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.
Stilton Cheese
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.