Milk, if allowed to become sour, will eventually curdle, when the whey is easily separated; and this simple mode was probably the universal method of making cheese in ancient times. Cheese, as already explained, is made from caseine, an ingredient of milk held in solution by means of an alkali, which it requires the presence of an acid to neutralize. This, in modern manufacture, is artificially added to form the curd; but the acidity of milk, after standing, acts in the same manner to produce coÄgulation. This is due to the change of the milk-sugar into lactic acid.

Cheese has been made and used as an article of food from a very early date. It was well known to the early Jewish patriarchs, and is frequently mentioned in the earliest Hebrew records. “Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?” says Job; and David was sent to “carry ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand in the camp.” Most of the ancient nations, indeed, barbarous as well as civilized, made it a prominent article of food. But cheese, as made by the ancients, was found to be hard and brittle, and not well flavored, and means were devised to produce the same effect while the milk still remained sweet. It was observed that acids of various kinds would answer, and vinegar was used; and cream of tartar, muriatic acid, and sour milk, added to sweet, produced a rapid coÄgulation. In Sweden, Norway, and other countries, a handful of the plant known as butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris) is sometimes mixed with the food of the cow, to cause the milk to coÄgulate readily. A few hours after milking, the curd is formed without the addition of an acid. Milk taken into the stomach of the calf was found to curdle rapidly, even while sweet; and hence the use of rennet, which is simply the stomach of the calf, prepared by washing, salting, and drying, for preservation. This acts the most surely, and, if properly prepared and preserved, is the least objectionable, of any article now known; and is, in fact, the natural mode of curdling the milk as it enters the stomach, preparatory to the process of digestion. Besides this, it is generally the cheapest and most available for the farmer.

The richness of cheese depends very much upon the amount of butter or oily matter it contains. It may be made entirely of cream, or from whole or unskimmed milk, to which the cream of other milk is added, or from milk from which a part of its cream has been taken, or from ordinary skim-milk, or from milk that has been skimmed three or four times, so as to remove nearly every particle of cream, or from butter-milk. The acid used in curdling milk acts upon the caseine alone, and not upon the butter particles, which are imbedded in the curd as it hardens, and thus increase its richness and flavor without adding to its consistency, which is due to the caseine.

It is evident, therefore, that cheese made entirely of cream cannot have the firmness and consistence of ordinary cheese. It is only made for immediate use, and cannot be long kept. It is, in fact, little more than thick, dried, sweet cream, from which all the milk has been pressed. On the other hand, skim-milk cheese has the opposite fault of being too hard and tough, and destitute of flavor and richness. The best quality of cheese is made from full milk, or from milk to which some extra cream is added, as in the English Stilton renowned for its richness and flavor. The Gloucester, Cheshire, Cheddar, Dunlop, and the Dutch Gouda, are made of whole milk, as are the best qualities made in this country.

The process of making cheese is both chemical and mechanical. The heating of the milk at the time of adding the acid or rennet hastens the chemical action, and facilitates the separation of the whey; at the same time great nicety is required, for, if over-heated, the oily particles will run off with the whey. On the complete separation of the whey from the curd, and the amount of butter particles retained in the latter, the taste or flavor and keeping qualities of the cheese depend. If properly made, the taste improves by keeping, but the chemical changes effected by age are not very well understood.

The practical process of manufacture most common in the best dairies of this country will appear in the following statements of successful competitors at agricultural exhibitions. The first was made, by request, to the New York State Agricultural Society, and appeared in its transactions, by A. L. Fish, of Herkimer county, one of the finest dairy regions of that state. The value of his statement is enhanced by the fact that his cows averaged seven hundred pounds of the first quality of cheese each in 1844, and seven hundred and seventy-five pounds each in 1845. In his mode of manufacture, the evening’s and morning’s milk is commonly used to make one cheese. The evening’s is strained into a tub or pans, and cooled to prevent souring. The proper mode of cooling is to strain the milk into the tin tub set in a wooden vat, described in the dairy-house, and cool by filling the wooden vat with ice-water from the ice-house, or ice in small lumps, and water from the pump. The little cream that rises over night is taken off in the morning, and kept till the morning and evening milk are put together, and the cream is warmed to receive the rennet. It is mixed with about twice its quantity of new milk, and warm water added to raise its temperature to ninety-eight degrees: stir it till perfectly limpid, put in rennet enough to curdle the milk in forty minutes, and mix it with the mass of milk by thorough stirring; the milk having been previously raised to eighty-eight or ninety degrees, by passing steam from the steam generator to the water in the wooden vat. In case no double vat is to be had, the milk may be safely heated to the right temperature, by setting a tin pail of hot water into the milk in the tubs. It may be cooled in like manner by filling the pail with ice-water, or cold spring-water where ice is not to be had. It is not safe to heat milk in a kettle exposed directly to the fire, as a slight scorching will communicate its taint to the whole cheese and spoil it. If milk is curdled below eighty-four degrees, the cream is more liable to work off with the whey. An extreme of heat will have a like effect.

The curdling heat is varied with the temperature of the air, or the liability of the milk to cool after adding rennet. The thermometer is the only safe guide in determining the temperature; for, if the dairyman depends upon the sensation of the hand, a great liability to error will render the operation uncertain. If, for instance, the hands have previously been immersed in cold water, the milk will feel warmer than it really is; if, on the contrary, they have recently been in warm water, the milk will feel colder than it really is. To satisfy the reader how much this circumstance alone will affect the sensation of the hand, let him immerse one hand in warm water, and at the same time keep the other in a vessel of cold water, for a few moments; then pour the water in the two dishes together, and immerse both hands in the mixture. The hand that was previously in the warm water will feel cold, and the other quite warm, showing that the sense of feeling is not a test of temperature worthy of being relied upon. A fine cloth spread over the tub while the milk is curdling will prevent the surface from being cooled by circulation of air. No jarring of the milk, by walking upon a springy floor, or otherwise, should be allowed while it is curdling, as it will prevent a perfect cohesion of the particles.

“When milk is curdled so as to appear like a solid, it is divided into small particles to aid the separation of the whey from the curd. This is often too speedily done to facilitate the work, but at a sacrifice of quality and quantity.”

To effect the fine division of the curd for the easy separation of the whey, Mr. Fish uses a wire network, made to fit into the tub, the meshes of fine wire being about a half-inch square, and the outer rim of coarse and stronger material. A cheese-knife is also used, about half as long as the diameter of the tub, and firmly fastened to the lower end of a long screw which passes through one end of the blade as it lies horizontally, leaving the blade at right angles with the screw, which has a coarse thread, and passes through a piece of wood on the top of the tub, held firm by notches at the ends laid on the edges of the tub. By turning a crank, the knife passes down through the curd in revolutions, cutting it into layers of the thickness of the threads of the screw.

The following is the statement of Mrs. Williams, of Windsor, Massachusetts, who received the first premium at the Franklin County Fair, in 1857, for exceedingly rich, fine, and delicately-flavored cheeses of seventy-five pounds each. Her method, which is the result of her own experience and observation, corresponds almost exactly, as the committee remark, with the English mode of making the famous Cheddar cheese, which is much the same as the Cheshire. Mrs. Williams says: “My cheese is made from one day’s milk of twenty-nine cows. I strain the night’s milk into a tub, skim it in the morning, and melt the cream in the morning’s milk: I warm the night’s milk, so that with the morning’s milk, when mixed together, it will be at the temperature of ninety-six degrees; then add rennet sufficient to turn it in thirty minutes. Let it stand about half or three quarters of an hour; then cross it off and let it stand about thirty minutes, working upon it very carefully with a skimmer. When the curd begins to settle, dip off the whey, and heat it up and pour it on again at the temperature of one hundred and two degrees. After draining off and cutting up, add a teacup of salt to fourteen pounds.

“The process of making sage cheese is the same as the other, except adding the juice of the sage in a small quantity of milk.”

Another successful competitor in the same state says: “We usually make but one curd in a day. The night’s milk is strained into pans till morning, when the cream that will have risen is taken off, and the milk warmed to blood heat, when the cream is again returned to the milk and thoroughly mixed. This prevents the melting of the cream that would otherwise run off with the whey. The whole is then immediately laded into a tub with the morning’s milk, and set for the cheese, with rennet sufficient to form the curd in about thirty minutes; and here much care is thought to be necessary in cutting and crossing the curd, and much moderation in dipping and draining the whey from it, that the white whey (so called) may not exude from it.

“When sufficiently drained, it is taken and cut with a sharp knife to about the size and form of dice, when it is salted with about one pound of fine salt to twenty-five of curd. It is then subjected to a moderate pressure at first, gradually increasing it for two days, in the mean time turning it twice a day, and substituting dry cloths. It is then taken from the press and dressed all over with hot melted butter, and covered with thin cotton cloth, and this saturated with the melted butter. It is then placed upon the shelf, and turned and rubbed daily with the dressing until ripe for use.”

One of the most important processes in the manufacture of good cheese is the preparation of the rennet. This is made of the inner lining or mucous membrane of the stomach of the young sucking calf, sometimes called the bag or maw; and the use of it was undoubtedly suggested, originally, by observing the complete and rapid coÄgulation or curdling of milk in the stomach of a calf newly killed. “CoÄgulation is the first process of digestion in the fourth stomach of the calf. There are numerous glands scattered in and about the stomach that secrete a fluid which readily and almost immediately accomplishes this coÄgulation. They are always full of it; even after the animal is dead they remain filled with it; and if the stomach is preserved from putrefaction, this fluid retains its coÄgulating quality for a considerable period; therefore dairy-women usually take care of the maw or stomach of the calf; and preserve it by salting it, and then, by steeping it, or portions of it, in warm water, they prepare what they call a rennet. After the maw has been salted a certain time, it may be taken out and dried, and then it will retain the same property for an indefinite period. A small piece of the maw thus dried is steeped over night in a few teaspoonfuls of warm water, and this water will turn the milk of three or four cows.”

It is important that rennet enough should be prepared at once for the whole season, in order to secure as great a uniformity in strength as possible. The object should be to produce a prompt, complete, and firm or compact coÄgulation of all the cheesy matter.

Mr. Aiton, in his admirable treatise on the Dairy Husbandry of Scotland, gives the simple method of preparing the rennet in the dairy districts, as follows: “When the stomach or bag—usually termed the yirning—is taken from the calf’s body, its contents are examined, and if any straw or other food is found among the curdled milk, such impurity is carefully removed; but all the curdled milk found in the bag is carefully preserved, and no part of the chyle is washed out. A considerable quantity of salt—at least two handfuls—is put into and outside the bag, which is then rolled up and hung near a fire to dry. It is always allowed to hang until it is well dried, and is understood to be improved by hanging a year or longer before being infused.

“When rennet is wanted, the yirning with its contents is cut small, and put into a jar with a handful or two of salt; and a quantity of soft water that has been boiled and cooled to sixty-five degrees, or of new whey taken off the curd, is poured into it. The quantity of water or whey necessary is more or less, according to the quality of the yirning: if it is that of a new-dropped calf, a Scotch chop pin, or at most three English pints, will be enough; but if the calf has been fed four or five weeks, two quarts or more may be used; the yirning of a calf four weeks old yields more rennet than that of one twice that age. When the infusion has remained in the jar from one to three days, the liquid is drawn off and strained, after which it is bottled for use; and if a dram-glass of any ardent spirit is put into each bottle, the infusion may either be used immediately, or kept as long as may be convenient.”

The mode of preparing rennet in the dairy districts of this country is various; but that adopted by Mr. Fish, of Herkimer, New York, already quoted, is simple and easy of application. He says: “Various opinions exist as to the best mode of saving rennet, and that is generally adopted which, it is supposed, will curdle the most milk. I have no objection to any mode that will preserve its strength and flavor so that it will be smelled and tasted with good relish when put into the milk. Any composition not thus kept I deem unfit for use, as the coÄgulator is an essential agent in cheesing the curd, and sure to impart its own flavor.

“The rennet never should be taken from the calf till the excrement shows the animal to be in perfect health. It should be emptied of its contents, salted, and dried, without any scraping or rinsing, and kept dry for one year, when it will be fit for use. It should not be allowed to gather dampness, or its strength will evaporate. To prepare it for use, into ten gallons of water, blood warm, put ten rennets; churn or rub them often for twenty-four hours; then rub and press them to get the strength; stretch, salt, and dry them, as before. They will gain strength for a second use. Make the liquor as salt as it can be made, strain and settle it, separate it from the sediment, if any, and it is fit for use. Six lemons, two ounces of cloves, two ounces of cinnamon, and two ounces of common sage, are sometimes added to the liquor, to preserve its flavor and quicken its action. If kept cool in a stone jar, it will keep sweet any length of time desired, and a uniform strength is secured while it lasts. Stir it before dipping off. To set milk, take of it enough to curdle milk firm in forty minutes; squeeze or rub through a rag annatto enough to make the curd a cream color, and stir it in with the rennet.” It will be seen that he adopts the practice of removing the contents of the stomach. This, it appears to me, is the best calculated to promote cleanliness and purity, so important in making a good-flavored cheese.

But in Cheshire, so celebrated for its superior cheese, the contents of the stomach are frequently salted by themselves, and after being a short time exposed to the air are fit for use; while the well-known and highly-esteemed Limburg cheese is mostly made with rennet prepared as in Ayrshire, the curd being left in the stomach, and both dried together. The general opinion is that rennet, as usually prepared, is not fit to use till nearly a year old.

Perhaps the plan of making a liquid rennet from new and fresh stomachs, and keeping it in bottles corked tight till wanted for use, would tend still further to secure this end.

The use of annatto to color the cheese artificially is somewhat common in this country, though probably not so much so as in many other countries. Annatto, or annotto, is made from the red pulp of the seeds of an evergreen tree of the same name, found in the West Indies and in Brazil, by bruising and obtaining a precipitate. A variety is made in Cayenne, which comes into the market in cakes of two or three pounds. It is bright yellow, rather soft to the touch, but of considerable solidity. The quantity used is rarely more than an ounce to one hundred pounds, and the effect is simply to give the high coloring so common to the Gloucester and Cheshire cheeses, and to many made in this country. This artificial coloring is continued from an idle prejudice, somewhat troublesome to the dairyman, expensive to the consumer, and adding nothing to the taste or flavor of the article. The annatto itself is so universally and so largely adulterated, often by poisonous substances, such as lead and mercury, that the practice of using it by the cheese-maker, and of requiring the high coloring by the consumer, might well be discontinued. The common mode of application is to dissolve it in hot milk, and add at the time of putting in the rennet, or to put it upon the outside, in the manner of paint.

The cheese-presses in most common use are very different in construction, and each possesses, doubtless, some peculiar merits. The self-acting press, Fig. 82, is the favorite of some. Another form of this is seen in Fig. 83.

One of the most extensive and experienced dealers in cheese, in one of the largest dairy districts of New York,—Mr. Harry Burrill, of Little Falls,—has placed in my hands the following simple directions for cheese-making.

The cheese-tub should be so graduated that it may be correctly known what quantity of milk is used. This is requisite, in order that the proper proportions, both of coloring matter and rennet, may be used. The temperature should be ascertained by the thermometer. Experience proves that when the dairy has been at seventy degrees the best temperature at which to run the milk will be eighty-four degrees; but, as the temperature of the dairy at different times of the year will be found to vary above or below seventy degrees, the temperature of the milk must be proportionally regulated by the simple addition of cold water, to lower it; but, to increase the temperature, heat the milk in the usual manner, although it is absolutely necessary to avoid heating it beyond one hundred and twenty degrees.

After having brought the milk to the required temperature, and added the coloring, for every quarter hundred weight of cheese mix one pint of new sour whey with the requisite proportion of rennet; and, having arrived at the formation of a good curd, which will be the invariable result of a strict adhesion to the foregoing rules, let it be carefully cut up with three-bladed knives, as fine as possible; then dip off half the whey, and heat a portion of it to the temperature of ninety-five degrees, and return it to the whey and curds; then, after stirring it for five minutes, allow the curd to sink, and as quickly as possible dip off the whey. Having done this, press the curd by placing on it a board weighted with from three to five fifty-pound weights, which will gradually and effectually press the remainder of the whey out.

When the whey is dipped off, put the curd into white twig basket-vats, made the shape and size of a turned vat, which would contain the sixth of a hundred weight (about three inches deep, and two feet in diameter). It will be necessary to have boards about one inch thick, and two feet four inches in diameter, to go between each of these twig vats, to prevent the whey running from one vat into the other. When it has been pressed, return it again into the cheese-tub, cut it into small pieces, put it into the vats again in dry cloths, press it and return it to the tub again, cutting it into small pieces, and to every hundred weight of curd add one and one quarter pounds of salt; grind it twice, and stir it so that it shall be properly mixed with the salt; then put it into well-perforated turned vats, taking care to press it thoroughly whilst the vats are filling, to prevent the accumulation of air, to the presence of which is to be attributed the honeycomb appearance so often observed in cheese when cut.

When the cheese is put into the press let the pressure gradually upon it. After it has been in press one and a half hours, take it out and examine it, and, should there be any curd pressed over, cut it round and put it into the middle of the cheese, carefully breaking it up in the middle. Wash the ends of the cloths out in a bowl of warm water, squeeze them, and cover the cheese up, and, if there should be any not sufficiently full, it will be necessary either to put a follower upon it, or to put it into a smaller vat; in the evening let them be dry clothed. The following morning salt them all over and dry cloth them, and repeat this three successive mornings; after which, put them in vats, placed one on the other, and allow them to stand, if possible, a fortnight, occasionally wiping them. The cheese will get matured much sooner by these means, and the tendency to cracking and bulging be prevented.

The way to get a fine coat upon cheese, after the first coat has been washed and scraped off, is to put the cheese on shelves, nail thick sheeting to the ceiling from one of the shelves to the other, and let it drop closely to the floor. If put over the floor, cover them over with thick sheeting, or rugs.

The varieties of cheese are almost infinite in number, and are often dependent on very minute details of practice. The general principles involved are the same in all; but it would be next to impossible to find any one variety of cheese possessing uniformity throughout, in point of texture, consistency, taste, flavor, and keeping qualities; and it is rare, with the present guess-work in many of the operations of cheese-making, to find a lot of cheese made in the same dairy, from the same cows, on the same pastures and by the same hands, which can be considered a fair sample of what is generally produced. These great differences are due to feeding and treatment of the cows in part, but especially to the temperature of the milk at the time of curding, which is again in part dependent on the quality and strength of the rennet employed.

Nothing is more susceptible to external influences, as has been remarked elsewhere, than milk and cream, both of which are liable to taint from the food of the cows, from impurities derived from careless milking, from exposure to foul or impure air in the cellar or milk-room, and from sudden changes in the atmosphere. The most scrupulous cleanliness is, therefore, required to produce a first quality of cheese, even under favorable circumstances. And when it is considered that it is necessary to observe minutely the temperature of the milk, and that slight differences at the time of forming the curd may make the difference of mellowness or toughness in the ripened cheese, and that the proper temperature is affected by the time taken to bring the curd, which depends on the strength and quality of the rennet, some of which will act in fifteen or twenty minutes, while the same quantity of others requires even two or three hours to produce the same effect, the infinite variety in the qualities of cheese will scarcely be a matter of surprise.

A brief statement of the mode of making some of the more important and well-known varieties will be sufficient in this connection. The details of cheese-making in some of the best of the dairies of New England and New York correspond in a remarkable degree with the mode of making Cheddar and Cheshire cheese, both celebrated for their richness and popularity in the market. Of the latter there are made, it is said, over twelve thousand tons annually; Cheshire taking the lead in cheese-making, and keeping about forty thousand cows.

Cheshire Cheese

is remarkable for its uniformity, being, in dairies of the best repute, made by fixed rules, and usually by the same persons. If the number of cows is sufficient to make a cheese from one meal, that amount is used; if not, two meals are united. The cows are milked at six o’clock, morning and evening; are kept on rich pastures, and never driven far, great care being taken that nothing shall interfere with the regularity with which every operation connected with this chief source of the wealth and prosperity of the Cheshire farmer is conducted. The milk is brought in large wooden pails into the milk-house, which it is generally contrived shall have a cool north aspect, and immediately strained into pans, and placed upon the floor of the dairy. Each pan is about six inches in depth, and usually made of block-tin. This substance is objected to by some because it is liable, like every other metal, although, perhaps, in a less degree than either zinc or lead, to be acted upon by the lactic acid, and so produce compounds of a deleterious character. At six o’clock in the morning the cheese-ladder is put on the cheese-tub, the whole of the night’s milk is again passed through the sieve, and the morning’s milk is then poured upon it, and well agitated to equalize the temperature; in cold weather a pan of hot water is previously put into the tub, to increase the temperature of the previous night’s meal.

The rennet is next applied, care being taken that the heat of the whole quantity of the milk is about seventy-four degrees; and, almost simultaneously with the rennet, the annatto,—about a quarter of an ounce is sufficient for a cheese of sixty-four pounds,—both of which, in all well-regulated dairies, are strained through a piece of silk or fine cloth. The rennet is generally made on the previous evening, by a piece of the dried skin about the size of a crown-piece being immersed in hot water, and allowed to stand all night. After the rennet and coloring matter have been thoroughly mixed with the milk, it is covered with the lid of the cheese-tub, and in cold weather with a cloth in addition, to preserve the temperature of the mass until the curd has formed. It is then left undisturbed for about an hour, and frequently longer, to allow the coÄgulation of the milk. After that time a curd-breaker is passed up and down it for about five minutes, and again it is allowed to settle for another half-hour. The whey is then taken out by means of a dish or bowl, the curd being gathered to one side of the tub, and gently pressed by the hand, to allow the whey to separate from it more easily. It is then pressed by a weight of about fifty pounds; afterwards the curd is taken out of the tub and put into a basket, the inside of which is covered with a coarse square cheese-cloth. The four ends of the cloth are then folded over the curd, a tin hoop being put around the upper edge of the cheese, and within the sides of the vat, upon which a board is placed bearing a weight of about one hundred pounds, varying, of course, with the size of the cheese. This process is repeated two or three times, the curd being slightly broken at each operation. It is next taken out of the basket for salting or curing, and either broken down small by hand or in a curd-mill. A certain quantity of salt is then carefully and intimately mixed with the curd, according to the experience, taste, and custom, of the dairymaid. It is then put into the cheese-vat in a coarse cloth, pressed lightly at first for an hour; then taken out and turned, and the pressure increased until the proper degree of consistence is attained. Afterwards it is turned every twelve hours for three or four days, remaining in the vat until the curd becomes so dry as not to moisten the cloth. During this time skewers are passed through holes made in the sides of the vat into the body of the cheese, the more effectually to aid the expression of the whey, the pressure being still continued. When they are withdrawn, the whey flows through these miniature tunnels, which are in a few moments obliterated by the superincumbent weight.

It is the practice of some dairymaids in this county to take the cheese to a cool salting-house, leaving it there for a week or ten days, turning it daily, and rubbing salt on the upper surface. Others immerse the cheese in a brine almost sufficiently strong to float it, with occasional turning; others, again, after taking the cheese from the press, place it in a furnace at a moderate heat, and keep it closed therein for a night; while some run a hot iron over the whole, or over the edges. The binder—a cloth of three or four inches in breadth—is then passed tightly round the cheese, and secured by pins, when it is removed to the cheese-room, and placed on a kind of grass, which in Cheshire is called sniggle, the newest or latest-made cheese being put in the warmest situation. Here it remains, being turned over three times a week while it is new, and less often as it becomes matured, care being taken to keep each one of the cheeses separate from all the others. The room selected for a store is always that which can be best protected from the light, and any sudden changes of temperature. The best Cheshire cheese is seldom ripe for the market under one or two years.

Stilton Cheese

The Stilton Cheese is by far the richest of the English dairies. This originated in a small town of that name, in Leicestershire. It possesses “a peculiar delicacy of flavor, a delicious mellowness, and a great aptness to acquire a species of artificial decay; without which, to the somewhat vitiated taste of lovers of Stilton cheese, as now eaten, it is not considered of prime account. To be in good order, according to the present standard of taste, it must be decayed, blue, and moist.” To suit this taste, an artificial mode is adopted, old and decayed cheese being introduced into the new, or port wine or ale added by means of tasters, or caulking-pins are stuck into them, and left till they rust and produce an appearance of decay in the cheese.

“It is commonly made by putting the night’s cream to the milk of the following morning with the rennet, great care being taken that the milk and the cream are thoroughly mixed together, and that they both have the proper temperature. The rennet should also be very pure and sweet. As soon as the milk is curdled, the whole of it is taken out, put into a sieve gradually to drain, and moderately pressed. It is then put into a case or box, of the form that it is intended to be; for, on account of its richness, it would separate and fall to pieces were not this precaution adopted. Afterwards it is turned every day on dry boards, cloth-binders being tied around it, which are gradually tightened as occasion requires. After it is removed from the box or hoop, the cheese must be closely bound with cloths and changed daily, until it becomes sufficiently compact to support itself. When these cloths are taken away, each cheese has to be rubbed over with a brush once every day. If the weather is moist or damp, this is done twice a day during two or three months. It is occasionally powdered with flour, and plunged into hot water. This hardens the outer coat and favors the internal fermentation, and thus produces what is called the ripening of the cheese. Sometimes it is made in a net like a cabbage-net, which gives it the form of an acorn.”

The maturity of Stilton cheeses is sometimes hastened by putting them in a bucket, and covering them over with horse-dung.

Gloucester Cheese

is likewise quite celebrated for its richness, piquancy, and delicacy of flavor, and justly commands a high price in the market. The management of the milk up to the time of curding is similar to that of Cheshire; a cheese, often being made of one meal, requires no additional heat to raise it to a proper temperature. After the curd is cut into small squares, the whey is carefully drained off through a hair strainer. The cutting is repeated every thirty minutes till the whey is removed, when it is put into vats and covered with dry cloths, and placed in the press. After remaining a sufficient length of time, it is put into a curd-mill and cut or ground into small pieces, when it is again packed in fine canvas cloth, and put in the cheese-vat. Hot water or whey is poured over the cloth, to harden the rind and prevent its cracking. “The curd is next turned out of the vat into the cloth, and, the inside of the vat being washed with whey, the inverted curd with the cloth is returned to the vat. The cloth is then folded over, and the vat put into the press for two hours, when it is taken out, and dry cloths applied during the course of the day. It is then replaced in the press until salted, which operation is generally performed about twenty-four hours after it is made. In salting the cheese, it is rubbed with finely-powdered salt, and this is thought to make the cheese more smooth and solid than when the salting process is performed upon the curd. The cheese is after this returned to the vat, and put under the press, in which several are placed, the newest at the bottom and the oldest on the top. The salting is repeated three times, twenty-four hours being allowed to intervene between each; and the cheese is finally taken from the press to the cheese-room in the course of five days. In the cheese-room it is turned over every day for a month, when it is cleaned of all scurf, and rubbed over with a woollen cloth dipped in a paint made of Indian red or Spanish brown and small beer. As soon as the paint is dry, the cheese is rubbed once a week with a cloth. The quantity of salt employed is about three and a half pounds; and one pound of annatto is sufficient to color half a ton of cheese.”

Cheddar Cheese

is another variety in high repute for its richness, and commands a high price in the market. It is made of new milk only, and contains more fat than the egg. It is, indeed, too rich for ordinary consumption. The milk is set with rennet while yet warm, and allowed to stand still about two hours. The whey first taken off is heated and poured back upon the curd, and, after turning off the remainder, that is also heated and poured back in the same manner, where it stands about half an hour. The curd is then put into the press, and treated very much as the Cheshire up to the time of ripeness.

Dunlop Cheese

The Dunlop Cheese, the most celebrated of Scotland, had its origin in Ayrshire, from which it was sent to the Glasgow market, and from which the manufacture soon spread to Lanark, Renfrew, and other adjoining counties. It is manufactured, according to Aiton, in the following manner: When the cows on a farm are not so numerous as to yield milk sufficient to make a cheese every time they are milked, the milk is stored about six or eight inches deep in the coolers, and placed in the milk-house until as much is collected as will form a cheese of a proper size. When the cheese is to be made, the cream is skimmed from the milk in the coolers, and, without being heated, is, with the milk that is drawn from the cows at the time, passed through the sieve into the curd-vat. The cold milk from which the cream has been taken is heated so as to raise the temperature of the whole mass to near blood heat; and the whole is coÄgulated by the means of rennet carefully mixed with the milk. The cream is put into the curd-vat, that its oily parts may not be melted, and the skimmed milk is heated sufficient to raise the whole to near animal heat.

It may be said that the utmost care is always taken to keep the milk, in all stages of the operation, free not only from every admixture or impurity, but also from being hurt by foul air arising from acidity in any milky substance, putrid water, the stench of the barn, dunghill, or any other substance; and likewise to prevent the milk from becoming sour, which, when it happens, greatly injures the cheese. Great care is taken to prevent any of the butyraceous or oily matter in the cream from being melted in any stage of the process. To cool the milk, and to facilitate the separation or rising of the cream, a small quantity of clean cold water is generally mixed with the milk in each cooler. The coÄgulum is formed in from ten to fifteen minutes, and nobody would use rennet twice that required more than twenty minutes or half an hour to form a curd. Whenever the milk is completely coÄgulated the curd is broken, in order to let the serum or whey be separated and taken off. Some break the curd slightly at first, by making cross-scores with a knife or a thin piece of wood, at about one or two inches distant, and intersecting each other at right angles; and these are renewed still more closely after some of the whey has been discharged. Others break the whole curd more minutely at once with the hand or the skimmer.

After the curd has been broken, the whey ought to be taken off as speedily as it can be done, and with as little further breaking or handling the curd as possible. It is necessary, however, to turn the curd, cut it with a knife, or break it gently with the hand.

When the curd has consolidated a little, it is cut with the cheese-knife, slightly at first, and more minutely as it hardens, so as to bring off the whey. When the greater part of the whey has been extracted, the curd is taken up from the curd-boyn, and, being cut into pieces of about two inches in thickness, it is placed in a sort of vat or sieve with many holes. A lid is placed upon it, and a slight pressure, say from three to four stone avoirdupois; and the curd is turned up and cut small every ten or fifteen minutes, and occasionally pressed with the hand so long as it continues to discharge scrum. When no more whey can be drawn off by these means, the curd is cut as small as possible with the knife, the proper quantity of salt minutely mixed into it in the curd-boyn, and placed in the chessart within a shift of thin canvas, and put under the press.

All these operations ought to be carried on and completed with the least possible delay, and yet without precipitation. The sooner the whey is removed after the coÄgulation of the milk, so much the better. But, if the curd is soft, from being set too cold, it requires more time, and to be more gently dealt with, as otherwise much of the curd and of the fat would go off with the whey; and when the curd has been formed too hot, the same caution is necessary. Precipitation, or handling the curd too roughly, would add to its toughness, and expel still more of the oily matter; and, as has been already mentioned, hot water or whey should be put on the curd when it is soft and cold, and cold water when the curd is set too hot.

Undue delay, however, in any of these operations, from the time the milk is taken out of the coolers until the curd is under the press in the shape of a cheese, is most improper, as the curd in all these stages is, when neglected for even a few minutes, very apt to become ill-flavored. If it is allowed to remain too long in the curd-vat, or in the dripper over it, before the whey is completely extracted, the curd becomes too cold, and acquires a pungent or acrid taste; or, it softens so much that the cheese is not sufficiently adhesive, and does not easily part with the serum. Whenever the curd is completely set, the whey should be taken off without delay; and the dairymaid should never leave the curd-boyn until the curd is ready for the dripper or cheese-vat. The salt is mixed into the curd.

After the cheese is put into the press, it remains for the first time about an hour, or less than two hours, until it is taken out, turned upside down in the cheese-vat, and a new cloth put around it every four or six hours until the cheese is completed, which is generally in the course of a day and a half, two, or at most in three days after it was first put under the press.

Some have shortened the process of pressing by placing the cheese—after it has been under the press for two hours or so for the first time—into water heated to about one hundred or one hundred and ten degrees, and allowing the cheese to remain in the water about the space of half an hour, and thereafter drying it with a cloth, and putting it again under the press.

When taken from the press, generally after two or three days from the time they were first placed under it, they are exposed for a week or so to the warmth and heat of the farmer’s kitchen,—not to excite sweating, but merely to dry them a little before they are placed in the store, where a small proportion of heat is admitted. While they remain in the kitchen they are turned over three or four times every day; and, whenever they begin to harden a little on the outside, they are laid up on the shelves of the store, where they are turned over once a day or once in two days for a week or so, until they are dry, and twice every week afterwards.

The store-houses for cheese in Scotland are in proportion to the size of the dairy,—generally a small place adjoining the milk-house, or in the end of the barn or other buildings, where racks are placed, with as many shelves as can hold the cheeses made in the season. When no particular place is prepared, the racks are placed in the barn, which is generally empty during summer; or some lay the cheeses on the floor of a garret over some part of their dwelling-house.

Wherever the cheeses are stored, they are not sweated or put into a warm place, but kept cool, in a place in a medium state, between damp and dry, without the sun being allowed to shine on them, or yet a great current of air admitted. Too much air, or the rays of the sun, would dry the cheeses too fast, diminish their weight, and make them crack; and heat would make them sweat or perspire, which extracts the fat, and tends to induce hooving. But when they are kept in a temperature nearly similar to that of a barn, the doors of which are not much open, and but a moderate current of air admitted, the cheeses are kept in a proper shape,—neither so dry as to rend the skin, nor so damp as to render them mouldy on the outside; and no partial fermentation is excited, but the cheese is preserved sound and good.

Dutch Cheese

—The most celebrated of the Dutch cheeses is the Edam, of North Holland, and the Gouda. The manufacture of these and other varieties will be described in a subsequent chapter, on Dairy Husbandry in Holland.

Parmesan

The Parmesan is an Italian cheese, made of one meal of milk, allowed to stand sixteen hours, to which is added another which has stood eight hours. The cream being taken from both, the skim-milk is heated an hour over a slow fire, and constantly stirred till it reaches about eighty-two degrees, when the rennet is put in and an hour allowed to form the curd. The curd is thoroughly broken or cut, after which a part of the whey is removed, and the curd is then heated nearly up to the boiling point, when a little saffron is added to color it. It then stands over the fire about half an hour, when it is taken off, and nearly all the rest of the whey removed, cold water being added, till the curd is cool enough to handle. It is then surrounded with a cloth, and, after being partially dried, is put into a hoop and remains there two days. It is then sprinkled with salt for thirty days in summer, or about forty in winter. One cheese is then laid above another to allow them to take the salt; after which they are scraped and cleansed every day, and rubbed with linseed-oil to preserve them from the attack of insects, and they are ready for sale at the age of six months.

American Cheese

American Cheese, as it is called in the English markets, whither large quantities are shipped for sale, is made of almost every conceivable variety and quality, from the richest Cheddar or Cheshire to the poorest skim-milk cheese. The statements of some of the best dairymen have already been given. As a further illustration of the mode pursued in other sections of the country, the statement of C. G. Taylor, a successful competitor for the premiums offered by the Illinois State Agricultural Society, may be given as follows:

“As the milk is drawn from the cows, it is immediately strained into a vat. This vat is a new patent, and is better than any I have ever seen for cheese-making. It is double, a space being left between the two parts. Into the upper vat the milk is strained, and cold water is applied between it and the lower one. Thus the animal heat is soon expelled, and the milk is prevented from souring before morning. The morning milk is added. Under the lower vat a copper boiler is arranged. The water in the boiler is in perfect connection with that remaining all around the upper or milk vat, connected with three copper pipes. With a little wood the water is warmed. Thus the temperature of the milk is soon brought to the desired point to receive the rennet, which is about ninety to ninety-five degrees. Sufficient rennet is applied to the milk to cause it to curdle or coÄgulate in from thirty to forty minutes. Then the curd is carefully cut, each way, into slices of about one inch square. Soon the temperature is slowly increased. In about twenty minutes the curd is carefully broken up with the hand,—increasing the heat, and stirring often. When the curd is sufficiently hard, so as to “squeal” when you bite it, it is scalded. By this time the temperature is up to about one hundred and thirty or one hundred and forty.

“There are hinges placed in the legs of one end of the vat, which is easily tipped, and through the curd-strainer and whey-gate the whey is soon run off. The curd is then dipped into a sink, over which is placed a coarse strainer, and allowed to drain quite dry. It is then broken up fine, and one teacup of ground solar salt added to curd to make twenty pounds of cheese, and well worked in. After the curd is quite cool, it is placed in the hoop, and a light pressure is applied. In a few minutes more power is needed. After remaining in press about six hours, it is taken out of the hoop, wholly covered with strong muslin, finely sewed on, and then reversed and replaced in the hoop and press. It is allowed to remain until the next day, when it has to give place for another.

“After pressing thus twenty-four hours, the cheese is placed upon the shelf, and allowed to stand until the cloth is dry. Then a preparation, made from annatto and butter-oil, is applied sufficiently to fill all the interstices of the cloth. It must be turned and thoroughly rubbed three times a week, until ripe for use.

“I use the self-acting press. I know of none in use that is better,—the weight of the cheese being the power.”

The statements of skilful and practical dairymen, in different parts of the country, are sufficient to show that good cheese can be produced; but it is believed that a more general attention to all the details of the dairy would add many thousand dollars a year to the wealth of the people, and enable us to compete successfully with the best dairy countries in the world.

The composition of cheese will, of course, differ widely in nutritive value, according to the mode of manufacture, age, etc. A specimen of good cheese was found to contain about 31.02 per cent. of flesh-forming substances, 25.30 per cent. of heat-producing substances, 4.90 per cent. of mineral matter, and 38.78 per cent. of water.

The analyses of several varieties will serve as a comparison of cheese with other kinds of food. The Cheddar was a rich cheese two years old, the double Gloucester one year old, the Dunlop one year old, the skim-milk one year.

Professor Johnston gives a table of comparison of Cheddar and skim-milk cheese in a dried state, and milk, beef, and eggs, also in a dried state, as follows:

A full-milk cheese differs but little from pure milk, except in the absence of sugar, which, as already seen, is held in solution, and goes off in the whey. The difference becomes greater in proportion as the cream is removed from the milk before curding, and the nutritive qualities thereby diminished.

Cheese is used both as a regular article of food, for which the ordinary kinds of full-milk cheeses are admirably fitted, and as a condiment or digester, in connection with other articles of food; and for this purpose the stronger varieties, such as are partially decayed and mouldy, are best. “When the curd of milk is exposed to the air in a moist state, for a few days, at a moderate temperature, it begins gradually to decay, to emit a disagreeable odor, and to ferment. When in this state, it possesses the property, in certain circumstances, of inducing a species of chemical change and fermentation in other moist substances with which it is mixed, or is brought into contact. It acts after the same manner as sour leaven does when mixed with sweet dough. Now, old and partially decayed cheese acts in a similar way when introduced into the stomach. It causes chemical changes gradually to commence among the particles of the food which has previously been eaten, and thus facilitates the dissolution which necessarily precedes digestion. It is only some kinds of cheese, however, which will effect this purpose. Those are generally considered the best in which some kind of cheese-mould has established itself. Hence, the mere eating of a morsel of cheese after dinner does not necessarily promote digestion. If too new, or of improper quality, it will only add to the quantity of food with which the stomach is probably already overloaded, and will have to await its turn for digestion by the ordinary processes.” This mouldiness and tendency to decay, with its flavor and digestive quality, are often communicated to new cheese by inoculation, or insertion of a small portion of the old into the interior of the new by means of the cheese-taster.

In studying attentively the practice of the most successful cheese-makers, I think it will be observed that they are particularly careful about the preparation of the rennet, and equally so about the details of pressing. In my opinion, the point in which many American cheese-makers fail of success is in hurrying the pressing. I think it will be found that the best cheese is pressed two days, at least, and in many cases still longer.