CHARRED WOOD. Wood, the outer surface of which has been carbonized by burning, in order to preserve it from de cay when it is buried in the soil. CHARRING OF POSTS. The prac tice of carbonizing by burning that por tion of the surface of wooden posts which is to be inserted in the ground. The object is to prevent the posts from decaying, more especially at the surface of the ground, or, as the common phrase is, between wind and water. The prac tice is common in most parts of Europe, and even in Russia and Sweden, though timber is there so abundant. Dipping the ends of the timber in oil of vitriol, diluted with four parts of water, chars the outside of the wood, and -answers very well for stakes and fence wood. CHASING. Embossing in metal. The work to be embossed as bassi relievi are punched out from the back, and then cut on steel blocks or puncheons, and cleared with small chisels or gravers. CHEESE consists of the curd of milk mixed with some of the fatty mat ter and sugar of milk. Difference in the quality of the milk and the dairy man agement determines endless variety in the produce. To separate the curd or casein it is necessary to acidify the milk, and adopt such other means as will sepa rate the curd rapidly and effectually. The liquid portions have then to be expressed from the cake of curd. Any acid will coagulate milk, but rennet is the acidulous substance always used. Before adding rennet new milk should be heated up to 95° F. ; skim milk not so high. This separates the curd in a tougher and harder state. The milk should not be fire fanged in the heating. A naked fire is objectionable ; immersing the milk vessel in a larger one containing boiling water is the proper mode. Vessels with a double bottom might be used for this purpose. The rennet ought never to be putrid, nor added in too large quantity, tor then the curd is too tough. If too little, time is lost. When acids, as vinegar, are used instead of rennet, the cheese is apt to have their flavor.
The acid, formed by the addition of the rennet, should be separated slowly from the whey, for if done hastily, the fat of the milk is squeezed out, and the cheese is poorer. The whey should, however, be completely removed, for as it contains sugar and lactic acid, if left behind, fer mentation will set in. Curd-mills and cheese-presses are used to effect this re moval.
The preservation of the fresh cake de pends on the purity of the salt, and the mode of applying it.
Cheese is then colored sometimes by saffron, but chiefly by annotto, in the proportion of I an oz. to 60 lbs. of cheese ; sometimes the marigold and carrot are boiled in milk, and used as coloring.
In milk of average quality,. there is from 4 to 5 per cent. of pure casein, which, if all extracted, would give, according to Professor Johnston, 6 to 7 lbs. of skim milk cheese, or I to 10 lbs.pure new milk cheese, in every 100 lbs. of milk ; and on an average, 8 to 10 lbs. of good milk in summer, willyield 1 lb. of whole milk cheese. The following abstract of Euro pean cheeses, taken from Brands's Ency clopedia, may be interesting : ." The following are the principal British cheeses : Briekbett, formed of new milk and cream, chiefly in Wiltshire, in the autumn, and sold in little square pieces about the size of brickbats. Cheddar,
round thick cheeses, weighing about 150 or 200 lbs., with a spongy appearance, and the eyes or resides filled with a rich oil. Cheshire, large round thick cheeses, com monly weighing from 100 to 200 lbs. each, —solid, homogeneous, and dry and friable rather than viscid. They are made from the whole of the milk and cream, the morning's milk being mixed with that of the preceding evening previously warmed. Derbyshire is a small white rich cheese. Dunlap, originally made in Ayrshire, but now general throughout Scotland, is large, round, white, buttery, and weighs from 30 to 60 lbs. This and the Derby shire cheese are very much alike in form, color, and flavor. Gloucester, large, round, and mild ; buttery rather than friable. There are two kinds, the single and dou ble Gloucester : the single is made of the milk deprived of about half the cream, and the double of the milk with the whole of the cream. Green or Sage cheese may be made of any of the other kinds, by mixing the milk before it has curdled with a decoction of sage leaves, among which seine put a few flowers of marigold and leaves of parsley. In the Highlands of Scotland the leaves or seeds of loyage are added to the sage, which commum cate a very strong flavor. Lincolnshire is made of new milk and cream ; it is quite soft, not above 2 inches thick, and will not keep more than two or three months. Eorfolk, the weight is generally from 30 to 50 pounds ; the curd is dyed yellow with arnotto or saffron, and though not a rich cheese, it is considered a good keeper. Sift or Slipeoat is a small, soft, rich cheese, which might almost be mis taken for butter, if it were not white, and which must be eaten in a week or two after making. Stilton, so named from the town in Huntingdonshire where it was first brought into notice, but which is made principally in Leicestershire. It is solid, rich, buttery, and white, and, un like all the other cheeses which have been mentioned, it is twice as high as it is broad. It is much improved by keeping, and is seldom used before it is two years old. It is the dearest of all English cheeses, the price being generally to that of Chester as 2 to 1, or 2 to 11. In order to induce premature decay and the conse quent appearance of age in these cheeses, it is said the makers sometimes bury them in masses of fermenting straw. Cotten ham, so named from a town in Cambridge shire ; it differs from the cream cheese of Stilton in being flat, broader, and superiorly flavored. The flavor is said to be owing to the rich grasses which grow on the fens. Suffolk, or skim-milk, is round and thin, weighing from 25 to 80 lbs. each, and is the best keeping cheese made in England. Wiltshire re sembles the Cheshire, but is poorer, and of inferior flavor. It is apt to become scurfy, to prevent which it is generally coated over with red paint. Yorkshire, or cream cheese, is the same as the slip coat cheese, already mentioned.