AWARDS AND PREMIUMS. 83 
PREMIUM CHEESE — STATEMENT OF MRS. II. B. TROWBRIDGE. 
The cheese we offer for premium, was made in the town of 
Burlington, Racine county, on the farm known as the “ Per¬ 
kin’s Dairy Farm.” The cheese was made from the milk of 
thirty-five cows, in the month of July, and kept in a dry, airy 
room, turned over every day, and well rubbed, oiled, with oil 
made from the cream that rises on the whey. 
We make our cheese every day, without the addition of any 
cream, and all of them are made as near alike as we can make 
them, (that is) we make them all as well as we know how—we 
use no paint of any kind about the cheese. 
We consider the rennet as one of the most essential parts of 
giving a good flavor to cheese ; therefore great care is requi¬ 
site to keep it sweet. We use calves’ rennet, and get most of 
ours from the butchers, which are filled with salt, and dried. 
We soak them a day or two, in clear water, then add more salt 
than will dissolve, use the smallest quantity that will change 
the milk to cheese, in from thirty to forty-five minutes. Our 
process of making is this : We have a zinc vat, into which we 
strain the evening milk ; this vat is enclosed in a wooden one 
capable of containing near twenty pails of water between the 
two, which we fill to cool the milk, in warm weather. The 
cream we take from the evening milk, in the morning, (to make 
butter for family use,) then the new milk is added, and it is 
ready for the rennet ; no warming in hot weather. When the 
milk becomes well coagulated, we cross it each way with a 
wooden knife ; let stand fifteen or twenty minutes, or till the 
whey commences to separate from the curd, then with the 
skimmer carefully cut it very fine, to prevent mashing—let 
stand a few minutes, or till the curd settles and the whey rises 
clear—then dip'off the whey, and warm over a gentle fire, cut¬ 
ting the curd again with the skimmer ; dip oft* again and add 
the warm whey—which process we continue till the curd is 
hard enough to squeeze between the hands and not mash. We 
then dip into a cloth strainer to drain, and it is ready for the salt 
which we rub in with the hands carefully, to not mash it, or the 
whey that presses out will be white, or milky, and we lose the 
best part of the cheese. We use about half an ounce of com¬ 
mon barrel salt for a pound of dry cheese. We use the screw 
press, and let the cheese remain therein long enough to become 
solid, then turn into a fine linen cloth ; let press twenty-four 
hours ; oil with the oil hot ; and bandage the rim with thin 
cotton cloth. 
Mrs. II. B. Trowbridge. 
Mrs. Mary J. Turner. 
Burlington, Wis., Oct. 1848. 
