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| Pa | CHEESE. : 17 
may render the cheese, into which it is mixed 
with newly prepared curd, of a diversified colour, 
and of a disposition to run speedily into putridity. 
In a few dairies, rapid putridity is induced by an 
intermixture of beaten potatoes. In Ross-shire, 
cheeses are, for several days, buried within sea- 
mark, in order that they may acquire a blue col- 
our and a peculiar taste; and in France, a con- 
siderable quantity of cheese receives an offensive 
smell, resembling that of a pig-sty, from an in- 
termixture of fenugreek. ‘ 
New cheeses require to be gradually dried and 
| slowly hardened before being fit for the market ; 
_ and, for this purpose, they are usually spread, in 
a single layer, on the floor or shelves of a cheese- 
| room, store-room, or part of a barn, garret, or 
dwelling-house, and turned by hand daily, every 
second day, or twice a-week, in order to alternate 
the exposure of their surfaces to the air. This, in 
a large dairy, is a slow and laborious operation ; 
‘ and as it is performed by female servants, it 
sometimes prevents them from paying due atten- 
_ tion to the maintaining of all the dairy and all 
| its implements in a state of perfect cleanliness. 
Another objection is, that the floor or shelves 
| soon become moist, and in consequence retard 
_the progress of the cheeses’ drying. A very 
effective machine for performing the operation, 
both with speed, and without retention of mois- 
ture, was invented by Mr. Blurton, of Field-Hall, 
in the vicinity of Uttoxeter, and has been found 
to combine the four additional advantages, of 
_holding three times as many cheeses as can be 
_ laid on the floor of the room which it occupies, 
of affording shade from sunshine and exposure to 
a constant current of air over every cheese, of 
preventing a loss of weight and deterioration of 
quality from sweating, and of expediting matu- 
rity for the market to a degree over the common 
method of about five weeks in every set of cheeses. 
The machine is merely a kind of swing-frame, 
and is not more effective than simple. A dozen 
strong shelves are framed together, and have bars 
nailed from the top to the bottom of one side, to 
prevent the cheeses from falling out in the act of 
turning; the frame is suspended on two strong 
pivots, the one set in the wall of the room, and 
the other supported by a strong post ; and two 
catches keep the frame upright, and prevent it 
from being turned more than half round. By 
first filling the shelf immediately above the axis 
of the frame, and then placing the cheeses alter- 
nately on the two nearest shelves above that 
which has been already filled, the preponderance 
of the one side over the other can never amount 
to more than the weight of one cheese; so that 
the whole power required, in any circumstances, 
to turn the frame when partially or wholly filled 
with cheeses, can never be more than is sufficient 
to overturn one cheese, and to resist the friction 
of the pivots. The cheeses, in the act of turn- 
ing, drop on the shelves which, in the former 
position of the frame, were above them; and the 
shelves require to be at such distances as to ad- 
mit of perfect aeration, and at the same time not 
to allow space for an injurious depth of fall to 
the cheeses in turning. 
Dunlop cheese began to come into notice dur- 
ing the latter part of last century; it was first 
manufactured in the district of Cunningham in 
Ayrshire, and took its name either from the par- 
ish of Dunlop, or from a carrier called Dunlop 
who’ carried to Glasgow a large portion of its 
earliest specimens; and it is now made through- 
out the whole or chief parts of the counties of 
Ayr, Renfrew, Lanark, Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, 
and Wigton, and ought, in propriety, to drop the 
name of Dunlop, and assume the designation of 
Lowland Scotch. It is far from being so uniform 
in taste and flavour as some of the best-known 
kinds of English cheese; but, in the aggregate, 
it pretty successfully competes with them for 
popular favour. Part of it is too soft and com- 
paratively insipid; and part has a wide range of || 
both texture and flavour between poor and prime; 
but a large proportion is firm, solid, sound, fat, 
and combinedly mild and piquant. Every good | 
specimen of it has a texture like soap and a mel- 
low taste, is free from cracks and fissures, and is | 
neither hoved nor open in its pores. It is usually © 
eaten when from one month to ten months old; | 
and not one-twentieth part of it is kept longer 
than a twelvemonth. When it is allowed to at- 
tain comparatively great age, it becomes strong- 
er in taste, though still mild, and acquires a fine 
rich flavour. The best kinds of it have a closer 
resemblance to the cheeses of Gloucestershire 
than to those of any other English district. 
Cheshire cheese is not so fat as Dunlop cheese; | 
and it has an austere flavour, a rough, sharp 
taste, and a dry loose texture, with many small 
open pores; but it is remarkably uniform in 
character, and is generally free from cracks and 
from putrid parts. It is always made with well- | 
trained and routine attention, in well-constructed | 
dairies, according to fixed rules, by one class of | 
persons, and invariably in one way; and hence | 
arises its uniformity. Its curd is formed at too | 
high a temperature, and is broken or churned, by | 
several persons, during about forty minutes, be- | 
fore any portion of the separated whey is poured | 
off, and is bruised or worked, by several opera- 
tors, during two or three hours before being put 
to press, and is skewered, during several addi- | 
tional hours, after being subjected to pressure ; 
so that it profusely imbibes the impurities which | 
float in the surrounding air, and undergoes a | 
certain degree of acidulation or oxygenizement, | 
and, in consequence, transfers austereness, acri- 
dity, and comparative coarseness to the cheese. 
The milk of the Cheshire cows, though less in 
quantity than that of the Scottish breeds, is richer 
in quality; and it ought to produce a richer 
cheese; but it is deprived of much of its butyra- 
ceous matter by excessive heat in the process of 
coagulation ; its curd is deprived of an additional 
WN oa po a ore ae - 
—— aor 
