Milch Cows and Dairy Farming / Comprising the Breeds, Breeding, and Management, in Health and Disease, of Dairy and Other Stock, the Selection of Milch Cows, with a Full Explanation of Guenon's Method; The Culture of Forage Plants, and the Production of Milk, Butter, and Cheese: Embodying the Most Recent Improvements, and Adapted to Farming in the United States and British Provinces. With a Treatise upon the Dairy Husbandry of Holland; To Which Is Added Horsfall's System of Dairy Management

by Charles Louis Flint

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.