In some markets it is possible to buy the small whole cheeses mentioned on page [6]. These may be satisfactorily kept by cutting a slice from the top, to serve as a cover, and removing the cheese as needed with a knife, a strong spoon, or a cheese scoop. It is possible to buy at the hardware stores knobs which inserted in the layer cut from the top make it easy to handle. The cheese below the cover should be kept wrapped in a cloth.
CHEESE AS A FOOD.
Cheese is used in general in two ways—in small quantities chiefly for its flavor and in large quantities for its nutritive value as well as for its flavor. Some varieties of cheese are used chiefly for the first purpose, others chiefly for the second. Those which are used chiefly for their flavor, many of which are high priced, contribute little to the food value of the diet, because of the small quantity used at a time. They have an important part to play, however, in making the diet attractive and palatable. The intelligent housekeeper thinks of them not as necessities, but as lying within what has been called “the region of choice.” Having first satisfied herself that her family is receiving sufficient nourishment, she then, according to her means and ideas of an attractive diet, chooses among these foods and others which are to be considered luxuries.
Those cheeses, on the other hand, which are suitable to be eaten in large quantities and which are comparatively low priced are important not only from the point of view of flavor, but also from the point of view of their nutritive value. Among such cheeses the one which, as noted above, is known to the trade as standard factory cheese and to the housewife as American cheese stands out pre-eminently. Therefore when the word “cheese” is used without specification in the following pages it may be taken to refer to this particular variety.
THE FLAVOR OF CHEESE.
Cheese owes its flavor to the fatty acids and their compounds which it contains and to ammonia-like bodies formed during ripening from the cleavage of the casein, to salt added to the curd, and in some varieties, like Roquefort, to bodies elaborated by molds which develop in the cheese. In the highly flavored sorts some of the fatty acids of a very marked odor are present in abundance, as are also the ammonia-like bodies. Indeed, in eating such cheese as Camembert a trace of ammonia flavor may often be plainly detected.
The cleavage of the nitrogenous material of the cheese and other changes are brought about chiefly by the action of enzymes originally present in cheese or by microorganisms and are to be regarded as fermentative and not as putrefactive changes.
The liking for highly flavored cheeses of strong odor is a matter of individual preference, but from the chemist’s standpoint there is no reason for the statement often made that such cheeses have undergone putrefactive decomposition.
COMPOSITION OF CHEESE AND SOME OTHER FOODS COMPARED.
In the present state of our knowledge concerning dietetics it seems best to give the housekeeper general rather than absolute rules with respect to the kind and amount of food which should be eaten at any meal or at any given time by persons in normal health living under usual conditions. It is not necessary, therefore, for the housekeeper to know the exact composition of food materials in order to cater well for her family, a rough approximation being sufficient for the purpose. In the case of cheese she will be near enough to the fact if she thinks of it as composed approximately of equal parts by weight of proteids, fats, and water. This rough conception is sufficient to associate it in her mind with the foods of high proteid value, a point which is important in connection with the making of bills of fare. It should lead her to class it also with the foods which are rich in fat and prevent her from combining it unnecessarily with other fatty foods.