108 
Cheshire Cheese. 
In the dailies where I have been permitted to take observations, 
the lowest heat of setting the milk together was 77^. I am 
disposed to think those who make a so-called cold cheese do not 
adopt much lower temperatm-es, even in summer, than 74° or 75°; 
since a much longer time would be occujHed in gathering and 
compacting the curd, and considerable risk incurred of having 
what is termed a sour cheese. 
The evening's milk in the tub being at or about 75°, as before 
stated, and the milk which is brought from the cows 90° or 95°, 
the temperature of the whole is then found to be somewhere be- 
tween 80° and 85°; and I am of opinion that the heat at which 
milk ought to be and is commonlj coagulated ranges between 
those two temperatures.* 
When colouriii(j is used, which is not so extensively the case as 
formerly, it is put into the milk immediately before the rennet. 
The nature of the article used for this purpose I propose to inves- 
tigate under a distinct head in the Appendix. The quantity of 
colouring is in some degree regulated by the quality of the milk : 
if a considerable portion of the cream of the evening's milk has 
been taken out for making butter, a greater quantity of this colour- 
ing matter will be required to give the cheese that appearance 
which is found necessary to please the eye of the consumer, and 
particularly of those residing in London or at a distance. Annatto 
(or rather a colouring matter which goes by that name) is the 
article used ; 1 lb. of it for each ton of cheese is a moderate 
calculation ; this would be after the rate of half an ounce to 
75 lbs. The present retail price of the " best real Spanish 
annatto" is 4s. per lb. The colouring is prepared and applied 
in different ways, but the most common is to take apiece of 
the requisite size, to fold it in a small bit of linen, and put 
it in half or a quarter of a pint of warm water the previous 
night. By this means it gets sufficiently dissolved. When 
the infusion is poured into the milk, the linen bag containing 
it is dipped in, and rubbed betwixt the fingers until the colouring 
is all discharged. The dregs, if any, remain in the bag. 
The rennet, or steep as it is commonly called, is next added. I 
have already stated in the introduction, that this is an infusion 
made from the preserved stomach or maw of sucking calves, 
* Since writing (he above I have met with a farmer in Eddisbury Hun- 
dred, who says he used the thermometer during the year 1841 for the first 
time, and that the heat he unil'ormly adopted was 84". I also found a 
thermometer at another dairy near to this, but it was not in use. I was 
allowed to test the heat of the milk with it, and found it 78° ; this was in 
June. The precise heat at wliicli milk ouglit to be coagulated is a matter 
of vital importance in cheese-making, and can only be ascertained by a 
series of careful and judicious experiments made by scientific and practical 
parties. 
