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

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.”