The methods of cheese-making differ materially in different countries,
and in different parts of the same country. It is also so much a matter
of experience and observation, that we recommend to beginners to visit
cheese-dairies, and get instructions from practical makers. But we give
the following more general outlines, leaving our readers to learn all
further details as recommended above.
Rennet, or the calf's stomach, is used, as nature's agent to turn the
milk, or to curdle it without having it sour. There are many fanciful
ways of preparing the rennet, putting in sweet herbs, &c. But the
ordinary plain method is quite sufficient--which is, to steep it in cold
salt water. The milk should be set at once on coming from the cow.
Setting it too hot, or cooling it with cold water, inclines the cheese
to heave. Too much rennet gives it a strong, unpleasant smell and taste.
Break the curd as fine as possible with the hand or dish, or better with
a regular cheese-knife with three blades. This is especially important
in making large cheeses; small ones need less care in this respect. If
the curd be too soft, scald it with very hot whey or water; if it be
hard, use a little more than blood-warm whey: it should stand a few
minutes in this whey and then be separated, and the curd put into the
cheese-hoop, making it heaped full, and pressed hard with the hand.
Spread a cloth over it, and turn it out. Wash the hoop and put back the
cheese, with the cloth between the curd and the hoop, and put it in the
press. After a few hours take it out, wash the cloth and put it again
around the cheese, and return it to the press. After seven or eight
hours more take it out again, pare off the edges if they need it, and
rub salt all over it--as much as it will take in: this is the best way
of salting cheese; the moisture in it at this stage will cause it to
absorb just about as much salt as will be agreeable. Return it to the
press in the hoop without the cloth; let it stand in the press over
night; in the morning turn it in the hoop, and continue it in the press
until the next morning. Place it upon the shelf in the cheese-room, and
turn it every day, or at least every other day. If the weather be hot,
the doors and windows of the cheese-room should be shut; if cool, they
should be open to admit air.
_Color._--The richest is supposed to be about that of beeswax. This is
produced by annotta, or otter, rubbed into the milk at the time of
setting, when warm from the cow--or, if the milk has stood till cold,
after it has been warmed. Cold milk must, before setting, be warmed to
about blood or milk heat. This coloring process has no virtue but in its
influence on the looks of the cheese. Sage cheese is colored by the
juice of pounded sage-leaves put into the fine curd before it is put in
the hoop; this is the reason of its appearing in streaks, as it would
not do if put into the milk, like the annotta. When the cheese is ten
days old, it should be soaked in cold whey until the rind becomes soft,
and then scraped smooth with a case-knife; then rinse, and wipe and dry
it, and return it to the cheese-room, and turn it often until dry enough
for market. Rich cheeses are apt to spread in warm weather; this is
prevented by sewing them in common cheap cotton, exactly fitting.
_Skippers._--Some persons are very fond of skippery cheese. But few,
however, like meat and milk together, especially if the meat be alive:
hence, to remove skippers from cheese into which they have intruded is
quite desirable. The following method is effectual:--wrap up the cheese
in thin paper, through which moisture will readily strike; dig a hole
two feet deep in pure earth, and bury the cheese;--in thirty-six hours
every skipper will be on the outside; brush them off and keep the cheese
from the flies, and you will have no further trouble. A mixture of
Spanish brown and butter, rubbed on the outside of a cheese, frequently
gives that yellow coating so often witnessed, and exerts some influence
in preserving it. The rank and putrid taste sometimes observed in cheese
may be prevented by putting a spoonful of salt in the bottom of each
pan, before straining the milk; it will also preserve the milk in hot
weather, and give more curd.
An English cheese called "Stilton cheese," from the name of the place
most celebrated for making it, is a superior article, made in the
following way: put the cream of the night's milk with the morning's
milk; remove the curd with the least possible disturbance, and without
breaking; drain and gradually dry it in a sieve; compress it gradually
until it becomes firm; put it in a wooden hop on a board, to dry
gradually; it should be often turned between binders, top and bottom, to
be tightened as the cheese grows smaller. This makes the finest cheese
known. As the size makes no difference, it can be made by a person
having but one cow.
To preserve cheese, keep it from flies, and in a place not so damp as to
cause mould. Of cheese-pressers there is a great variety: each maker
will select the one which he considers best or most convenient, within
his reach. In some places, as on the Western Reserve, in Ohio, one
establishment makes all the cheese for the neighborhood, buying the curd
from all the families around. In such places they have their own
methods, which they have understood by all their customers.