THE CHEESE-DAIRY.
“Streams of new milk through flowing coolers stray,
And snow-white curds abound, and wholesome whey.”
Milk, if allowed to become sour, will eventually curdle, when the whey
is easily separated; and this simple mode was probably the universal
method of making cheese in ancient times. Cheese, as already explained,
is made from caseine, an ingredient of milk held in solution by means of
an alkali, which it requires the presence of an acid to neutralize.
This, in modern manufacture, is artificially added to form the curd; but
the acidity of milk, after standing, acts in the same manner to produce
coägulation. This is due to the change of the milk-sugar into lactic
acid.
Cheese has been made and used as an article of food from a very early
date. It was well known to the early Jewish patriarchs, and is
frequently mentioned in the earliest Hebrew records. “Hast thou not
poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?” says Job; and David
was sent to “carry ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand in the
camp.” Most of the ancient nations, indeed, barbarous as well as
civilized, made it a prominent article of food. But cheese, as made by
the ancients, was found to be hard and brittle, and not well flavored,
and means were devised to produce the same effect while the milk still
remained sweet. It was observed that acids of various kinds would
answer, and vinegar was used; and cream of tartar, muriatic acid, and
sour milk, added to sweet, produced a rapid coägulation. In Sweden,
Norway, and other countries, a handful of the plant known as butterwort
(_Pinguicula vulgaris_) is sometimes mixed with the food of the cow, to
cause the milk to coägulate readily. A few hours after milking, the curd
is formed without the addition of an acid. Milk taken into the stomach
of the calf was found to curdle rapidly, even while sweet; and hence the
use of rennet, which is simply the stomach of the calf, prepared by
washing, salting, and drying, for preservation. This acts the most
surely, and, if properly prepared and preserved, is the least
objectionable, of any article now known; and is, in fact, the natural
mode of curdling the milk as it enters the stomach, preparatory to the
process of digestion. Besides this, it is generally the cheapest and
most available for the farmer.
The richness of cheese depends very much upon the amount of butter or
oily matter it contains. It may be made entirely of cream, or from whole
or unskimmed milk, to which the cream of other milk is added, or from
milk from which a part of its cream has been taken, or from ordinary
skim-milk, or from milk that has been skimmed three or four times, so as
to remove nearly every particle of cream, or from butter-milk. The acid
used in curdling milk acts upon the caseine alone, and not upon the
butter particles, which are imbedded in the curd as it hardens, and thus
increase its richness and flavor without adding to its consistency,
which is due to the caseine.
It is evident, therefore, that cheese made entirely of cream cannot have
the firmness and consistence of ordinary cheese. It is only made for
immediate use, and cannot be long kept. It is, in fact, little more
than thick, dried, sweet cream, from which all the milk has been
pressed. On the other hand, skim-milk cheese has the opposite fault of
being too hard and tough, and destitute of flavor and richness. The best
quality of cheese is made from full milk, or from milk to which some
extra cream is added, as in the English Stilton renowned for its
richness and flavor. The Gloucester, Cheshire, Cheddar, Dunlop, and the
Dutch Gouda, are made of whole milk, as are the best qualities made in
this country.
The process of making cheese is both chemical and mechanical. The
heating of the milk at the time of adding the acid or rennet hastens the
chemical action, and facilitates the separation of the whey; at the same
time great nicety is required, for, if over-heated, the oily particles
will run off with the whey. On the complete separation of the whey from
the curd, and the amount of butter particles retained in the latter, the
taste or flavor and keeping qualities of the cheese depend. If properly
made, the taste improves by keeping, but the chemical changes effected
by age are not very well understood.
The practical process of manufacture most common in the best dairies of
this country will appear in the following statements of successful
competitors at agricultural exhibitions. The first was made, by request,
to the New York State Agricultural Society, and appeared in its
transactions, by A. L. Fish, of Herkimer county, one of the finest dairy
regions of that state. The value of his statement is enhanced by the
fact that his cows averaged seven hundred pounds of the first quality of
cheese each in 1844, and seven hundred and seventy-five pounds each in
1845. In his mode of manufacture, the evening’s and morning’s milk is
commonly used to make one cheese. The evening’s is strained into a tub
or pans, and cooled to prevent souring. The proper mode of cooling is to
strain the milk into the tin tub set in a wooden vat, described in the
dairy-house, and cool by filling the wooden vat with ice-water from the
ice-house, or ice in small lumps, and water from the pump. The little
cream that rises over night is taken off in the morning, and kept till
the morning and evening milk are put together, and the cream is warmed
to receive the rennet. It is mixed with about twice its quantity of new
milk, and warm water added to raise its temperature to ninety-eight
degrees: stir it till perfectly limpid, put in rennet enough to curdle
the milk in forty minutes, and mix it with the mass of milk by thorough
stirring; the milk having been previously raised to eighty-eight or
ninety degrees, by passing steam from the steam generator to the water
in the wooden vat. In case no double vat is to be had, the milk may be
safely heated to the right temperature, by setting a tin pail of hot
water into the milk in the tubs. It may be cooled in like manner by
filling the pail with ice-water, or cold spring-water where ice is not
to be had. It is not safe to heat milk in a kettle exposed directly to
the fire, as a _slight_ scorching will communicate its _taint_ to the
whole cheese and spoil it. If milk is curdled below eighty-four degrees,
the cream is more liable to work off with the whey. An extreme of heat
will have a like effect.
The curdling heat is varied with the temperature of the air, or the
liability of the milk to cool after adding rennet. The thermometer is
the only safe guide in determining the temperature; for, if the dairyman
depends upon the sensation of the hand, a great liability to error will
render the operation uncertain. If, for instance, the hands have
previously been immersed in cold water, the milk will feel warmer than
it really is; if, on the contrary, they have recently been in warm
water, the milk will feel colder than it really is. To satisfy the
reader how much this circumstance alone will affect the sensation of the
hand, let him immerse one hand in warm water, and at the same time keep
the other in a vessel of cold water, for a few moments; then pour the
water in the two dishes together, and immerse both hands in the mixture.
The hand that was previously in the warm water will feel _cold_, and the
other quite warm, showing that the sense of feeling is not a test of
temperature worthy of being relied upon. A fine cloth spread over the
tub while the milk is curdling will prevent the surface from being
cooled by circulation of air. _No jarring of the milk_, by walking upon
a springy floor, or otherwise, should be allowed while it is curdling,
as it will prevent a _perfect cohesion_ of the particles.
“When milk is curdled so as to appear like a solid, it is divided into
small particles to aid the separation of the whey from the curd. This is
often _too speedily done_ to facilitate the work, but at a sacrifice of
_quality_ and _quantity_.”
To effect the fine division of the curd for the easy separation of the
whey, Mr. Fish uses a wire network, made to fit into the tub, the meshes
of fine wire being about a half-inch square, and the outer rim of coarse
and stronger material. A cheese-knife is also used, about half as long
as the diameter of the tub, and firmly fastened to the lower end of a
long screw which passes through one end of the blade as it lies
horizontally, leaving the blade at right angles with the screw, which
has a coarse thread, and passes through a piece of wood on the top of
the tub, held firm by notches at the ends laid on the edges of the tub.
By turning a crank, the knife passes down through the curd in
revolutions, cutting it into layers of the thickness of the threads of
the screw.
The following is the statement of Mrs. Williams, of Windsor,
Massachusetts, who received the first premium at the Franklin County
Fair, in 1857, for exceedingly rich, fine, and delicately-flavored
cheeses of seventy-five pounds each. Her method, which is the result of
her own experience and observation, corresponds almost exactly, as the
committee remark, with the English mode of making the famous Cheddar
cheese, which is much the same as the Cheshire. Mrs. Williams says: “My
cheese is made from one day’s milk of twenty-nine cows. I strain the
night’s milk into a tub, skim it in the morning, and melt the cream in
the morning’s milk: I warm the night’s milk, so that with the morning’s
milk, when mixed together, it will be at the temperature of ninety-six
degrees; then add rennet sufficient to turn it in thirty minutes. Let it
stand about half or three quarters of an hour; then cross it off and let
it stand about thirty minutes, working upon it very carefully with a
skimmer. When the curd begins to settle, dip off the whey, and heat it
up and pour it on again at the temperature of one hundred and two
degrees. After draining off and cutting up, add a teacup of salt to
fourteen pounds.
“The process of making sage cheese is the same as the other, except
adding the juice of the sage in a small quantity of milk.”
Another successful competitor in the same state says: “We usually make
but one curd in a day. The night’s milk is strained into pans till
morning, when the cream that will have risen is taken off, and the milk
warmed to blood heat, when the cream is again returned to the milk and
thoroughly mixed. This prevents the melting of the cream that would
otherwise run off with the whey. The whole is then immediately laded
into a tub with the morning’s milk, and set for the cheese, with rennet
sufficient to form the curd in about thirty minutes; and here much care
is thought to be necessary in cutting and crossing the curd, and much
moderation in dipping and draining the whey from it, that the white whey
(so called) may not exude from it.
“When sufficiently drained, it is taken and cut with a sharp knife to
about the size and form of dice, when it is salted with about one pound
of fine salt to twenty-five of curd. It is then subjected to a moderate
pressure at first, gradually increasing it for two days, in the mean
time turning it twice a day, and substituting dry cloths. It is then
taken from the press and dressed all over with hot melted butter, and
covered with thin cotton cloth, and this saturated with the melted
butter. It is then placed upon the shelf, and turned and rubbed daily
with the dressing until ripe for use.”
One of the most important processes in the manufacture of good cheese is
the preparation of the rennet. This is made of the inner lining or
mucous membrane of the stomach of the young sucking calf, sometimes
called the bag or maw; and the use of it was undoubtedly suggested,
originally, by observing the complete and rapid coägulation or curdling
of milk in the stomach of a calf newly killed. “Coägulation is the first
process of digestion in the fourth stomach of the calf. There are
numerous glands scattered in and about the stomach that secrete a fluid
which readily and almost immediately accomplishes this coägulation. They
are always full of it; even after the animal is dead they remain filled
with it; and if the stomach is preserved from putrefaction, this fluid
retains its coägulating quality for a considerable period; therefore
dairy-women usually take care of the maw or stomach of the calf; and
preserve it by salting it, and then, by steeping it, or portions of it,
in warm water, they prepare what they call a rennet. After the maw has
been salted a certain time, it may be taken out and dried, and then it
will retain the same property for an indefinite period. A small piece of
the maw thus dried is steeped over night in a few teaspoonfuls of warm
water, and this water will _turn_ the milk of three or four cows.”
It is important that rennet enough should be prepared at once for the
whole season, in order to secure as great a uniformity in strength as
possible. The object should be to produce a prompt, complete, and firm
or compact coägulation of all the cheesy matter.
Mr. Aiton, in his admirable treatise on the Dairy Husbandry of Scotland,
gives the simple method of preparing the rennet in the dairy districts,
as follows: “When the stomach or bag--usually termed the yirning--is
taken from the calf’s body, its contents are examined, and if any straw
or other food is found among the curdled milk, such impurity is
carefully removed; but all the curdled milk found in the bag is
carefully preserved, and no part of the chyle is washed out. A
considerable quantity of salt--at least two handfuls--is put into and
outside the bag, which is then rolled up and hung near a fire to dry. It
is always allowed to hang until it is well dried, and is understood to
be improved by hanging a year or longer before being infused.
“When rennet is wanted, the yirning with its contents is cut small, and
put into a jar with a handful or two of salt; and a quantity of soft
water that has been boiled and cooled to sixty-five degrees, or of new
whey taken off the curd, is poured into it. The quantity of water or
whey necessary is more or less, according to the quality of the yirning:
if it is that of a new-dropped calf, a Scotch chop pin, or at most
three English pints, will be enough; but if the calf has been fed four
or five weeks, two quarts or more may be used; the yirning of a calf
four weeks old yields more rennet than that of one twice that age. When
the infusion has remained in the jar from one to three days, the liquid
is drawn off and strained, after which it is bottled for use; and if a
dram-glass of any ardent spirit is put into each bottle, the infusion
may either be used immediately, or kept as long as may be convenient.”
The mode of preparing rennet in the dairy districts of this country is
various; but that adopted by Mr. Fish, of Herkimer, New York, already
quoted, is simple and easy of application. He says: “Various opinions
exist as to the best mode of saving rennet, and that is generally
adopted which, it is supposed, will curdle the most milk. I have no
objection to any mode that will preserve its strength and flavor so that
it will be smelled and _tasted_ with good relish _when put into the
milk_. Any composition not thus kept I deem unfit for use, as the
coägulator is an essential agent in cheesing the curd, and sure to
impart its own flavor.
“The rennet never should be taken from the calf till the excrement shows
the animal to be in perfect health. It should be emptied of its
contents, salted, and dried, without any scraping or rinsing, and kept
dry for one year, when it will be fit for use. It should not be allowed
to gather dampness, or its strength will evaporate. To prepare it for
use, into ten gallons of water, blood warm, put ten rennets; churn or
rub them often for twenty-four hours; then rub and press them to get the
strength; stretch, salt, and dry them, as before. They will gain
strength for a second use. Make the liquor as salt as it can be made,
strain and settle it, separate it from the sediment, if any, and it is
fit for use. Six lemons, two ounces of cloves, two ounces of cinnamon,
and two ounces of common sage, are sometimes added to the liquor, to
preserve its flavor and quicken its action. If kept cool in a stone jar,
it will keep sweet any length of time desired, and a uniform strength is
secured while it lasts. Stir it before dipping off. To set milk, take of
it enough to curdle milk firm in forty minutes; squeeze or rub through a
rag annatto enough to make the curd a cream color, and stir it in with
the rennet.” It will be seen that he adopts the practice of removing the
contents of the stomach. This, it appears to me, is the best calculated
to promote cleanliness and purity, so important in making a
good-flavored cheese.
But in Cheshire, so celebrated for its superior cheese, the contents of
the stomach are frequently salted by themselves, and after being a short
time exposed to the air are fit for use; while the well-known and
highly-esteemed Limburg cheese is mostly made with rennet prepared as in
Ayrshire, the curd being left in the stomach, and both dried together.
The general opinion is that rennet, as usually prepared, is not fit to
use till nearly a year old.
Perhaps the plan of making a liquid rennet from new and fresh stomachs,
and keeping it in bottles corked tight till wanted for use, would tend
still further to secure this end.
The use of annatto to color the cheese artificially is somewhat common
in this country, though probably not so much so as in many other
countries. Annatto, or annotto, is made from the red pulp of the seeds
of an evergreen tree of the same name, found in the West Indies and in
Brazil, by bruising and obtaining a precipitate. A variety is made in
Cayenne, which comes into the market in cakes of two or three pounds. It
is bright yellow, rather soft to the touch, but of considerable
solidity. The quantity used is rarely more than an ounce to one hundred
pounds, and the effect is simply to give the high coloring so common to
the Gloucester and Cheshire cheeses, and to many made in this country.
This artificial coloring is continued from an idle prejudice, somewhat
troublesome to the dairyman, expensive to the consumer, and adding
nothing to the taste or flavor of the article. The annatto itself is so
universally and so largely adulterated, often by poisonous substances,
such as lead and mercury, that the practice of using it by the
cheese-maker, and of requiring the high coloring by the consumer, might
well be discontinued. The common mode of application is to dissolve it
in hot milk, and add at the time of putting in the rennet, or to put it
upon the outside, in the manner of paint.
[Illustration: Fig. 82. Cheese-press.]
The cheese-presses in most common use are very different in
construction, and each possesses, doubtless, some peculiar merits. The
self-acting press, Fig. 82, is the favorite of some. Another form of
this is seen in Fig. 83.
[Illustration: Fig. 83. Self-acting cheese-press.]
One of the most extensive and experienced dealers in cheese, in one of
the largest dairy districts of New York,--Mr. Harry Burrill, of Little
Falls,--has placed in my hands the following simple directions for
cheese-making.
The cheese-tub should be so graduated that it may be correctly known
what quantity of milk is used. This is requisite, in order that the
proper proportions, both of coloring matter and rennet, may be used. The
temperature should be ascertained by the thermometer. Experience proves
that when the dairy has been at seventy degrees the best temperature at
which to run the milk will be eighty-four degrees; but, as the
temperature of the dairy at different times of the year will be found to
vary above or below seventy degrees, the temperature of the milk must be
proportionally regulated by the simple addition of cold water, to lower
it; but, to increase the temperature, heat the milk in the usual manner,
although it is absolutely necessary to avoid heating it beyond one
hundred and twenty degrees.
After having brought the milk to the required temperature, and added the
coloring, for every quarter hundred weight of cheese mix one pint of new
sour whey with the requisite proportion of rennet; and, having arrived
at the formation of a good curd, which will be the invariable result of
a strict adhesion to the foregoing rules, let it be carefully cut up
with three-bladed knives, as fine as possible; then dip off half the
whey, and heat a portion of it to the temperature of ninety-five
degrees, and return it to the whey and curds; then, after stirring it
for five minutes, allow the curd to sink, and as quickly as possible dip
off the whey. Having done this, press the curd by placing on it a board
weighted with from three to five fifty-pound weights, which will
gradually and effectually press the remainder of the whey out.
When the whey is dipped off, put the curd into white twig basket-vats,
made the shape and size of a turned vat, which would contain the sixth
of a hundred weight (about three inches deep, and two feet in diameter).
It will be necessary to have boards about one inch thick, and two feet
four inches in diameter, to go between each of these twig vats, to
prevent the whey running from one vat into the other. When it has been
pressed, return it again into the cheese-tub, cut it into small pieces,
put it into the vats again in dry cloths, press it and return it to the
tub again, cutting it into small pieces, and to every hundred weight of
curd add one and one quarter pounds of salt; grind it twice, and stir it
so that it shall be properly mixed with the salt; then put it into
well-perforated turned vats, taking care to press it thoroughly whilst
the vats are filling, to prevent the accumulation of air, to the
presence of which is to be attributed the honeycomb appearance so often
observed in cheese when cut.
When the cheese is put into the press let the pressure gradually upon
it. After it has been in press one and a half hours, take it out and
examine it, and, should there be any curd pressed over, cut it round and
put it into the middle of the cheese, carefully breaking it up in the
middle. Wash the ends of the cloths out in a bowl of warm water, squeeze
them, and cover the cheese up, and, if there should be any not
sufficiently full, it will be necessary either to put a follower upon
it, or to put it into a smaller vat; in the evening let them be dry
clothed. The following morning salt them all over and dry cloth them,
and repeat this three successive mornings; after which, put them in
vats, placed one on the other, and allow them to stand, if possible, a
fortnight, occasionally wiping them. The cheese will get matured much
sooner by these means, and the tendency to cracking and bulging be
prevented.
The way to get a fine coat upon cheese, after the first coat has been
washed and scraped off, is to put the cheese on shelves, nail thick
sheeting to the ceiling from one of the shelves to the other, and let it
drop closely to the floor. If put over the floor, cover them over with
thick sheeting, or rugs.
The varieties of cheese are almost infinite in number, and are often
dependent on very minute details of practice. The general principles
involved are the same in all; but it would be next to impossible to find
any one variety of cheese possessing uniformity throughout, in point of
texture, consistency, taste, flavor, and keeping qualities; and it is
rare, with the present guess-work in many of the operations of
cheese-making, to find a lot of cheese made in the same dairy, from the
same cows, on the same pastures and by the same hands, which can be
considered a fair sample of what is generally produced. These great
differences are due to feeding and treatment of the cows in part, but
especially to the temperature of the milk at the time of curding, which
is again in part dependent on the quality and strength of the rennet
employed.
Nothing is more susceptible to external influences, as has been remarked
elsewhere, than milk and cream, both of which are liable to taint from
the food of the cows, from impurities derived from careless milking,
from exposure to foul or impure air in the cellar or milk-room, and from
sudden changes in the atmosphere. The most scrupulous cleanliness is,
therefore, required to produce a first quality of cheese, even under
favorable circumstances. And when it is considered that it is necessary
to observe minutely the temperature of the milk, and that slight
differences at the time of forming the curd may make the difference of
mellowness or toughness in the ripened cheese, and that the proper
temperature is affected by the time taken to bring the curd, which
depends on the strength and quality of the rennet, some of which will
act in fifteen or twenty minutes, while the same quantity of others
requires even two or three hours to produce the same effect, the
infinite variety in the qualities of cheese will scarcely be a matter of
surprise.
A brief statement of the mode of making some of the more important and
well-known varieties will be sufficient in this connection. The details
of cheese-making in some of the best of the dairies of New England and
New York correspond in a remarkable degree with the mode of making
Cheddar and Cheshire cheese, both celebrated for their richness and
popularity in the market. Of the latter there are made, it is said, over
twelve thousand tons annually; Cheshire taking the lead in
cheese-making, and keeping about forty thousand cows.
CHESHIRE CHEESE is remarkable for its uniformity, being, in dairies of
the best repute, made by fixed rules, and usually by the same persons.
If the number of cows is sufficient to make a cheese from one meal, that
amount is used; if not, two meals are united. The cows are milked at six
o’clock, morning and evening; are kept on rich pastures, and never
driven far, great care being taken that nothing shall interfere with the
regularity with which every operation connected with this chief source
of the wealth and prosperity of the Cheshire farmer is conducted. The
milk is brought in large wooden pails into the milk-house, which it is
generally contrived shall have a cool north aspect, and immediately
strained into pans, and placed upon the floor of the dairy. Each pan is
about six inches in depth, and usually made of block-tin. This substance
is objected to by some because it is liable, like every other metal,
although, perhaps, in a less degree than either zinc or lead, to be
acted upon by the lactic acid, and so produce compounds of a deleterious
character. At six o’clock in the morning the cheese-ladder is put on the
cheese-tub, the whole of the night’s milk is again passed through the
sieve, and the morning’s milk is then poured upon it, and well agitated
to equalize the temperature; in cold weather a pan of hot water is
previously put into the tub, to increase the temperature of the previous
night’s meal.
The rennet is next applied, care being taken that the heat of the whole
quantity of the milk is about seventy-four degrees; and, almost
simultaneously with the rennet, the annatto,--about a quarter of an
ounce is sufficient for a cheese of sixty-four pounds,--both of which,
in all well-regulated dairies, are strained through a piece of silk or
fine cloth. The rennet is generally made on the previous evening, by a
piece of the dried skin about the size of a crown-piece being immersed
in hot water, and allowed to stand all night. After the rennet and
coloring matter have been thoroughly mixed with the milk, it is covered
with the lid of the cheese-tub, and in cold weather with a cloth in
addition, to preserve the temperature of the mass until the curd has
formed. It is then left undisturbed for about an hour, and frequently
longer, to allow the coägulation of the milk. After that time a
curd-breaker is passed up and down it for about five minutes, and again
it is allowed to settle for another half-hour. The whey is then taken
out by means of a dish or bowl, the curd being gathered to one side of
the tub, and gently pressed by the hand, to allow the whey to separate
from it more easily. It is then pressed by a weight of about fifty
pounds; afterwards the curd is taken out of the tub and put into a
basket, the inside of which is covered with a coarse square
cheese-cloth. The four ends of the cloth are then folded over the curd,
a tin hoop being put around the upper edge of the cheese, and within the
sides of the vat, upon which a board is placed bearing a weight of about
one hundred pounds, varying, of course, with the size of the cheese.
This process is repeated two or three times, the curd being slightly
broken at each operation. It is next taken out of the basket for salting
or curing, and either broken down small by hand or in a curd-mill. A
certain quantity of salt is then carefully and intimately mixed with
the curd, according to the experience, taste, and custom, of the
dairymaid. It is then put into the cheese-vat in a coarse cloth, pressed
lightly at first for an hour; then taken out and turned, and the
pressure increased until the proper degree of consistence is attained.
Afterwards it is turned every twelve hours for three or four days,
remaining in the vat until the curd becomes so dry as not to moisten the
cloth. During this time skewers are passed through holes made in the
sides of the vat into the body of the cheese, the more effectually to
aid the expression of the whey, the pressure being still continued. When
they are withdrawn, the whey flows through these miniature tunnels,
which are in a few moments obliterated by the superincumbent weight.
It is the practice of some dairymaids in this county to take the cheese
to a cool salting-house, leaving it there for a week or ten days,
turning it daily, and rubbing salt on the upper surface. Others immerse
the cheese in a brine almost sufficiently strong to float it, with
occasional turning; others, again, after taking the cheese from the
press, place it in a furnace at a moderate heat, and keep it closed
therein for a night; while some run a hot iron over the whole, or over
the edges. The binder--a cloth of three or four inches in breadth--is
then passed tightly round the cheese, and secured by pins, when it is
removed to the cheese-room, and placed on a kind of grass, which in
Cheshire is called sniggle, the newest or latest-made cheese being put
in the warmest situation. Here it remains, being turned over three times
a week while it is new, and less often as it becomes matured, care being
taken to keep each one of the cheeses separate from all the others. The
room selected for a store is always that which can be best protected
from the light, and any sudden changes of temperature. The best Cheshire
cheese is seldom ripe for the market under one or two years.
The STILTON CHEESE is by far the richest of the English dairies. This
originated in a small town of that name, in Leicestershire. It possesses
“a peculiar delicacy of flavor, a delicious mellowness, and a great
aptness to acquire a species of artificial decay; without which, to the
somewhat vitiated taste of lovers of Stilton cheese, as now eaten, it is
not considered of prime account. To be in good order, according to the
present standard of taste, it must be decayed, blue, and moist.” To suit
this taste, an artificial mode is adopted, old and decayed cheese being
introduced into the new, or port wine or ale added by means of tasters,
or caulking-pins are stuck into them, and left till they rust and
produce an appearance of decay in the cheese.
“It is commonly made by putting the night’s cream to the milk of the
following morning with the rennet, great care being taken that the milk
and the cream are thoroughly mixed together, and that they both have the
proper temperature. _The rennet should also be very pure and sweet._ As
soon as the milk is curdled, the whole of it is taken out, put into a
sieve gradually to drain, and moderately pressed. It is then put into a
case or box, of the form that it is intended to be; for, on account of
its richness, it would separate and fall to pieces were not this
precaution adopted. Afterwards it is turned every day on dry boards,
cloth-binders being tied around it, which are gradually tightened as
occasion requires. After it is removed from the box or hoop, the cheese
must be closely bound with cloths and changed daily, until it becomes
sufficiently compact to support itself. When these cloths are taken
away, each cheese has to be rubbed over with a brush once every day. If
the weather is moist or damp, this is done twice a day during two or
three months. It is occasionally powdered with flour, and plunged into
hot water. This hardens the outer coat and favors the internal
fermentation, and thus produces what is called the ripening of the
cheese. Sometimes it is made in a net like a cabbage-net, which gives it
the form of an acorn.”
The maturity of Stilton cheeses is sometimes hastened by putting them in
a bucket, and covering them over with horse-dung.
GLOUCESTER CHEESE is likewise quite celebrated for its richness,
piquancy, and delicacy of flavor, and justly commands a high price in
the market. The management of the milk up to the time of curding is
similar to that of Cheshire; a cheese, often being made of one meal,
requires no additional heat to raise it to a proper temperature. After
the curd is cut into small squares, the whey is carefully drained off
through a hair strainer. The cutting is repeated every thirty minutes
till the whey is removed, when it is put into vats and covered with dry
cloths, and placed in the press. After remaining a sufficient length of
time, it is put into a curd-mill and cut or ground into small pieces,
when it is again packed in fine canvas cloth, and put in the cheese-vat.
Hot water or whey is poured over the cloth, to harden the rind and
prevent its cracking. “The curd is next turned out of the vat into the
cloth, and, the inside of the vat being washed with whey, the inverted
curd with the cloth is returned to the vat. The cloth is then folded
over, and the vat put into the press for two hours, when it is taken
out, and dry cloths applied during the course of the day. It is then
replaced in the press until salted, which operation is generally
performed about twenty-four hours after it is made. In salting the
cheese, it is rubbed with finely-powdered salt, and this is thought to
make the cheese more smooth and solid than when the salting process is
performed upon the curd. The cheese is after this returned to the vat,
and put under the press, in which several are placed, the newest at the
bottom and the oldest on the top. The salting is repeated three times,
twenty-four hours being allowed to intervene between each; and the
cheese is finally taken from the press to the cheese-room in the course
of five days. In the cheese-room it is turned over every day for a
month, when it is cleaned of all scurf, and rubbed over with a woollen
cloth dipped in a paint made of Indian red or Spanish brown and small
beer. As soon as the paint is dry, the cheese is rubbed once a week with
a cloth. The quantity of salt employed is about three and a half pounds;
and one pound of annatto is sufficient to color half a ton of cheese.”
CHEDDAR CHEESE is another variety in high repute for its richness, and
commands a high price in the market. It is made of new milk only, and
contains more fat than the egg. It is, indeed, too rich for ordinary
consumption. The milk is set with rennet while yet warm, and allowed to
stand still about two hours. The whey first taken off is heated and
poured back upon the curd, and, after turning off the remainder, that is
also heated and poured back in the same manner, where it stands about
half an hour. The curd is then put into the press, and treated very much
as the Cheshire up to the time of ripeness.
The DUNLOP CHEESE, the most celebrated of Scotland, had its origin in
Ayrshire, from which it was sent to the Glasgow market, and from which
the manufacture soon spread to Lanark, Renfrew, and other adjoining
counties. It is manufactured, according to Aiton, in the following
manner: When the cows on a farm are not so numerous as to yield milk
sufficient to make a cheese every time they are milked, the milk is
stored about six or eight inches deep in the coolers, and placed in the
milk-house until as much is collected as will form a cheese of a proper
size. When the cheese is to be made, the cream is skimmed from the milk
in the coolers, and, without being heated, is, with the milk that is
drawn from the cows at the time, passed through the sieve into the
curd-vat. The cold milk from which the cream has been taken is heated so
as to raise the temperature of the whole mass to near blood heat; and
the whole is coägulated by the means of rennet carefully mixed with the
milk. The cream is put into the curd-vat, that its oily parts may not be
melted, and the skimmed milk is heated sufficient to raise the whole to
near animal heat.
It may be said that the utmost care is always taken to keep the milk, in
all stages of the operation, free not only from every admixture or
impurity, but also from being hurt by foul air arising from acidity in
any milky substance, putrid water, the stench of the barn, dunghill, or
any other substance; and likewise to prevent the milk from becoming
sour, which, when it happens, greatly injures the cheese. Great care is
taken to prevent any of the butyraceous or oily matter in the cream from
being melted in any stage of the process. To cool the milk, and to
facilitate the separation or rising of the cream, a small quantity of
clean cold water is generally mixed with the milk in each cooler. The
coägulum is formed in from ten to fifteen minutes, and nobody would use
rennet twice that required more than twenty minutes or half an hour to
form a curd. Whenever the milk is completely coägulated the curd is
broken, in order to let the serum or whey be separated and taken off.
Some break the curd slightly at first, by making cross-scores with a
knife or a thin piece of wood, at about one or two inches distant, and
intersecting each other at right angles; and these are renewed still
more closely after some of the whey has been discharged. Others break
the whole curd more minutely at once with the hand or the skimmer.
After the curd has been broken, the whey ought to be taken off as
speedily as it can be done, and with as little further breaking or
handling the curd as possible. It is necessary, however, to turn the
curd, cut it with a knife, or break it gently with the hand.
When the curd has consolidated a little, it is cut with the
cheese-knife, slightly at first, and more minutely as it hardens, so as
to bring off the whey. When the greater part of the whey has been
extracted, the curd is taken up from the curd-boyn, and, being cut into
pieces of about two inches in thickness, it is placed in a sort of vat
or sieve with many holes. A lid is placed upon it, and a slight
pressure, say from three to four stone avoirdupois; and the curd is
turned up and cut small every ten or fifteen minutes, and occasionally
pressed with the hand so long as it continues to discharge scrum. When
no more whey can be drawn off by these means, the curd is cut as small
as possible with the knife, the proper quantity of salt minutely mixed
into it in the curd-boyn, and placed in the chessart within a shift of
thin canvas, and put under the press.
All these operations ought to be carried on and completed with the least
possible delay, and yet without precipitation. The sooner the whey is
removed after the coägulation of the milk, so much the better. But, if
the curd is soft, from being set too cold, it requires more time, and to
be more gently dealt with, as otherwise much of the curd and of the fat
would go off with the whey; and when the curd has been formed too hot,
the same caution is necessary. Precipitation, or handling the curd too
roughly, would add to its toughness, and expel still more of the oily
matter; and, as has been already mentioned, hot water or whey should be
put on the curd when it is soft and cold, and cold water when the curd
is set too hot.
Undue delay, however, in any of these operations, from the time the milk
is taken out of the coolers until the curd is under the press in the
shape of a cheese, is most improper, as the curd in all these stages is,
when neglected for even a few minutes, very apt to become ill-flavored.
If it is allowed to remain too long in the curd-vat, or in the dripper
over it, before the whey is completely extracted, the curd becomes too
cold, and acquires a pungent or acrid taste; or, it softens so much that
the cheese is not sufficiently adhesive, and does not easily part with
the serum. Whenever the curd is completely set, the whey should be taken
off without delay; and the dairymaid should never leave the curd-boyn
until the curd is ready for the dripper or cheese-vat. The salt is mixed
into the curd.
After the cheese is put into the press, it remains for the first time
about an hour, or less than two hours, until it is taken out, turned
upside down in the cheese-vat, and a new cloth put around it every four
or six hours until the cheese is completed, which is generally in the
course of a day and a half, two, or at most in three days after it was
first put under the press.
Some have shortened the process of pressing by placing the cheese--after
it has been under the press for two hours or so for the first time--into
water heated to about one hundred or one hundred and ten degrees, and
allowing the cheese to remain in the water about the space of half an
hour, and thereafter drying it with a cloth, and putting it again under
the press.
When taken from the press, generally after two or three days from the
time they were first placed under it, they are exposed for a week or so
to the warmth and heat of the farmer’s kitchen,--not to excite sweating,
but merely to dry them a little before they are placed in the store,
where a small proportion of heat is admitted. While they remain in the
kitchen they are turned over three or four times every day; and,
whenever they begin to harden a little on the outside, they are laid up
on the shelves of the store, where they are turned over once a day or
once in two days for a week or so, until they are dry, and twice every
week afterwards.
The store-houses for cheese in Scotland are in proportion to the size of
the dairy,--generally a small place adjoining the milk-house, or in the
end of the barn or other buildings, where racks are placed, with as many
shelves as can hold the cheeses made in the season. When no particular
place is prepared, the racks are placed in the barn, which is generally
empty during summer; or some lay the cheeses on the floor of a garret
over some part of their dwelling-house.
Wherever the cheeses are stored, they are not sweated or put into a warm
place, but kept cool, in a place in a medium state, between damp and
dry, without the sun being allowed to shine on them, or yet a great
current of air admitted. Too much air, or the rays of the sun, would dry
the cheeses too fast, diminish their weight, and make them crack; and
heat would make them sweat or perspire, which extracts the fat, and
tends to induce hooving. But when they are kept in a temperature nearly
similar to that of a barn, the doors of which are not much open, and but
a moderate current of air admitted, the cheeses are kept in a proper
shape,--neither so dry as to rend the skin, nor so damp as to render
them mouldy on the outside; and no partial fermentation is excited, but
the cheese is preserved sound and good.
DUTCH CHEESE--The most celebrated of the Dutch cheeses is the Edam, of
North Holland, and the Gouda. The manufacture of these and other
varieties will be described in a subsequent chapter, on Dairy Husbandry
in Holland.
The PARMESAN is an Italian cheese, made of one meal of milk, allowed to
stand sixteen hours, to which is added another which has stood eight
hours. The cream being taken from both, the skim-milk is heated an hour
over a slow fire, and constantly stirred till it reaches about
eighty-two degrees, when the rennet is put in and an hour allowed to
form the curd. The curd is thoroughly broken or cut, after which a part
of the whey is removed, and the curd is then heated nearly up to the
boiling point, when a little saffron is added to color it. It then
stands over the fire about half an hour, when it is taken off, and
nearly all the rest of the whey removed, cold water being added, till
the curd is cool enough to handle. It is then surrounded with a cloth,
and, after being partially dried, is put into a hoop and remains there
two days. It is then sprinkled with salt for thirty days in summer, or
about forty in winter. One cheese is then laid above another to allow
them to take the salt; after which they are scraped and cleansed every
day, and rubbed with linseed-oil to preserve them from the attack of
insects, and they are ready for sale at the age of six months.
AMERICAN CHEESE, as it is called in the English markets, whither large
quantities are shipped for sale, is made of almost every conceivable
variety and quality, from the richest Cheddar or Cheshire to the poorest
skim-milk cheese. The statements of some of the best dairymen have
already been given. As a further illustration of the mode pursued in
other sections of the country, the statement of C. G. Taylor, a
successful competitor for the premiums offered by the Illinois State
Agricultural Society, may be given as follows:
“As the milk is drawn from the cows, it is immediately strained into a
vat. This vat is a new patent, and is better than any I have ever seen
for cheese-making. It is double, a space being left between the two
parts. Into the upper vat the milk is strained, and cold water is
applied between it and the lower one. Thus the animal heat is soon
expelled, and the milk is prevented from souring before morning. The
morning milk is added. Under the lower vat a copper boiler is arranged.
The water in the boiler is in perfect connection with that remaining all
around the upper or milk vat, connected with three copper pipes. With a
little wood the water is warmed. Thus the temperature of the milk is
soon brought to the desired point to receive the rennet, which is about
ninety to ninety-five degrees. Sufficient rennet is applied to the milk
to cause it to curdle or coägulate in from thirty to forty minutes. Then
the curd is carefully cut, each way, into slices of about one inch
square. Soon the temperature is slowly increased. In about twenty
minutes the curd is carefully broken up with the hand,--increasing the
heat, and stirring often. When the curd is sufficiently hard, so as to
“_squeal_” when you bite it, it is scalded. By this time the temperature
is up to about one hundred and thirty or one hundred and forty.
“There are hinges placed in the legs of one end of the vat, which is
easily tipped, and through the curd-strainer and whey-gate the whey is
soon run off. The curd is then dipped into a sink, over which is placed
a coarse strainer, and allowed to drain quite dry. It is then broken up
fine, and one teacup of ground solar salt added to curd to make twenty
pounds of cheese, and well worked in. After the curd is quite cool, it
is placed in the hoop, and a light pressure is applied. In a few minutes
more power is needed. After remaining in press about six hours, it is
taken out of the hoop, wholly covered with strong muslin, finely sewed
on, and then reversed and replaced in the hoop and press. It is allowed
to remain until the next day, when it has to give place for another.
“After pressing thus twenty-four hours, the cheese is placed upon the
shelf, and allowed to stand until the cloth is dry. Then a preparation,
made from annatto and butter-oil, is applied sufficiently to fill all
the interstices of the cloth. It must be turned and thoroughly rubbed
three times a week, until ripe for use.
“I use the self-acting press. I know of none in use that is better,--the
weight of the cheese being the power.”
The statements of skilful and practical dairymen, in different parts of
the country, are sufficient to show that good cheese can be produced;
but it is believed that a more general attention to all the details of
the dairy would add many thousand dollars a year to the wealth of the
people, and enable us to compete successfully with the best dairy
countries in the world.
The composition of cheese will, of course, differ widely in nutritive
value, according to the mode of manufacture, age, etc. A specimen of
good cheese was found to contain about 31.02 per cent. of flesh-forming
substances, 25.30 per cent. of heat-producing substances, 4.90 per cent.
of mineral matter, and 38.78 per cent. of water.
The analyses of several varieties will serve as a comparison of cheese
with other kinds of food. The Cheddar was a rich cheese two years old,
the double Gloucester one year old, the Dunlop one year old, the
skim-milk one year.
--------+--------+---------+-------+-----
| | Dbl. | |Skim-
|Cheddar.|Glo’ster.|Dunlop.|milk.
+--------+---------+-------+-----
Water, | 30.04 | 35.81 | 38.46 |43.82
Caseine,| 28.98 | 37.96 | 25.87 |45.04
Fat, | 30.40 | 21.97 | 31.86 | 5.98
Ash, | 4.58 | 4.25 | 8.81 | 5.18
--------+--------+---------+-------+-----
Professor Johnston gives a table of comparison of Cheddar and skim-milk
cheese in a dried state, and milk, beef, and eggs, also in a dried
state, as follows:
---------------+-----+-------+---------+-----+-----
| |Cheddar|Skim-milk| |
| |cheese,| cheese, | |
|Milk.| dried.| dried. |Beef.|Eggs.
+-----+-------+---------+-----+-----
Caseine (curd),| 35 | 45 | 80 | 89 | 55
Fat (butter), | 24 | 48 | 11 | 7 | 40
Sugar, | 37 | - | - | - | -
Mineral matter,| 4 | 7 | 9 | 4 | 5
+-----+-------+---------+-----+-----
| 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100
---------------+-----+-------+---------+-----+-----
A full-milk cheese differs but little from pure milk, except in the
absence of sugar, which, as already seen, is held in solution, and goes
off in the whey. The difference becomes greater in proportion as the
cream is removed from the milk before curding, and the nutritive
qualities thereby diminished.
Cheese is used both as a regular article of food, for which the ordinary
kinds of full-milk cheeses are admirably fitted, and as a condiment or
digester, in connection with other articles of food; and for this
purpose the stronger varieties, such as are partially decayed and
mouldy, are best. “When the curd of milk is exposed to the air in a
moist state, for a few days, at a moderate temperature, it begins
gradually to decay, to emit a disagreeable odor, and to ferment. When
in this state, it possesses the property, in certain circumstances, of
inducing a species of chemical change and fermentation in other moist
substances with which it is mixed, or is brought into contact. It acts
after the same manner as sour leaven does when mixed with sweet dough.
Now, old and partially decayed cheese acts in a similar way when
introduced into the stomach. It causes chemical changes gradually to
commence among the particles of the food which has previously been
eaten, and thus facilitates the dissolution which necessarily precedes
digestion. It is only some kinds of cheese, however, which will effect
this purpose. Those are generally considered the best in which some kind
of cheese-mould has established itself. Hence, the mere eating of a
morsel of cheese after dinner does not necessarily promote digestion. If
too new, or of improper quality, it will only add to the quantity of
food with which the stomach is probably already overloaded, and will
have to await its turn for digestion by the ordinary processes.” This
mouldiness and tendency to decay, with its flavor and digestive quality,
are often communicated to new cheese by inoculation, or insertion of a
small portion of the old into the interior of the new by means of the
cheese-taster.
In studying attentively the practice of the most successful
cheese-makers, I think it will be observed that they are particularly
careful about the preparation of the rennet, and equally so about the
details of pressing. In my opinion, the point in which many American
cheese-makers fail of success is in hurrying the pressing. I think it
will be found that the best cheese is pressed two days, at least, and in
many cases still longer.