The following is a description of the making of Cheshire cheese:—
The evening’s milk is set apart until the following morning, when the cream is skimmed off. The latter is poured into a pan which has been heated by being placed in the boiling water of a boiler. The new milk obtained early in the morning is poured into the vessel containing the previous evening’s milk with the warmed cream, and the temperature of the mixture is brought to about 75° F. Into the vessel is introduced a piece of rennet, which has been kept in warm water since the preceding evening, and in which a little Spanish annatto (¼ oz. is enough for a cheese of 60 ℔) is dissolved. (Marigolds, boiled in milk, are occasionally used for colouring cheese, to which they likewise impart a pleasant flavour. In winter, carrots scraped and boiled in milk, and afterwards strained, will produce a richer colour; but they should be used with moderation, on account of their taste.) The whole is now stirred together, and covered up warm for about an hour, or until it becomes curdled; it is then turned over with a bowl and broken very small. After standing a little time, the whey is drawn from it, and as soon as the curd becomes somewhat more solid it is cut into slices and turned over repeatedly, the better to press out the whey.
The curd is then removed from the tub, broken by hand or cut by a curd-breaker into small pieces, and put into a cheese vat, where it is strongly pressed both by hand and with weights, in order to extract the remaining whey. After this it is transferred to another vat, or into the same if it has in the meantime been well scalded, where a similar process of breaking and expressing is repeated, until all the whey is forced from it. The cheese is now turned into a third vat, previously warmed, with a cloth beneath it, and a thin loop of binder put round the upper edge of the cheese and within the sides of the vat, the cheese itself being previously enclosed in a clean cloth, and its edges placed within the vat, before transfer to the cheese-oven. These various processes occupy about six hours, and eight more are requisite for pressing the cheese, under a weight of 14 or 15 cwt. The cheese during that time should be twice turned in the vat. Holes are bored in the vat which contains the cheese, and also in the cover of it, to facilitate the extraction of every drop of whey. The pressure being continued, the cheese is at length taken from the vat as a firm and solid mass.
On the following morning and evening it must be again turned and pressed; and also on the third day, about the middle of which it should be removed to the salting-chamber, where the outside is well rubbed with salt, and a cloth binder passed round it which is not turned over the upper surface. The cheese is then placed in brine extending half-way up in a salting-tub, and the upper surface is thickly covered with salt. Here it remains for nearly a week, being turned twice in the day. It is then left to dry for two or three days, during which period it is turned once—being well salted at each turning—and cleaned every day. When taken from the brine it is put on the salting benches, with a wooden girth round it of nearly the thickness of the cheese, where it stands a few days, during which time it is again salted and turned every day. It is next washed and dried; and after remaining on the drying benches about seven days, it is once more washed in warm water with a brush, and wiped dry. In a couple of hours after this it is rubbed all over with sweet whey butter, which operation is afterwards frequently repeated; and, lastly, it is deposited in the cheese- or store-room—which should be moderately warm and sheltered from the access of air, lest the cheese should crack—and turned every day, until it has become sufficiently hard and firm. These cheeses require to be kept a considerable time.
As a matter of fact, there are three different modes of cheese-making followed in Cheshire, known as the early ripening, the medium ripening and the late ripening processes. There is also a method which produces a cheese that is permeated with “green mould” when ripe, called “Stilton Cheshire”; this, however, is confined to limited districts in the county. The early ripening method is generally followed in the spring of the year, until the middle or end of April; the medium process, from that time till late autumn, or until early in June, when the late ripening process is adopted and followed until the end of September, changing again to the medium process as the season advances. The late ripening process is not found to be suitable for spring or late autumn make. There is a decided difference between these several methods of making. In the early ripening system a larger quantity of rennet is used, more acidity is developed, and less pressure employed than in the other processes. In the medium ripening process a moderate amount of acidity is developed, to cause the natural drainage of the whey from the curd when under press. In the late ripening system, on the other hand, the development of acidity is prevented as far as possible, and the whey is got out of the curd by breaking down finer, using more heat, and skewering when under press. In the Stilton Cheshire process a larger quantity of rennet is used, and less pressure is employed, than in the medium or late ripening systems.
It is hardly possible to enunciate any general rules for the making of Stilton cheese, which differs from Cheddar and Cheshire in that it is not subjected to pressure. Mr J. Marshall Dugdale, in 1899, made a visit of inspection to the chief Leicestershire dairies where this cheese is produced, but in his report[9] he stated that every Stilton cheese-maker worked on his own lines, and that at no two dairies did he find the details all carried out in the same manner. There is a fair degree of uniformity up to the point when the curd is ladled into the straining-cloths, but at this stage, and in the treatment of the curd before salting, diversity sets in, several different methods being in successful use. Most of the cheese is made from two curds, the highly acid curd from the morning’s milk being mixed with the comparatively sweet curd from the evening’s milk. Opinion varies widely as to the degree of tightening of the straining-cloths. No test for acidity appears to be used, the amount of acidity being judged by the taste, feel and smell of the curd. When the desired degree of acidity has developed, the curd is broken by hand to pieces the size of small walnuts, and salt is added at the rate of about 1 oz. to 4 ℔ of dry curd, or 1 oz. to 3½ ℔ of wet curd, care being taken not to get the curd pasty. If a maker has learnt how to rennet the milk properly, and how to secure the right amount of acidity at the time of hooping—that is, when the broken and salted curd is put into the wooden hoops which give the cheese its shape—he has acquired probably two of the most important details necessary to success. It was formerly the custom to add cream to the milk used for making Stilton cheese, but the more general practice now is to employ new milk alone, which yields a product apparently as excellent and mellow as that from enriched milk.
As a cheese matures or becomes fit for consumption, not only is there produced the characteristic flavour peculiar to the type of cheese concerned, but with all varieties, independently of the quality of flavours developed, a profound physical transformation of the casein occurs. In the course of this change the firm elastic curd “breaks down”—that is, becomes plastic, whilst chemically the insoluble casein is converted into various soluble decomposition products. These ripening phenomena—the production of flavour and the breaking down of the casein (that is, the formation of proper texture)—used to be regarded as different phases of the same process. As subsequently shown, however, these changes are not necessarily so closely correlated. The theories formerly advanced as explanatory of the ripening changes in cheese were suggestive rather than based upon experimental data, and it is only since 1896 that careful scientific studies of the problem have been made. Of the two existing theories, the one, which is essentially European, ascribes the ripening changes wholly to the action of living organisms—the bacteria present in the cheese. The other, which had its origin in the United States, asserts that there are digestive enzymes—that is, unorganized or soluble ferments—inherent in the milk itself that render the casein soluble. The supporters of the bacterial theory are ranged in two classes. The one, led by Duclaux, regards the breaking down of the casein as due to the action of liquefying bacteria (Tyrothrix forms). On the other hand, von Freudenreich has ascribed these changes to the lactic-acid type of bacteria, which develop so luxuriantly in hard cheese like Cheddar.
With regard to the American theory, and in view of the important practical results obtained by Babcock and Russell at the Wisconsin experiment station, the following account[10] of their work is of interest, especially as the subject is of high practical importance. In 1897 they announced the discovery of an inherent enzyme in milk, which they named galactase, and which has the power of digesting the casein of milk, and producing chemical decomposition products similar to those that normally occur in ripened cheese. The theory has been advanced by them that this enzyme is an important factor in the ripening changes; and as in their experiments bacterial action was excluded by the use of anaesthetic agents, they conclude that, so far as the breaking down of the casein is concerned, bacteria are not essential to this process. In formulating a theory of cheese-ripening, they have further pointed out the necessity of considering the action of rennet extract as a factor concerned in the curing changes. They have shown that the addition of increased quantities of rennet extract materially hastens the rate of ripening, and that this is due to the pepsin which is present in all commercial rennet extracts. They find it easily possible to differentiate between the proteolytic action—that is, the decomposing of proteids—of pepsin and galactase, in that the first-named enzyme is incapable of producing decomposition products lower than the peptones precipitated by tannin. They have shown that the increased solubility—the ripening changes—of the casein in cheese made with rennet is attributable solely to the products peculiar to peptic digestion. The addition of rennet extract or pepsin to fresh milk does not produce this change, unless the acidity of the milk is allowed to develop to a point which experience has shown to be the best adapted to the making of Cheddar cheese. The rationale of the empirical process of ripening the milk before the addition of the rennet is thus explained. In studying the properties of galactase it was further found that this enzyme, as well as those present in rennet extract, is operative at very low temperatures, even below freezing-point. When cheese made in the normal manner was kept at temperatures ranging from 25° to 45° F. for periods averaging from eight to eighteen months, it was found that the texture of the product simulated that of a perfectly ripened cheese, but that such cheese developed a very mild flavour in comparison with the normally-cured product. Subsequent storage at somewhat higher temperatures gives to such cheese a flavour the intensity of which is determined by the duration of storage. This indicates that the breaking down of the casein and the production of the flavour peculiar to cheese are in a way independent of each other, and may be independently controlled—a point of great economic importance in commercial practice. Although it is generally believed that cheese ripened at low temperatures is apt to develop a more or less bitter flavour, the flavours in the cases described were found to be practically perfect. Under these conditions of curing, bacterial activity is inoperative, and these experiments are held to furnish an independent proof of the enzyme theory.
Not only are these investigations of interest from the scientific standpoint, as throwing light on the obscure processes of cheese-curing, but from a practical point of view they open up a new field for commercial exploitation. The inability to control the temperature in the ordinary factory curing-room results in serious losses, on account of the poor and uneven quality of the product, and the consumption of cheese has been greatly lessened thereby. These conditions may all be avoided by this low-temperature curing process, and it is not improbable that the cheese industry may undergo important changes in methods of treatment. With the introduction of cold-storage curing, and the necessity of constructing centralized plant for this purpose, the cheese industry may perhaps come to be differentiated into the manufacture of the product in factories of relatively cheap construction, and the curing or ripening of the cheese in central curing stations. In this way not only would the losses which occur under present practices be obviated, but the improvement in the quality of the cured product would be more than sufficient to cover the cost of cold-storage curing.
The characteristics of typical specimens of the different kinds of English cheese may be briefly described. Cheddar cheese possesses the aroma and flavour of a nut—the so-called “nutty” flavour. It should melt in the mouth, and taste neither sweet nor acid. It is of flaky texture, neither hard nor crumbly, and is firm to the touch. It is early-ripening and, if not too much acid is developed in the making, long-keeping. Before all others it is a cosmopolitan cheese. Some cheeses are “plain,” that is, they possess the natural paleness of the curd, but many are coloured with annatto—a practice that might be dispensed with. The average weight of a Cheddar cheese is about 70 ℔. Stilton cheese is popularly but erroneously supposed to be commonly made from morning’s whole milk with evening’s cream added, and to be a “double-cream” cheese. The texture is waxy, and a blue-green mould permeates the mass if well ripened; the flavour is suggestive of decay. The average weight of a Stilton is 15 ℔. Cheshire cheese has a fairly firm and uniform texture, neither flaky on the one hand nor waxy on the other; is of somewhat sharp and piquant flavour when fully ripe; and is often—at eighteen months old, when a well-made Cheshire cheese is at its best—permeated with a blue-green mould, which, as in the case of Stilton cheese, contributes a characteristic flavour which is much appreciated. Cheshire cheese is, like Cheddar, sometimes highly-coloured, but the practice is quite unnecessary; the weight is about 55 ℔. Gloucester cheese has a firm, somewhat soapy, texture and sweet flavour. Double Gloucester differs from single Gloucester only in size, the former usually weighing 26 to 30 ℔, and the latter 13 to 15 ℔. Leicester cheese is somewhat loose in texture, and mellow and moist when nicely ripened. Its flavour is “clean,” sweet and mild, and its aroma pleasant. To those who prefer a mild flavour in cheese, a perfect Leicester is perhaps the most attractive of all the so-called “hard” cheese; the average weight of such a cheese is about 35 ℔. Derby cheese in its best forms is much like Leicester, being “clean” in flavour and mellow. It is sometimes rather flaky in texture, and is slow-ripening and long-keeping if made on the old lines; the average weight is 25 ℔. Lancashire cheese, when well made and ripe, is loose in texture and is mellow; it has a piquant flavour. As a rule it ripens early and does not keep long. Dorset cheese—sometimes called “blue vinny” (or veiny)—is of firm texture, blue-moulded, and rather sharp-flavoured when fully ripe; it has local popularity and the best makes are rather like Stilton. Wensleydale cheese, a local product in North Yorkshire, is of fairly firm texture and mild flavour, and may almost be spread with a knife when ripe; the finest makes are equal to the best Stilton. Cotherstone cheese, also a Yorkshire product, is very much like Stilton and commonly preferable to it. The blue-green mould develops, and the cheese is fairly mellow and moist, whereas many Stiltons are hard and dry. Wiltshire cheese, in the form of “Wilts truckles,” may be described as small Cheddars, the weight being usually about 16 ℔. Caerphilly cheese is a thin, flat product, having the appearance of an undersized single Gloucester and weighing about 8 ℔; it has no very marked characteristics, but enters largely into local consumption amongst the mining population of Glamorganshire and Monmouthshire. Soft cheese of various kinds is made in many localities, beyond which its reputation scarcely extends. One of the oldest and best, somewhat resembling Camembert when well ripened, is the little “Slipcote,” made on a small scale in the county of Rutland; it is a soft, mellow, moist cheese, its coat slipping off readily when the cheese is at its best for eating—hence the name. Cream cheese is likewise made in many districts, but nowhere to a great extent. A good cream cheese is fairly firm but mellow, with a slightly acid yet very attractive flavour. It is the simplest of all cheese to make—cream poured into a perforated box lined with loose muslin practically makes itself into cheese in a few days’ time, and is usually ripe in a week.