Andrew Boorde, in his Dyetary already referred to, p. 266, mentions 5 kinds of cheese, namely: "grene chese, softe chese, harde chese and spermyse. Besyde these iiij natures of chese, there is a chese called a rewene chese, the whiche, yf it be well orderyd, doth passe all other cheses, none excesse taken." ... "Chese that is good oughte not be to harde nor to softe, but betwyxt both; it shuld not be towgh nor brultell; it ought not to be swete, nor tarte, nor to salt, nor to fresshe; it must be of good savour and taledge, nor full of iyes, nor mytes, nor magottes."
"Yf a chees is drie,
Hit is a vyce, and so is many an eye
Yf it see with, that cometh yf sounyng brendde,
Or moche of salt, or lite of presse, it shende."
—-Palladius on Husbondrie, E. E. Text Soc. ed. Lodge, p. 154.
With these extracts showing the essentials of good cheese, compare the following description of Suffolk Cheese, locally termed Bang and Thump, and made of milk several times skimmed:
"Unrivall'd stands thy county cheese, O Giles!
Whose very name alone engenders smiles;
Whose fame abroad by every tongue is spoke,
The well-known butt of many a flinty joke,
Its name derision and reproach pursue,
And strangers tell of 'three times skimm'd skye blue.'"
—Blomfield.
Its toughness has given rise to a number of local illustrations. In one the cheese exclaims:
"Those that made me were uncivil,
For they made me harder than the devil;
Knives won't cut me; fire won't sweat me;
Dogs bark at me, but can't eat me."
"Hunger will break through stone walls, or anything except Suffolk cheese," is a proverb from Ray. Mowbray says "it is only fit to be cut up for gate latches, a use to which it is often applied." Other writers represent it as most suitable for making wheels for wheelbarrows.
[E293] "Argusses eies." The mythical Argus, surnamed Panoptes (the All-seer), had a hundred eyes; he was placed by Juno to guard Io, and at his death his eyes were transplanted to the peacock's tail.
[E294] To fleet or skim the cream is a verb still in use in East Anglia, and the utensil used for the purpose is termed a fleeting-dish. "I flete mylke, take away the creame that lyeth above it whan it hath rested."—Palsgr. "Esburrer, to fleet the creame potte; laict esburré, fleeted milk; maigne, fleeted milke or whaye."—Hollyband's Treasurie. "Ye floted too nie" = you skimmed off too much of the cream.
[E295] If cheeses are full of eyes, it is a proof that the curd was not properly worked.