The fine, bright, red colour of some Gloucester cheese has been
fraudulently produced by red lead, which, we need scarcely observe, is a
violent poison. The ingredient now employed for this purpose, (to the
exclusion of every thing else) in Cheshire and Gloucestershire, is
annatto, a dye prepared from the seeds of a tree of South America. It is
perfectly harmless in the proportion in which it is used; an ounce of
genuine annatto being sufficient to colour a hundred weight of cheese.
It may, however, be questioned whether annatto is not sometimes
adulterated with red lead.
Gouda cheese, the best made in Holland, is prized for its soundness,
which is referable to muriatic acid being used in curdling the milk
instead of rennet. This renders it pungent, and preserves it from
mites. Parmesan cheese, so called from Parma in Italy, where it is
manufactured, and highly prized, is merely a skim-milk cheese, which
owes its rich flavour to the fine herbage of the meadows along the
Po, where the cows feed.
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