The curd is then allowed to settle in the round kettle and when fairly firm it is lifted up in a cloth, the same as in Swiss cheesemaking. The mold is also much the same as the Swiss and the curd is but slightly pressed. In the course of the day the cheese is turned once or twice and put into fresh cloth. The next day it is put into the curing room when it is rubbed with salt. In a few months the cheese is cured and is then scraped and polished with linseed oil. Sometimes it is kept in storage two or three years in a dark room at a temperature of 63° F. The composition averages: 32% water, 21% fat, 41% nitrogenous matters and 6% ash.
Caccio Cavallo
Caccio Cavallo is made in Southern Italy of a form almost like a beetroot. The milk is set with rennet at about 95° F. and after the curd has been broken up the whey is dipped off and heated to boiling when it is poured back on the curd. The mass is then allowed to ferment eight to fourteen hours according to the temperature of the air. The quality of the cheese depends largely on this fermentation. The fermented curd is cut into pieces and submerged in boiling water and is then kneaded and formed into the desired shape.
After lying in cold water for two hours and in brine for thirty hours it is dried and smoked until it attains a fine golden color. It is made in various sizes, from 5 to 20 pounds, and the yield is said to vary from 10% to 16% of the milk. Caccio Cavallo is eaten on bread as well as with macaroni and is much relished by the Italians.
Limburger, Brick, Munster and other similar semi-soft cheese of the proverbial strong flavor, originated in Belgium and Bavaria, but are now largely made in Northern New York and Wisconsin as well.
For Limburger the milk is not ripened as for Cheddar but is set with rennet quite sweet at a temperature of about 90°; the curd is cut rather soft, care being taken, however, not to lose butter-fat. The curd is but slightly “cooked,” to a temperature not to exceed 96°, and is not salted in the vat but is dipped out into perforated wooden boxes or molds about 5 inches square and left to drain without pressure. The cheese are placed edgeways like bricks on shelves and are rubbed with salt and turned every day until cured. During the curing process moisture exudes and a fermentation takes place which develops the well-known “Limburger” flavor. After eight or ten weeks the cheese is packed in paper and tinfoil and is ready for the market.
Brick cheese is something between a Cheddar and a Limburger, of a milder flavor than either, not as hard as the former but firmer than the latter.
The milk is slightly ripened and is set with rennet at 86° so as to coagulate in 20 minutes. The curd is “cooked” to 110° or more and is not allowed to “mat” as for Cheddar cheese, but is dipped out of the vat before much acidity has developed, into the molds, which are rectangular boxes without top or bottom placed on a draining table where the whey runs off.
The mold is usually 5 inches wide, 8 inches deep and 10 inches long. When it is filled with curd a follower is put on the top and a slight weight, a couple of bricks, on the follower. The cheese is turned a few times and the next day it is taken out of the mold and placed on the salting table. The salting is done by rubbing the cheese on all sides with salt which penetrates the curd and draws out moisture. This is repeated for 3 days and the cheese is then left to cure, being washed and wiped off every week to prevent molding.