Cheshire Cheese. 
Ill 
to the size of the tub, with a weight of about 301b. placed upon 
it. This board is perforated with holes, about half an inch in 
diameter, to allow the whey to escape through. The tub is now- 
set three or four inches atilt to drain the whey more readily from 
the curd, and to admit of its being collected and carried off. The 
skimming-dish is again required to lade out the whey. The whey, 
on its way to the set-pan, is passed through a sieve, to collect any 
curd which may happen to be floating in it. This curd is what is 
called slip curd, which by some is not returned to the tub, for the 
reason I have before stated. The weight and board are shortly 
taken off, and such part of the curd as has been squeezed from 
under them is again collected on one side, and a heavier weight 
(say 501b. or 601b.) applied as before. As the whey escapes 
from the curd it is laded out. In the course of a quarter of an 
hour the board is again removed, the curd cut in intersections of 
six or eight inches apart, to assist the discharge of the whey, and 
the board, with additional weights (about double the last), again 
applied. Some dairy-maids now add the slip curd. The weights 
are again increased if it be thought necessary : observing always 
to let the pressure which is applied be gradual, and regulated by the 
degree of compactness of the curd, for if this is not attended to now, 
as well as afterwards, a considerable portion of butyraceous matter 
will be forced out and the cheese of course deteriorated. 
The curd is again cut into square pieces, taken out of the cheese- 
tub and broken a little by the hands as it is passed into the 
" thrusting-tub" {a. Figs. 2 and 3). (In some dairies a large-sized 
cheese-vat, in others a willow basket is substituted for the thrusting- 
tub.) In this the extraction of the whey is afterwards continued 
by the application of " the screw," of which there are two or three 
kinds, but all on the same principle (see Figs. 2 and 3). The old 
plan of thrusting — and from which the term is no doubt derived — 
was by means of a pole four or five yards long, fixed at one end 
into an upright post, whilst at the other was seated a lusty lad or 
a man, who kept regularly pressing down the pole upon the curd, 
the pole acting as a lever. Both poles and men are now almost 
entirely expelled from the Cheshire dairies ; and the screw is also 
likely to be superseded by the " lever press" (Fig. 5). The ad- 
vantages of this over the screw are, that it sinks by its own action 
with the curd — aivj degree of pressure required can be applied and 
gradually increased, and less attention is necessary ; whereas the 
pressure from the screw is sudden and uncertain, and having no 
self-action, requires the dairy-maid's assistance every five or ten 
minutes to render it effectual. 
The " thrusting-tub," in which the curd has now to be pressed, 
veniences would, in my opinion, seldom if ever happen if a thermometer 
was used at fust, and the proper heat at that time adhered to. 
