We find many Farmers very industrious to improve their breed of Cattle, and set much store on blood and fashion. The Dairy-man’s chief concern should be to have Cows with good Bags, or Udders; that yield a quantity of Milk; and it is well known, by persons who keep but one or two Cows, that there is a material difference in the richness of Milk in Cows, and that when they set up the Milk of different Cows, they find, one shall yield a much larger quantity of Cream than another; and many are known not only to yield more Milk, but even much better than the Cow which gives less; this is an useful remark to a Dairy-man as the quantity of rich Milk is the support of his undertaking, and must in the end pay more than the fine form of Cattle, which may be of more consequence to the feeding Grazier; and great care should be taken that the Cows are Milked clean, as many good Cows are spoiled by suffering Milk to remain in the Udder; which will cause the Cow daily to give less and less, till at length she will become dry before the proper time, and will be very apt to give but little Milk the next season. It is observed in Fairs, that the people from Wiltshire and other Dairy Counties, who buy Cows, always make a large bag in a Milking Cow, their first object, and those that buy Cattle for feeding pay very little regard to it, prefering a good carcase; as Dairy-men are generally the breeders of Calves, it should be their first object, to breed from Cows, which produce the best and largest quantity of Milk, and supply their own Dairy with that breed. I have often heard Dairy-men remark, that Cows are apt to give more Milk on the land they are bred upon, than others who come from a distant soil. I would always recommend to every Dairy-man, wherever it is in his power, to convey running streams into his Dairy-ground,—to encourage his Cows to frequent scowers in Brooks, or running Streams; Cows certainly like clear Water best, and it always produces most Milk; and keeping them cool, the Milk is much easier made into Cheese, or Butter. When Cheese goes from the Press, let it be kept in as warm a state as you can, till it has had a sweat, or is got pretty regularly dry, and stiffish: It is warmth that makes Cheese ripe, improves the colour, and causes Cheese to cut flakey, the surest sign of excellent quality; which is very clear to those who know the great difference there is in Cheese that has gone by Sea in the Summer-time to London, or any distant Port on our Coast, having been thoroughly heated on Ship-board, by the heat of the Season, and such large quantities being in the same apartment. I dare say any Person who has eat Cheese in the finest Dairys in Cheshire, and also in a Tavern in London, when the same sort of Cheese has undergone the heat of a Ship, and afterwards been laid in a Wine-cellar to cool gradually, and make it Mellow, (which is allowed to be the best situation for finishing Cheese, it not being exposed to harsh Winds, or chilling Air,) such Person must allow the Warmth it has received, improves the flavor and richness of the Cheese to a superlative degree. I would recommend, where it can be avoided, that hard Cheese is not kept in the same Room with the soft, as a dampness that arises from the new moist Cheese, is a detriment to the improving state the hard Cheese is getting into, making it very apt to chill, and get thick-coated, and often spotted; in some measure there is an analogy with the fine flavoured Fruit, this being the Season that Cheese may be supposed to come to its flavor, and the foul damp that falls from the exhalation of the soft Cheese greatly retards it, and being deprived of a chearing Warmth, will never become excellent. Cheese never tastes agreeably till it has had a sweat, such as is always kept in a cold state eats chill, flat-tasted and insipid; a south aspect, or a Room over a Kitchen-fire is much best, till Cheese is got tollerably hard and had a sweat; a cool shady Room, or even a Plaster-floor is best after it has had a sweat, till such Time as the Weather gets too cool. Cheese very seldom heaves or gets puffy after it has had a sweat and got cool again; the fat that melts with heat, closes the pores of Cheese made open by harsh Air, and keeps it mellow afterwards. The sweat of Cheese should not be rubbed off, or scraped off, unless it has sweat to a violent degree, as it keeps the Cheese mellow and always improves the flavour. To have every excellence it must have every advantage.—In Wilts, Gloucestershire, and some part of Warwickshire, most people wash their Cheese, putting it in a little warm Water or Whey to soften the swarthy-coat occasioned by the Cheese-cloth, or not being rubbed when it begins to get coated; then they rub it off with a Brush, and afterward lay it to dry, or sweat before it is laid in the cooler apartment; many prefer rubbing it with a hair-cloth, beginning with it when Cheese is fit to handle, and not wash it. If Cheese is designed for going by Sea, or for speedy consumption, I think washing is preferable, care being taken not to send it off too soft, as that exposes it to crack, then the Fly takes it, and Maggots breeding in it damages your Cheese. When Cheese is designed to be kept long in the Dairy, if kept well cleaned, I prefer the other method, as the coat preserves it, keeps it mellow and improves the Flavor. Frost is very detrimental to Cheese if permitted to get into it, especially, soft young Cheese; care should be taken to keep the Windows close in hard frosty Weather; many will cover it with (and even lay it in) Peas-straw in severe Seasons. I have known all the good qualities of Cheese annihilated or taken away, by being Frost-bitten when Young; it is apt to turn black as if made with sooty Milk, and not have the least taste of Salt, or any relish remain. It is a very common method to scald Cheese, either in the Curd, or in the Cheese; the former I quite disapprove, the design being only to settle the Curd which has not had Time given it to sink solid in the Tub, which if done, will want no scalding; boiling Water, or boiling Whey poured upon it will set the Curd in some degree, and fix it hard, but then it always leaves it Tough and Horny-coated, if it is scalded to any great degree; more time taken in bringing the Curd, and having the Milk of a proper warmth, will render this whole proceeding quite needless. People are only seeking a remedy for a fault which they had no sort of occasion to have been troubled with. Scalding Cheese after it has been in the Press is of some advantage to Cheese that is to go by Sea, that, only being to set the coat and toughen it, is not so much exposed to bruising, and the heat of the Ship recovers it again to its proper state by removing that toughness which scalding gave it; but Cheese for Country Trade, is hurt by scalding, making it Tough and Horny-coated. If Cheese gets too hard that has been scalded, the best way to recover it, is to lay it in a heap, four, five, or six Cheeses high, in a cool room, stirring and removing every Cheese once in two or three Days, till it is got mellow. In many Counties, as Lincoln, Huntington, Bedford, &c. People take very great pains to make bad Cheese, if a good Dairy-woman happens to come amongst them that sells Cheese for a much greater Price than they can, yet they will follow their own method; perhaps, some few of them at least, when they come to see Dairying plainly delineated, may have some inclination to alter their Plan, unless they prefer bad Cheese to good.

Many may wish to know what is a proper Size for Cheese Vats for Trade. For Cheese of the Gloucester make, we reckon that Vats—15 Inches Wide by 2¼ Inches Deep to make Cheese, Eleven to the Hundred Weight.

Since writing the account of the Maw-skin, I have heard of a Plant called the Runnet-Plant; it is the first Time I ever heard the Name of it or the least hint concerning it. I am informed the Jews make all their Cheese with it; their Law not permitting them to mingle Meat with Milk, which term they apply to making Cheese with Maw-skin, I have frequently seen Jew Cheese, but never saw any that I thought good or tollerably so, makes me imagine it is the necessity of principle only, that promotes its Use, but as I am an entire Stranger to the process, shall be greatly obliged to any one who will favour me with any particulars concerning it, with its qualities and manner of Use.[6]

I am favour’d with a Letter from a Friend whose veracity I can depend on, acquainting me of another species of Runnet-plant, imagining my former information was not right, and that the Dairy-plant was of a different kind to that I had described—sending at the same time some plants, for my inspection—called spear-grass, and also the method of using it, as practised by a very good Dairy-woman in the County of Derby for many Years, whose Dairy was in the highest credit in the neighbourhood, where she lived, hoping the Public might receive benefit by the publication of it, the receipt is as follows.—Take Spear-grass, and as much cold water as will cover the Grass, boil it over a slow Fire for an hour, put to it salt in proportion, of half a peck to six gallons of Liquor, then cover it up till cold, then strain it and add three Maw-skins to each gallon, let it stand nine or ten days, then bottle it, use a table spoonful for a Cheese of fifteen or sixteen pounds; but more or less may be used at discretion. From this receipt a very useful remark may be made: I have frequently enquired of Dairy-women who made their Runnet for keeping, what quantity of Skin they us’d, and have generally understood it to be about two Skins to a gallon of Water, but I have always thought that must be too little, here we find three Skins is recommended, even added to the decoction of Spear-grass, which must certainly be a powerful help to the Runnet; ’tis observ’d also in the receipt, that a table spoon-full may be used for a Cheese of fifteen or sixteen pounds, which I imagine must be as much as twelve or fourteen Cows Milk; if even two or three spoon-fulls will do for that quantity of Milk it must be of a very powerful fermenting quality, and leads me to imagine that Runnet in general, is certainly made too weak; and that if by the above method, or by the addition of spices as recommended by Mr. Hazard, a much stronger Runnet is made; it must greatly quicken the coagulation and be a means of bringing the Cheese properly, in shorter time than that in present use, and might probably be sufficient if the Milk stand an hour, or at most an hour and half, which would fully reconcile my plan of sinking Cheese to those who may think the only difficulty attending it, is requiring too much time.

Spear-grass is a very common plant, grows chiefly on moist land, or by pit sides, often in lanes, it is an upright stem, inclin’d to a redish brown, mixt with green, the leaves are spear-shaped growing up the stalk, a bright yellow flower with five petals, of the crow foot form, blossoms in May and June; this is doubtless a good plant for improving the Runnet, it being of a hot nature, and having been used so many Years with good success is a great recommendation—but this cannot be the plant before described to me, and which I have found in different Authors, called yellow ladies bed-straw, goose-grass or Cheese Renning, nor does the Runnet made with it answer to the ends proposed in making Jew Cheese.

I should imagine the best time to collect the Spear-grass for making Runnet, must be when it is in full Flower, which may be very apt to help the colour as well as give firmness to the Cheese. I have not a doubt but Runnet made with this plant, in the manner above described, will be a considerable improvement in Cheese-making, and should be glad to hear of its having a fair trial, it appears to me to be the most likely thing to correct the mischief caused by Slip-curd.

Having now gone through the design of the work, and laid down such observations on the principal concerns of Dairying, so far as relates to Cheese-making, as occur to my remembrance, I take my leave of it, hoping in general it will be found useful and expedient, and before I conclude, earnestly recommend it to such Dairy-women who find any difficulty in their proceedings in the business of Cheese-making, or wish to improve their make of Cheese, that they will, well weigh every part of the subject, and make trial of the whole process, as stated in its different parts. As I am well convinced, by repeated trials that if the plan I have laid down is observed with care, it will not fail to make good Cheese. And though it may be objected by many, the length of time of the Milk standing for Curd, yet so complete will the state of the Curd be, that you will often times more than save that time in crushing, as it will be finished in half the time, that bad Curd will take, and by the extra weight of Cheese, that time will give, will at length repay all your trouble; I well know, many Dairy-women are partial to some particular method, or nostrum of their own, or their mothers, or neighbour such a one who was a famous Dairy-woman, as being preferable to all others, in which they often fail of success, in some respect by having omitted to observe the exact minutia of their practice. As a very small omission, in time, or method, sometimes leads them into a labyrinth, which they very rarely ever get out of, and causes them more vexation and perplexity, than if they had never known any thing about it. Or, if their’s be a good method and very practicable, perhaps it is possible there may be a better, or easier means of proceeding, that will render their Plan quite needless.

I hope that those who wish to improve from my instructions, will give it a fair Trial, if any at all; they need not say they are left in the Dark in any part of it, as every particular is made plain and most of them repeated, as precept upon precept, and line upon line. Let them be particular however in the main concerns, such as the proper warmth of the Milk, the goodness, and use of the Maw-skin, to give it Time enough in the Tub, or Cheese-pan, to keep the Cheese warm when young, and cool afterwards; then I think they will scarce fail of making good Cheese. If they mean to excel, and make fine Cheese—and why not?—Then I refer them to the more minute Observations of the Work, and I wish and hope, that they will find their Pains well bestowed, and afford them both Comfort and Profit. I doubt not but methods used in different Counties vary a good deal. Some perhaps may be pointed out that are preferable to some of mine, and if any Person will be kind enough to point them out to me, or shew me where any thing has been omitted, or Error committed, if another Edition should be called for, I shall very willingly communicate them to the Public.