180 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
From the Albany UuUivator 
Cheese-Making. 
At the preseni lime it. is an object of consid- 
erable consequence to the manufacturers of 
cheese in this country, to produce that which 
would be approved and meet with a ready sale 
in the English markets, whither a large quanti- 
ty of that article is now being sent. One of the ' 
most esteemed varieties of English cheese is 
that made in C.ieshire; and, having bad fre- 
quent inquiries in regard to the process of man- 
ufacturing this kind, from those who are desir- 
ous of imitating it, we give from the Journal of 
the Royal Agricultural Society^ a briel sketch 
of a prize essay, by Mr. White, on Cheese- 
Making in Cheshire, 
The n umber of cows belonging to a cheese- 
dairy is stated to be seldom less than eight or 
ten, or more than seventy or eighty. From 18 
cows a cheese from 36 to 54 lbs. weight, is made 
daily for four or five months in the summer. 
The' annual produce, however, varies with the 
cows and mode of keeping, and it is observed 
that great loss is known to have been sicslamed by 
not feeding the animals well in winter. 
The evening’s milk is seldom made into 
cheese till the following morning, and in small 
dairies, sometimes not till the second morning. 
A cool milk-house is necessary, and hence it is 
commonly placed on the side of the house (or 
other building) least exposed to the sun. Most 
milk-rooms have lattice or wire-windows for 
the circulation of air, and an inclination is giv- 
en to the floors for the tree escape of the cold 
water which is daily applied to them in sum- 
mer. Precautions of this kind are necessary to 
prevent the milk from becoming sour. A tem- 
perature of fifty degrees Fahrenheit is thought 
the best throughout the year. 
The dairy is generally near the milk-house, 
and fitted with two boilers; one for scalding 
whey, and another of less size for healing wa- 
ter. ' The salting and drying house should ad- 
join the dairy. Here the cheeses are placed on 
stone or wooden benches, salted externally, and 
dried, before removal to the cheese room. 
Some (lairj -maids dispense with external salt- 
ing. Sometimes the cheese room is over the 
dairy, and at others it is over the kitchen^ or 
other apartment in which a fire is kept. Light 
and air are always excluded from it by curtains 
or shutters; and one reason assigned lor the 
practice is its tendency to prevent the hurtlul ef- 
fects of the fly. Some of the larger cheese 
rooms are warmed by stoves or hot air, and in 
rare instances, from ordinary fire-places built in 
them. 
Process of Cheese- Making. —The. extraction 
of the whey, and salting, occupy from five to 
seven hours, and it is therefore convenient to 
commence working in the morning.^ In this 
case the evening’s milk is kept overnight, and 
in the morning the cream is skimmed off and a 
portion of the milk warmed. The warming is 
effected bv means of a brass or tin pan, about 
twenty inches in diamete.r, and eight inches 
deep, in which the milk is floated in the boiler, 
the water in which has been healed for the pur- 
pose. In the early months ol the season, so 
much as hall the evening’s milk may be heated 
to a temperature of lOO degrees, a heat seldom 
exceeded, except with a view of saving trou- 
ble in the after process. The cold milk is now 
poured into the cheese tub, and the warm added 
to it. The temperature of the mixture may be 
about 75 degrees, but in warm weather 70 will 
be enough. It is, however, becoming the gen- 
eral practice, in summer, not to warm the eve- 
ning’s milk, and in very warm weather even 
the temperature of the morning’s milk is some- 
times reduced. The cream, diluted in about 
double its quantity of warm or new milk, is 
next put in. If a small portion of the cream is 
to be retained for butler, it is thought best to 
skim it off the whole surface of the cream be- 
lore diluting, in order to remove froth and bub- 
bles, which are considered prejudicial to the 
cheese. This leads to the conclusion, that fixed 
air in the curd is detrimental, and suggests the 
inquiry whether it might not be beuer to heat 
the whole ol the evening’s milk to the required 
temperature, than to raise the temperature of a 
part of it to lOO degrees. The next step is to 
add the new or morning’s milk, which is done 
by passing it through a seive placed on the 
cheese-la Ider over the* chee.‘e-tub. Bubbles 
seen floating on the surface are skimmed off, 
and passed through the seive to break them. 
An important poininow demanding attention 
is the profwr temperature of the milk when the 
rennet is put in. Little is known among farm- 
ers and dairy -maids as to the prcciseheal which 
is best; and it is seldom that the temperature is 
tested otherwise than by hand. Insome dairies 
in which observations have been made, ihe 
lowest heat was 77 degrees. Even where what 
is called cold-cheese, which has a tendency to 
green-mould, is made, it is not supposed that a 
temperature is adopted at any season ol the 
year, much under 74 or 75 degrees. The eve- 
ning’s milk being about 75, and the morning’s 
milk from 90 to 95 degrees, the temperature of 
the whole is found to be from 80 to 85 degrees. 
The exact heal at which milk ought to be coagu- 
lated isa matter of essential importance in 
cheese-making, and it cannot be ascertained 
but by a series of careful and judicious experi- 
ments made by scientific and practical parlies. 
The rennet or steep is now to be added.* To 
fix the quantity necessary for coagulating a 
given quantity ol milk isdifficull, as maw skins 
vary much in quality. In using them two 
skins are often cut at once. Three square 
inchfs taken from the boitom, or strongest part 
of the one, and one or two inches from the top 
or weakest part of the other, are generally suffi • 
cient for sixty gallons of milk. These pieces 
are put into a cup containing about hall a pint 
ol luke-warm water, with a teaspoonful of 
sail, the day before the infusion is required. — 
The water thus impregnated with the maw- 
skin is passed through a seive into the milk; 
but the skin itself is usually kept out ; the ren- 
net cup is well scalded before being used again. 
The coloring matte: and rennet having been 
pul in, the milk is well stirredand leltio coagu- 
late, and the tub is covered up. [It is remarked 
in a note, that the coloring matter used is An- 
natto, which gives the cheese an amber or 
cream-like appearance. It is said to be 
seldom used when the cheese is intended 
for the consumption of the Cheshire fami- 
lies, as it is known not only that it does 
not improve the flavor, but that if the quality 
ol the drug, is inferior, or, if t.here is too much 
of it used, there isa hazard of the flavor being 
too much deteriorated. One pound of it to a ton 
ol cheese, or half an cunce to seventy-five 
pounds, is considered a moderate proportion ] — 
The coagulation is commonly effected in an 
hour or an hour and a half. The warmer the 
milk, or theslrongertherennetlhe socnercnagu- 
lation ensues, but the curd is tougher and less 
in qiiantiiy ; on the contrary, the cooler the 
milk or weaker the rennet, the longer the curd 
is in forming; but it is both lender and there is 
more of it. Too much rennet tends to impart 
an unpleasant flavor or bitterness to the cheese. 
It may generally be expected that the heat of tire 
curd when formed, will be lour or five degrees 
less than the milk was when the rennet was 
applied ; and the difference, especially in cool 
weather, should not be greater. To determine 
when the curd is fit for breaking, requires some 
practical knowledge. It is usually done by 
gently pressing the surface ol the milk with the 
back of the hand, or by lifting up the skimming 
dish, beneath| which fhe curd and whey will 
distinctly appear, if the coagulation is complete. 
* The following is given as a good recipe for curing 
maw skins. Procure fiesh skins the year before they 
are wanted ; free them from chyle and every impurity ; 
turn them inside out and salt the.-n ; lay them one upon 
another, with salt between, in a deep earthenware ves- 
sel ; coyer the whole with salt, and lay a lid on Ihe top. 
About antonlh before using them, take them out and 
drain the brine from them; then spread them on a ta- 
ble, and powder them on each side with fine salt. In 
this state they are to be rolled with a paste roller, dis- 
lendeel with splints of wood, and hung uji to dry. 
Another criterion is the color of the whey, which 
should he a pale green. 
The breaking and gatheringof the curd next 
engage attention. These operations are per- 
formed by the hand and skimraingdish,or more 
commonly the curd-breaker. This implement 
is mrde of w'iiework, in an oval form that has a 
rim ol tin anaind it about an inch and an half 
broad. It cuts t! e curd by being passed through 
it perpendicularly., and at first, very gently, in 
different daroctiions, SQ that the whole mass is 
.separated into very small poTiions. For a 60 
lb. cheese, this operation takes twenty or twen- 
ty-five minytes. The card is then left for a 
quarter of an hour to separate from the whey, 
and if the weather is cool, a cover is put ovei the 
tub to retain the heat. After the separation of 
the curd, which falls to the bottom, a portion of 
the whey at Ihe top is taken out by Ihe portable 
brass or tin pan being pressed into it, and 
emptied into the set pan ; the curd is then gent- 
ly broken, by being raised with the hands to the 
surface, or by the renewed use of the curd- 
breaker. When the curd is brought to lie top, 
it is easily raised and separated into small por- 
tions for the release of the w'hey. This part of 
the process takes about half an hour. After 
about another half hour, or as soon as the curd is 
sufficiently settled, more whey is taken out, and 
the curd, so far as its contexture will admit, 
drawn into one-half of the bottom of the tub; a 
semicircular board is then placed on the curd, 
loaded with a weight of about 30 lbs. The 
board is perforated with holes about half an 
inch in diameter, lor the escape of the whey. — 
The tub is now set three or four inches atilt, to 
facilitale the discharge of the whey from the 
curd, and the skimming dish is used to lade it 
out. On its way to the set-pan, the whey passes 
through ii sieve in which any curd contained in 
it is=’cor.ected. This curd is called slip-curd, 
and by some dairy-maids is not returned to the 
tub. The wvight and board are shortly re- 
moved, and such part of the curd as has been 
squeezed from under them is again ccl]eete<i on 
one side, and a heavier weight ol 50 or 60 lbs. 
applied as before. As the w'bey is expelled from 
the curd it is removed. In a quarter of an hour 
the board is taken off again, the curd cut by in- 
tersections, six or eight inches apart, and 
then the board replaced, doubly loaded. Some- 
times the .slip-curd is now added, the weight is 
again increased, if necessary; care being ta- 
ken to augment the pressure gradually, and to 
regulate it by the degree of compactness of the 
curd; for if caution is not used in l.his respect, 
both now and afterwards, a considerable portion 
of buiyraceous matter w ill be forced out to the 
detriment of the cheese. 
The curd is again cut into square pieces, ta- 
ken out of the cheese tub, and broken a little by 
the hands as it is passed into the thrusting tub. — 
Sometimes a large s'zed cheese-vat, and at 
others a willow basket is substituted for the 
thrusting tub. la this the lurther extraction of 
the whey iscoriinnecl by the application of the 
screw, of which there ate different kinds, but 
the principle is the same in all. Preference, 
however, is due to the lever press, which pos- 
ses.ses the advantage of sinking by its own 
weight, and ol allowing the application gradual- 
ly of any degree of pressure, with less attention 
on the part of the dairy-maid. 
The proportion of salt is not regulated by 
any definite rule. One larmer, dislinguishedfor 
improvements in agriculture, uses one pound 
to Ibriy-iwo poundsofcnrcl. In another instance 
more salt is used in summer than at other times, 
the average being one pound for forty pounds of 
dried cheese, or about forty gallons of milk. In 
autumn there is always more cord in the milk 
than at other seasons ; and in wet weather there 
is sometimes an increase of milk without a 
corresponding augmentation of curd. Before 
applying the salt, the curd is cut into three or 
four equal parts, and these are brok-.n into 
smaller pieces by the hand or by Ihe curd-mill. 
The salt is then strewed over it, and the break- 
ing continued till the salt is well intermixed, 
and the curd completely crumbled. 
