CHEESE is the common form in which the caseine (q.v.) °f•ak is used in a separate state as an article of food. In new milk, the C. is present in a condition soluble in water, and is generally separated therefrom in a coagulated or clotted form, on the addition of a little rennet (q.v.). In the preparation of C., the milk is gently heated to a temperature of 110° to 112° F., and placed in a large wooden tub, where the rennet is added, and the operation of earning goes on. In about half an hour, the curd is suffi ciently formed. The liquid whey being pressed out, the curd is chopped into small pieces of the size of a walnut with a knife, called a curd-cutter, salt is added, and the fragments of curd introduced into a cloth placed in a cheese-vat or chessart, which is a wooden tub of varying size and shape, perforated at the sides and bottom. The whole is then put under a cheese-press (q.v.), and subjected to great pressure, which consoli dates the curd or caseine, and at the same time squeezes out the remaining portions of the whey. After two or three hours, the half-formed C. is turned and re-turned, each time being subjected to renewed pressure, till in about two days it is sufficiently com pacted. It is then removed from the cheese-vat, and placed ou a shelf in a dry, airy room, where, being repeatedly turned, it gradually dries, and gets aged or seasoned sufficiently for market in about six months.
There are varieties of C., which partly owe their difference to the food of the cows, but in greater part to differences in the mode of treating the milk. Skimmed-milk C. is prepared from milk from which the cream has been removed, and a rich color is communicated by adding a little arnotto (q.v.) to the milk before coagulation. Sweet-milk C. is procured in a similar manner from the whole milk, and contains much of the but ter along with the caseine. Stilton C. is made in Leicestershire, by adding the cream of the evening's milk to the new milk of next morning; and as there is always more trouble in expelling the whey from curd containing butter, there is a difficulty in prepar ing this variety of C., from its liability to fermentation and bursting, Cheddar C. is made in Somersetshire, from the whole milk, and the whey is several times skimmed off, heated, and added to the curd to scald it. Cheshire and Double Gloucester are made from the whole milk; Single Gloucester, from half new milk and half skimmed milk. Gouda C. is prepared in Holland from skimmed milk curdled by muriatic acid instead of rennet, and for this reason it is not infested with mites. Holland exports annually about thirty millions of pounds of C., the greater portion coming to England. Surolk
i C. is made from skimmed milk. Parmesan C., obtained from Parma, in Italy, is also made from skimmed milk, and owes its fine rich flavor to the superior herbage on the banks of the river Po. The cows are kept in the house nearly all the year round, and fed in summer with cut grass. Some of the cheeses are so large as to contain 180 lbs.; and the milk of 100 cows is required to produce one of this size. Swiss a is flavored with herbs, and especially that of Gruyere, which is very pleasant to the taste. Gruyere cheeses weigh from 40 to 60 lbs. each, and are exported in large quantities.
Cream C. is prepared from cream curd which has been placed in a cloth, and allowed to drain without the assistance of pressure. Bath and York supply C. of this descrip tion. In the fabrication of C., minium or red-lead has occasionally been employed as a cheap coloring substance, and cases of poisoning have resulted therefrom. Carrots, saffron, and marigold flowers have also been used for imparting color as well as flavor.
Dunlop C., though nowhere so well made as in the parish at Ayrshire, from which it derives its name, is now manufactured in the dairy districts of Scotland generally. The cheeses are made of various sizes—from a quarter to half a hundredweight. Some times the entire milk is used, but generally the cream is removed from the evening's milking. Of late years, great improvement has taken place in the manufacture of C. in the Scottish dairy districts, Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, Wigton, and Kirkcudbright. :Much of what is sold as cheddar (q.v.) C. is really made in Scotland. The annual Kil marnock " cheese show " is one of the largest in the world, the value of the C. exhibited being often more than £20,000.
When sufficiently dry for use, C. still retains from 35 to 44 per cent water, and, besides the caseine, contains a greater or less proportion of oil or fat and saline matter —the latter mainly consisting of common salt, originally present in the milk, and added during the manufacture of the cheese. As an article of diet, C. is highly nutritious; but from its costive properties, it is mainly used as a condiment in small quantity after an ordinary meal, and is then serviceable in giving an impetus to the process of diges tion. To serve the purpose of a digester, C. must be old and partially decayed, or moldy. It then acts as leaven, and causes chemical changes gradually to commence among the particles of food which has previously been eaten, and thus facilitates the dissolution which necessarily precedes digestion.