THE CULTIVATOR. 
166 
domestic (Kxonomi). 
CHEESE MAKING. 
A subscriber who makes a large quantity of cheese, has 
requested to be informed how some of the celebrated 
English cheese is made. After having looked over all 
the principal papers on the subject within our reach, we 
have concluded we cannot give the information sought, in 
a better form, than by presenting an extract from the 
“ Report of a Gloucestershire Vale Farm,” published by 
the “British Society for the Diffusion of Useful Know¬ 
ledge,” in the third volume of “Husbandry.” The oc¬ 
cupant of the farm is Mr. Drinkwater S. Hayward, whose 
management generally, we should think from the Report, 
is of the best character. 
Management of the Dairy .—It is acknowledged by every 
one at all acquainted with the subject, that the quality of 
cheese does not depend upon the superior richness of the 
soil or the fineness of the herbage; for cheese of the first 
quality is often made from land of inferior description, 
and from herbage of a coarse nature. Nor does the qua'- 
ity of the cheese depend on the breed of the cows, ft,;- 
cheese of the best quality is made from the milk of cows 
of all the different breeds in the country; we think it 
principally depends on the management of the cows as to 
their food, &c. of the milk in converting it into cheese, 
and of the cheese, till it is fit for market. 
The following circumstances are injurious to the quality 
of cheese; allowing the cows to get rank or ill-flavored 
grass or hay, these conveying a bad flavor to the milk 
and cheese; allowing the cows to run and heat them¬ 
selves; driving them far to be milked, which makes the 
milk froth much in milking; carrying the milk from the 
place of milking to the dairy; and allowing the milk to 
remain long after it is milked, before it is set with the 
rennet. 
The greatest dependence is upon the dairy maid; andj 
the chief art of making cheese of the finest quality, lies 
in her management. The superintendence of the dairy 
invariably devolves upon the farmer's wife. Mrs. Hay¬ 
ward attends to every minute circumstance in this de¬ 
partment, and the following is a report of the information 
she has obligingly furnished respecting the whole econo¬ 
my of the dairy of this farm. 
The management of a dairy should be conducted with 
the greatest regularity. Every operation should be per¬ 
formed precisely at the proper time. Either hastening 
or delaying the execution of it, will cause cheese of an 
inferior quality to be made of milk from which the best 
may be obtained. A dairy maid is selected for skill, 
cleanliness, and strict attention to her business. Her 
work commences at four o’clock in the morning, and con¬ 
tinues without intermission till bed time. 
The dairy house should be kept at a temperature of 
between 50 and 60 deg.; and the dryer it is, the bet¬ 
ter, as both the milk and cream retain their sweet¬ 
ness much longer in a dry than in a damp air. Every 
time therefore, the dairy is washed, it is dried as quickly 
as possible. 
The milkings should be as near as possible at equal di¬ 
visions of the day, commencing at about four o’clock in 
the morning and three in the afternoon. The milking 
should be finished in an hour. The dairy maid sees that 
the milkers do their duty, and that all the cows are milked 
clean; for the milk that comes last is richest; and, be¬ 
sides, if the cows are not clean milked, there will be a 
gradual diminution of the milk, perceptible daily; for 
these reasons, the greatest care is taken that the cows are 
clean milked. 
The cheese tub being put in its place in the dairy, the 
ladder is put across it, and a large thin canvass cloth co¬ 
vers the whole tub and ladder, to catch any of the milk 
that may drop from the pail, and to prevent dirt from 
falling into the tub. Above this, and upon the ladder, is 
placed a hair cloth sieve, through which the milk is 
strained. If the milk should not be of the temperature 
of 85 deg., a portion of it is put into a deep tin kept for 
the purpose, and placed in a furnace of hot water in the 
wash house, by which means the whole is warmed to the 
proper degree. It is of the utmost moment to attend to 
this, for if the milk is not warm enough when the rennet 
is put into it, the cheese will be c tender,’ and will bulge 
out in the edge, which spoils its appearanoe, and a great 
quantity of sediment of small curd will be found in the 
whey, which is so much of the curd lost. If, on the other 
hand, the milk is too warm, it will cause the cheese to 
£ heave’ or ferment, which injures both its appearance 
and quality. When the milk is sufficiently warm, the co¬ 
loring matter, (if any is used) and the rennet are put into 
it, after which, the tub is covered with a woolen cloth 
for at least an hour. Rennet or runnet is made from the 
stomachs of calves, here called ‘ veils.’ Mrs. Hayward 
never uses them till they are twelve months old; for if 
they are not old, the rennet made from them causes the 
cheese to £ heave’ and become full of 1 eyes’ or holes. 
She prepares the rennet from them by adding to every 
six veils, two gallons of brine and two lemons. The le¬ 
mons do away with any disagreeable smell, and give the 
rennet sweetness and agreeable flavor. Twenty or thir¬ 
ty gallons of it ai’e made at a time, as it is found to be 
much better when made in large quantities. It should 
(never he used till it has stood for at least two months. 
\\ non the curd is sufficiently firm for breaking, it is 
gently and slowly cut with a three bladed knife down to 
the bottom of the tub, (the knife being about fourteen 
inches long,) both ways, or at right angles and around 
the sides of the tub. The cuts should be about an inch 
apart. When it has stood five or ten minutes, to allow 
it to sink a little, and the whey fo come out as clear as 
possible, some of the whey is dipped out of it with a 
bowl, and the curd is cut a second time with the three 
bladed knife, very slowly to begin with; for if the cut¬ 
ting is done hurriedly, a great quantity of sediment of 
very small curd will pass through the seive and be found 
in the whey, and there will also be an increase in the 
quantity of whey butter, which should have been in the 
cheese, and the value of the butter thus obtained will not 
compensate for the loss of credit the cheese will sustain 
frona the abstraction of the butter from it. The cutting 
being therefore performed very slowly at first, and with 
the strokes of the knife at considerable distance from each 
other, is gradually quickened, and the strokes are taken 
nearer and nearer every time. At last, one hand, with 
the skimming dish, keeps the whole in motion, turning 
up the lumps suspended in the whey, while the other, 
with the knife, is in constant motion, cutting them as 
small as possible; and this operation is continued till no 
more lumps are brought to the surface, and the whole 
mass is reduced to one degree of fineness. This process 
may occupy a quarter of an hour. 
The curd is now allowed to stand a quarter of an hour, 
and being thus sufficiently settled, the whey is taken from 
it with the bowl, and poured through a very fine hair 
sieve, placed over the whey leads. When the greatest 
part of the whey has been separated from it, the dairy 
maid, folding over a portion of it, and beginning at one 
corner, goes around the tub, cutting the curd into lumps, 
and laying them on the principal mass, by which opera¬ 
tion the mass is carried all round the tub, and most of the 
remaining whey escapes between the cut fragments as 
they lie and press upon each other. From time to time 
j the whey is taken from the tub, and put through the seive 
into the whey leads. 
The curd is then put into vats (hoops) and pressed 
down with the hands; the vats being covered with cheese 
cloths about one yard and a quarter long, of fine canvass, 
are placed in the press for half an hour, when they are 
taken out and the curd cut into thin slices, and put into a 
mill fixed on the top of the tub, which tears it into very 
small crumbs, as small as vetches. This mill, which is 
of Mr. Hayward’s construction, is a great improvement 
in the making of cheese, not only as it saves the dairy 
maid the most laborious part of the process, that of 
squeezing and rubbing the curd into small crumbs with 
her hands, but as it allows the fat to remain in the cheese 
which the hands squeeze out. 
In its pulverized slate it is customary with most dairy 
maids to scald the curd with hot whey; but Mrs. Hay 
ward considers cheese richer when made without scald 
ing the broken curd, this washing the fat out of it. She 
| therefore, without scalding it, puts it into the vats anr 
