs it hard to the bottom with the dish, 

 so that not a piece of curd remains unbroken larger than 

 a hazel nut. This is clone to prevent what is called 

 slip-curd, (that is, lumps of curd which have slipped 

 unbroken through the dairy woman's hands,) which, by 

 retaining its whey, does not press uniformly with the 

 other curd, but in a few days ( if it happen to be situa- 

 ted toward the rind, ) turns livid and jelly-like, and soon 

 becomes faulty and rotten. This operation takes about 

 five or ten minutes ; or, if the quantity of curd be large,- 

 a quarter of an hour. 



" In a few minutes the curd subsides, leaving the 

 whey clear upon the top. The dairy woman now takes 

 her dish, and lades off the whey into a pail, which she 

 empties into a milk-lead to stand for cream, to be churn- 

 ed for whey butter ; a practice peculiar to the cheese 

 counties, and which forms no inconsiderable part of the 

 profit of a dairy in those counties. 



" Having laded off all the whey she can, without ga- 

 thering up the small pieces of loose curd floating near 

 the bottom of the vessel, she spreads a straining cloth 

 over the cheese tongs, and strains the whey through it, 

 returning the curd retained in the cloth into the cheese- 

 tub. When she has got all the whey she can, by pressing 

 the curd with her hand and the lading-dish, she takes a 

 knife and cuts it into square pieces, about two or three 

 inches square. This lets out more of the whey, and 

 makes the curd handy to be taken up, in order to be 

 broken into the vats. 



" Having made choice of a vat or vats proportioned 

 to the quantity of curd, so that .the cheese when fully 

 pressed, shall neither over nor under fill the vat, she 

 spreads a cheese-cloth over the vat, into winch she 

 rebreaks the curd, carefully squeezing every part of it 

 with her hands ; and having filled the vat heaped up 

 and rounded above its top, folds over the cloth,, and- 

 places it in the pregs." 



