December, 1906 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



39i 



9 — Salting Camembert 



1 — Shaping " Half Salt " Cheese by Hand 



to forms of less height. At night they are turned again and 

 on the third day salt is applied to the rim and one face and, 

 twelve hours afterward, to the other face. The Gerome 

 cheeses are then sent to the drying-room where they remain 

 two or three days, after which they are turned once more 

 and taken to a cellar kept at a temperature of 54 or 55 de- 

 grees F. Here they are turned and wiped with a cloth wet 

 with warm brine every other day. They gradually acquire a 

 reddish tinge and at the end of two months the ripening is 

 complete. According to M. Charles Martin's excellent work 

 on The Dairy (1904) the size of Gerome cheeses has been 

 reduced in recent years. Originally they weighed from 4^ 

 to 1 1 pounds each. 



The best Pont L'Eveque cheeses are made in the valley 

 of Ange. Coagulation is effected in twenty minutes at from 

 85 to 104 degrees F. The whey which covers the 

 curd is then removed and the curd is cut with a wooden knife 

 and placed to drain on reed mats called "glottes." The curd 

 is covered with cloth to keep it warm. It is then put into 

 square molds which are turned ten times during the first half 

 hour, after which they are placed on fresh and thoroughly 

 dry mats and turned five or six times more in the course of 

 the day. At the end of forty-eight hours, the cheeses are 



taken from the molds, salted, and placed on gratings covered 

 with straw in the drying room, where they remain four days, 

 and are turned daily. Then they go to the ripening cellars, 

 where they are placed on edge, in contact with each other, in 

 order to prevent the development of fungous growths. They 

 are turned every second day and become ready for market in 

 three weeks. 



Livarot cheese is made from partly skimmed milk, coagu- 

 lated in an hour and a half at from 85 to 104 degrees 

 F. The curd is cut with a wooden knife and placed 

 either on clothes or on reed mats where it is allowed to drain 

 for a quarter of an hour. During this time the curd is broken 

 up with the fingers into particles of the size of a grain of 

 wheat. It is then put into tinned iron molds, 6 inches in 

 height and diameter, which are turned at intervals until the 

 cheese has become solid. The cheese is then salted and is 

 allowed to drain for five days longer. After a sojourn of a 

 fortnight in the drying room it goes to the cellar, where it is 

 turned three times a week and wiped, each time, with a cloth 

 saturated with brine. Finally it is wrapped with sedge leaves 

 to keep it in shape. The ripening process occupies from three 

 to five months, according to the size of the cheese. Before 

 being shipped, Livarot cheeses are colored superficially. 



