DAIRY. 



557 



Djiiy. 



Lincoln- 



shi.'e 



cheese. 



Creen 



cheese. 



Dunlop 

 cheese. 



When 111- 



troduced. 



Dunlop 

 cows. 



Method of 

 making 

 Dunlop 

 cheese. 



In France it is common to mix particular plants and 

 herbs in their cheeses. Now we have likewise in this 

 country cheeses auxjines herbes, ci I'Estragon, an Cajm- 

 cin, &c. 



In Lincolnshire, they make a rich and excellent cream 

 cheese, by adding the cream of a former meal of milk 

 to that which comes immediately from the cow. The 

 cheese is gently pressed only two or three times ; and 

 when but a few days old, is sold to be eaten with ra- 

 dishes, sallad, and the like. 



Green cheese is made by steeping over night in a 

 proper quantity of milk, two parts of sage with one of 

 marigold leaves, and a little parsley after being bruised, 

 and then mixing the curd of the milk thus greened, as 

 it is called, with the curd of the white milk. These 

 may be mixed irregularly or fancifully, according to the 

 pleasure of the operator. The management in other re- 

 spects is the same as for common cheese. These are 

 mostly made in Wiltshire. 



In Scotland, a species of cheese is produced, which 

 has been long known and celebrated under the name 

 of Dunlop cheese. The appellation is derived from a 

 parish of the same name in Ayrshire, where this cheese 

 was first made; but its manufacture is at present by 

 no means confined to Dunlop. Many of the neighbour- 

 ing parishes now make cheese equally good, and in far 

 greater quantity. Indeed, when once the cheese from 

 any part of the county is carried to a distance, it is cal- 

 led Dunlop cheese. 



Making of cheese from unskimmed milk, or as it is 

 termed, sweet milk, seems hardly to have been known in 

 Scotland before the revolution. It was about this time, 

 that a woman of the name of Barbara Gilmour, who had 

 fled to Ireland from religious persecution, returned to 

 Dunlop, and introduced the above manufacture. Her 

 great-grandson is still living, and possesses the same 

 farm. 



In this district, their cows are of a small rather than 

 a large size ; from 30 to 50 stone live weight. Particu- 

 lar attention is paid to their breed ; and being fed in in- 

 closures, they are never under a roof, except it be for 

 milking, from May to October. Existing thus in the 

 open air during all the mild part of the year, the animals 

 probably enjoy the best health, and their milk is of the 

 finest quality. They also afford it in large quantity, 

 and are milked twice a-day, viz. at six, morning and 

 evening. Some of them for two or three months after 

 calving, have produced from 1 8 to 20 Scotch pints of 

 milk per day, that is, from 9 to 10 English gallons; 

 but this is rare, and the milk of such cows is usually 

 thin and serous. 



The best cheese is made by such as have a dozen or 

 more cows, and consequently can make a cheese every 

 day ; one half of the milk being immediately from the 

 cow, and the other of twelve hours standing. Their 

 method of making it is simple, They endeavour to have 

 the milk as near as may be to the heat of new milk when 

 they apply the rennet, and whenever coagulation has 

 taken place, (which is generally in ten or twelve mi- 

 nutes,) they stir the curd gently, and the whey begin- 

 ning to separate, is taken -off as it gathers, till the curd 

 be pretty solid. When this happens, they put it into a 

 drainer with holes, and apply a weight. As soon as this 

 has had its proper effect, the curd is put back again in- 

 to the cheese tub, and by means of a sort of knife with 

 three or four blades, cut into very small pieces, salted, 

 and carefully mixed by the hand. It is now placed in 

 the vat, cliessel, or cheesitt, as it is named in Scotland, 

 and put under the press. This is commonly a large 



stone of a cubical shape, from half a ton to a ton in 

 weight, fixed in a frame of wood, and raised and lowered 

 by an iron screw. The cheese is frequently taken out, 

 and the cloth changed ; and as soon as it has been as- 

 certained that no more whey remains, it is removed from 

 the chessel altogether, and placed on a dry board or deal 

 floor. It is turned and rubbed frequently with a hard 

 coarse cloth, to prevent moulding, or breeding mites. 

 No colouring matter is used in making Dunlop cheese, 

 except by such as wish to imitate the English cheese. 



Excellent cheese, little if at all inferior to Dunlop, or 

 even to some of the best English manufacture, has late- 

 ly been made in Dumfries-shire, and some of the other 

 southern counties of Scotland. A very good kind of 

 plain cheese has been made on a farm near Thurso, in 

 the north of Scotland, for a few years past ; and in a 

 particular district of Ross-shire, good cheeses are made, 

 but not for sale. They have a singular mode of impro- 

 ving them, by burying the cheeses separately for some 

 time Avithin high-water mark. This makes them be- 

 come blue, moist, and rich tasted, like Stilton. 



The usual size of Dunlop cheeses is from 20 to 60 

 pounds ; and a dozen good cows, well fed and managed, 

 will produce in a season from 150 to lo'O stones (pro- 

 vincial weight), that is, more than a ton and a hah'. 

 This, when brought to market, at the rate of 10 to 12 

 shillings per stone, may produce from 70 to nearly 100 

 pounds sterling. 



Cheeses in general are liable to crack, to acquire 

 rankness and pungency, to heave, to blister, and to run 

 out at the sides. The first has been thought to arise 

 from too suddenly exposing them to a current of air on 

 then being taken out of the press. Rankness and pun- 

 gency are commonly attributed to impure rennet, or to 

 a deficiency of salt; but it is more probably owing to 

 the imperfect separation of the whey. Heaving and 

 running out at the sides, are properly attributed to the 

 same cause, though some ascribe them to the rankness 

 of certain pastures, or an improper temperature of the 

 cheese house. 



The usual remedy for blisters, is to cut them open 

 and pom- hot water into the incisions; then to press 

 down the outer rind, putting on a little salt and a piece 

 of slate loaded with a ten or twelve ounce weight. To 

 prevent sponginess, or whey-spring in cheese, careful 

 breaking of the curd, frequent skewering, and powerful 

 pressing, are esteemed the best means. It is observed, 

 however, that often from the same curd, a net cheese 

 which has been scarcely pressed at all will be quite 

 close, when one that has been strongly pressed will 

 heave. This may not be easily accounted for ; but cer- 

 tainly it appears to us, that a great error is committed 

 in the usual method of pressing cheese. Holes, it is 

 true, are generally made in the lower parts of the vat, 

 to admit the escape of the whey ; but as soon as the 

 curd has been put in, the whole force of the press is ap- 

 plied at once ; and the consequence is, that the cvird is 

 so strongly forced into the holes, that these are altoge- 

 ther plugged up, and might as well have never been 

 made. The power of the press ought to be applied 

 oradually. A screw might be the best method of ef- 

 fecting this ; but even by means of a lever it could bu 

 very easily accomplished. We have only to suspend a 

 weight on the lever at a proper distance from the ful- 

 crum, so as to counteract, as far as may be thought ne- 

 cessary, the weight of the body employed as a press, 

 and by moving gradually the counteracting weight near- 

 er and nearer to the fulcrum, or point of support of the 

 lever, the pressure would be thus slowly laid on. 

 3 



Dairv. 



Cheese in 

 difForeiu 

 parts oi' 

 Scotland. 



Si2e of 

 Dunlop 

 cheeses. 



Defects of 

 cheese. 



Remedies. 



Observa- 

 tions on 

 pressing. 



