In making good cheese, skim milk is never used. The milk should either
be warm from the cow or heated to that temperature over the fire.
When the rennet is put in, the heat of the milk should be from 90
to 96 degrees. Three quarts of milk will yield, on an average, about
a pound of cheese. In infusing the rennet, allow a quart of lukewarm
water, and a table-spoonful of salt to a piece about half the size
of your hand. The rennet must soak all night in the water before
it can be fit for use. In the morning (after taking as much of it
as you want) put the rennet water into a bottle and cork it
tightly. It will keep the better for adding to it a wine glass of
brandy. If too large a proportion of rennet is mixed with the
milk, the cheese will be tough and leathery.
To make a very good cheese, take three buckets of milk warm from
the cow, and strain it immediately into a large tub or kettle.
Stir into it half a tea-cupful of infusion of rennet or rennet-water;
and having covered it, set it in a warm place for about
half an hour, or till it becomes a firm curd. Cut the curd into
squares with a large knife, or rather with a wooden slitting-dish,
and let it stand about fifteen minutes. Then break it up fine with
your hands, and let it stand a quarter of an hour longer. Then
pour off from the top as much of the whey as you can; tie up the
curd in a linen cloth or bag, and hang it up to drain out the
remainder of the whey; setting a pan under it to catch the
droppings. After all the whey is drained out, put the curd into
the cheese-tray, and cut it again into slices; chop it coarse; put
a cloth about it; place it in the cheese-hoop or mould, and set it
in the screw press for half an hour, pressing it hard. [Footnote:
If you are making cheese on a small scale, and have not a regular
press, put the curd (after you have wrapped it in a cloth) into a
small circular wooden box or tub with numerous holes bored in the
bottom; and with a lid that fits the inside exactly. Lay heavy
weights on the lid in such a manner as to press evenly all over.]
Then take it out; chop the curd very fine; add salt to your taste;
and put it again into the cheese-hoop with a cloth about it, and
press it again. You must always wet the cloth all over to prevent
its sticking to the cheese, and tearing the surface. Let it remain
in the press till next morning, when you must take it out and turn
it; then wrap it in a clean wet cloth, and replace it in the
press, where it must remain all day. On the following morning
again take out the cheese; turn it, renew the cloth, and put it
again into the press. Three days pressing will be sufficient.
When you finally take it out of the press, grease the cheese all
over with lard, and put it on a clean shelf in a dry dark room, or
in a wire safe. Wipe, grease, and turn it carefully every day. If
you omit this a single day the cheese will spoil. Keep the shelf
perfectly clean, and see that the cheese does not stick to it.
When the cheese becomes firm, you may omit the greasing; but
continue to rub it all over every day with a clean dry cloth.
Continue this for five or sis weeks; the cheese will then be fit
to eat.
The best time for making cheese is when the pasture is in
perfection.
You may enrich the colour of the cheese by a little anatto or
arnotta; of which procure a small quantity from the druggist,
powder it, tie it in a muslin rag, and hold it in the warm milk,
(after it is strained,) pressing out the colouring matter with
your fingers, as laundresses press their indigo or blue rag in the
tub of water. Anatto is perfectly harmless.
After they begin to dry, (or ripen, as it is called,) it is the
custom in some dairy-farms, to place the cheeses in the haystack,
and keep them there among the hay for five or six weeks. This is
said greatly to improve their consistence and flavour. Cheeses are
sometimes ripened by putting them every day in fresh grass.