Cheese is the curd formed from milk by artificial coagulation, pressed
and dried for use. Curd, called also casein and caseous matter, or the
basis of cheese, exists in the milk, and not in the cream, and requires
only to be separated by coagulation: the coagulation, however, supposes
some alteration of the curd. By means of the substance employed to
coagulate it, it is rendered insoluble in water. When the curd is freed
from the whey, kneaded and pressed to expel it entirely, it becomes
cheese; this assumes a degree of transparency, and possesses many of
the properties of coagulated albumen. If it be well dried, it does not
change by exposure to the air; but if it contain moisture, it soon
putrefies; it therefore requires some salt to preserve it, and this
acts likewise as a kind of seasoning. All our cheese is coloured more
or less, except that made from skim milk. The colouring substances
employed are arnatto, turmeric, or marigold, all perfectly harmless
unless they are adulterated; and it is said that arnatto sometimes
contains red lead.
Cheese varies in quality and richness according to the materials of
which it is composed. It is made—1. Of entire milk, as in Cheshire; 2.
of milk and cream, as at Stilton; 3. of new milk mixed with skim milk,
as in Gloucestershire; 4. of skimmed milk only, as in Suffolk, Holland,
and Italy.
The principal varieties of cheese used in England are the following:
_Cheshire cheese_, famed all over Europe for its rich quality and
fine piquante flavour. It is made of entire new milk, the cream not
being taken off. _Gloucester cheese_ is much milder in its taste than
the Cheshire. There are two kinds of Gloucester cheese, single and
double:—_Single Gloucester_ is made of skimmed milk, or of the milk
deprived of half the cream; _Double Gloucester_ is a cheese that
pleases almost every palate: it is made of the whole milk and cream.
_Stilton cheese_ is made by adding the cream of one day to the entire
milk of the next: it was first made at Stilton, in Leicestershire.
_Sage cheese_ is so called from the practice of colouring some curd
with bruised sage, marigold-leaves, and parsley, and mixing this with
some uncoloured curd. With the Romans, and during the middle ages,
this practice was extensively adopted. _Cheddar cheese_ much resembles
Parmesan. It has a very agreeable taste and flavour, and has a spongy
appearance. _Brickbat cheese_ has nothing remarkable except its form.
It is made by turning with rennet a mixture of cream and new milk; the
curd is put into a wooden vessel the shape of a brick, and is then
pressed and dried in the usual way. _Dunlop cheese_ has a peculiarly
mild and rich taste: the best is made entirely from new milk. _New
cheese_ (as it is called in London) is made chiefly in Lincolnshire,
and is either made of all cream, or, like Stilton, by adding the cream
of one day’s milking to the milk that comes immediately from the cow:
they are extremely thin, and are compressed gently two or three times,
turned for a few days, and then eaten new with radishes, salad, &c.
_Skimmed Milk cheese_ is made for sea voyages principally. _Parmesan
cheese_ is made in Parma and Piacenza. It is the most celebrated of all
cheese: it is made entirely of skimmed cows’ milk; the high flavour
which it has is supposed to be owing to the rich herbage of the meadows
of the Po, where the cows are pastured. The best Parmesan is kept for
three or four years, and none is carried to market till it is at least
six months old. _Dutch cheese_ derives its peculiar pungent taste from
the practice adopted in Holland of coagulating the milk with muriatic
acid instead of rennet. _Swiss cheeses_, in their several varieties,
are all remarkable for their fine flavour; that from _Gruyère_, a
bailiwick in the canton of Fribourg, is best known in England; it is
flavoured by the dried herb of _Melilotus officinalis_ in powder.
Cheese from milk and potatoes is manufactured in Thuringia and Saxony.
_Cream cheese_, although so called, is not properly cheese, but is
nothing more than cream dried sufficiently to be cut with a knife.
In families where much cheese is consumed, and it is bought in large
quantities, a piece from the whole cheese should be cut, the larger
quantity spread with a thickly-buttered sheet of white paper, and the
outside occasionally wiped. To keep cheeses moist that are in daily
use, when they come from table a damp cloth should be wrapped round
them, and the cheese put into a pan with a cover to it, in a cool but
not very dry place. To ripen cheeses, and bring them forward, put them
into a damp cellar; and to check too large a production of mites,
spirits may be poured into the parts affected. Pieces of cheese which
are too near the rind, or too dry to put on table, may be made into
Welsh rarebits, or grated down and mixed with macaroni. Cheeses may be
preserved in a perfect state for years, by covering them with parchment
made pliable by soaking in water, or by rubbing them over with a
coating of melted fat. The cheeses selected should be free from cracks
or bruises of any kind.
CHEESE, Mode of Serving.
The usual mode of serving cheese at good tables is to cut a small
quantity of it into neat square pieces, and to put them into a glass
cheese-dish, this dish being handed round. Should the cheese crumble
much, of course this method is rather wasteful, and it may then be put
on the table in the piece, and the host may cut from it. When served
thus, the cheese must always be carefully scraped, and laid on a white
d’oyley or napkin, neatly folded. Cream cheese is often served in a
cheese course, and, sometimes, grated Parmesan: the latter should be
put into a covered glass dish. Rusks, cheese-biscuits, pats or slices
of butter, and salad, cucumber, or water-cresses, should always form
part of a cheese-course.
[Illustration: CHEESE-GLASS.]
CHEESE, Pounded.
_Ingredients._—To every lb. of cheese allow 3 oz. of fresh butter.
_Mode._—To pound cheese is an economical way of using it if it has
become dry; it is exceedingly good spread on bread, and is the best
way of eating it for those whose digestion is weak. Cut up the cheese
into small pieces, and pound it smoothly in a mortar, adding butter in
the above proportion. Press it down into a jar, cover with clarified
butter, and it will keep for several days. The flavour may be very much
increased by adding mixed mustard (about a teaspoonful to every lb.),
or cayenne, or pounded mace. Curry-powder is also not infrequently
mixed with it.
CHEESE, Toasted, or Scotch Rarebit.
_Ingredients._—A few slices of rich cheese, toast, mustard, and pepper.
_Mode._—Cut some nice rich sound cheese into rather thin slices; melt
it in a cheese-toaster on a hot plate or over steam, and, when melted,
add a small quantity of mixed mustard and a seasoning of pepper; stir
the cheese until it is completely dissolved, then brown it before the
fire, or with a salamander. Fill the bottom of the cheese-toaster with
hot water, and serve with dry or buttered toasts, whichever may be
preferred. Our engraving illustrates a cheese-toaster with hot-water
reservoir: the cheese is melted in the upper tin, which is placed in
another vessel of boiling water, so keeping the preparation beautifully
hot. A small quantity of porter, or port wine, is sometimes mixed with
the cheese; and, if it be not very rich, a few pieces of butter may
be mixed with it to great advantage. Sometimes the melted cheese is
spread on the toasts, and then laid in the cheese-dish at the top of
the hot water. Whichever way it is served, it is highly necessary that
the mixture be very hot, and very quickly sent to table, or it will
be worthless. _Time._—About 5 minutes to melt the cheese. _Average
cost_, 1½_d._ per slice. _Sufficient._—Allow a slice to each person.
_Seasonable_ at any time.
[Illustration: HOT-WATER CHEESE-DISH.]
CHEESE, Toasted, or Welsh Rarebit.
_Ingredients._—Slices of bread, butter, Cheshire or Gloucester cheese,
mustard, and pepper. _Mode._—Cut the bread into slices about ½ inch
in thickness; pare off the crust, toast the bread slightly without
hardening or burning it, and spread it with butter. Cut some slices,
not quite so large as the bread, from a good rich fat cheese; lay them
on the toasted bread in a cheese-toaster; be careful that the cheese
does not burn, and let it be equally melted. Spread over the top a
little made mustard and a seasoning of pepper, and serve very hot,
with very hot plates. To facilitate the melting of the cheese, it may
be cut into thin flakes, or toasted on one side before it is laid on
the bread. As it is so essential to send this dish hot to table, it is
a good plan to melt the cheese in small round silver or metal pans,
and to send these pans to table, allowing one for each guest. Slices
of dry or buttered toast should always accompany them, with mustard,
pepper, and salt. _Time._—About 5 minutes to melt the cheese. _Average
cost_, 1½_d._ per slice. _Sufficient._—Allow a slice to each person.
_Seasonable_ at any time.
_Note._—Should the cheese be dry, a little butter mixed with it will be
an improvement.