"In Gloucestershire, where the manufacture of cheese is perhaps as well
understood as in any part of the world, they make the best cheeses of a
single meal of milk; and, when this is done in the best manner, the
entire meal of milk is used, without any addition from a former meal.
But it not unfrequently happens that a portion of the milk is reserved
and set by to be skimmed for butter; and at the next milking this
proportion is added to the new milk, from which an equal quantity has
been taken for a similar purpose. One meal cheeses are principally made
here, and go by the name of _best making_, or simply _one meal cheeses_.
The cheeses are distinguished into _thin_ and _thick_, or _single_ and
_double_; the last having usually four to the hundred weight, (112
pounds,) the other about twice that number. The best double Gloucester
is always made from new milk.
"The true single Gloucester cheese is thought by many to be the best, in
point of flavor, of any we have. The season for making their thin or
single cheese is mostly from April to November; but the principal season
for the thick or double is confined to May, June, and the early part of
July. This is a busy season in the dairy; for at an earlier period the
milk is not rich enough, and if the cheese be made later in the summer,
they do not acquire sufficient age to be marketable next spring. Very
many cheeses, however, can be made even in winter from cows that are
well fed. The cows are milked in summer at a very early hour; generally
by four o'clock in the morning, before the day becomes hot, and the
animals restless and unruly.