CHEESE. Milk consists of three distinct substances, which begin to separate from one another as soon as it is exposed to the air. The oily part rises to the surface by its less specific gravity, and, when it is collected into a solid mass by agitation, it forms Intller; the caseum coagulated by the action of any acid is called curd, and when pressed becomes cheese. The fluid which remains is the serum, or whey.
The first process in making cheese is to separate the curd from the whey, which may be clone by allowing the milk to become sour ; but it is better to bring about this result by artificial means, by the addition either of cer tain vegetable acids, or of a substance called rennet, which is the gastric juice of the stomach of a sucking calf. The calf stomach is very carefully prepared, and brought to a dry state like parchment ; and at the time of making cheese, a piece of this substance, called veil, is cut off and soaked for some hours in water or whey, and the whole is added to the warm milk, or else pieces of veil are put into a linen bag, and soaked in warm water until the water has acquired sufficient strength. Soft and rich cheeses are not intended to be kept long; hard and dry cheeses are adapted to be kept, and stored for provisions. Of the first kind are all cream cheeses, and those soft cheeses called Bath cheeses and Yorkshire cheeses, which are sold as soon as made, and if kept too long become soft and putrid. Stilton and Gruyere cheeses are intermediate; Parmesan, Dutch, Cheshire, Gloucestershire, and similar cheeses are intended for longer keeping. The poorer the cheese is the longer it will keep ; and all cheese that is well cleared from whey and sufficiently salted will keep for years. The Gruy2Te and Parmesan cheeses differ only in the nature of the milk, and in the degree of heat given to the curd in different parts of the process. Gruy&e cheese is entirely made from new milk, and Parmesan from skimmed milk. In the first nothing is added to give flavour; in the latter saffron gives both colour and flavour : the process in both is exactly similar.
In making cheese the milk is heated to about blood-heat (95° to 100° Fahr.), and the solution
of rennet is well mixed with it. The coagulum, or curd, having been formed, which may be in about half an hour, it is cut into slices, the heat raised to about 135°, and after remaining about an hour at that temperature, and being stirred with a staff, the curd is found to be broken into small pieces. It is then collected on a cloth woven with wide interstices, or a sieve, to allow the whey to drain from it. When sufficiently drained, the curd is put into a wide hoop, shallow barrel, box, or something of the kind, and subjected to the action of the cheese-press. Sometimes the curd is mixed with salt, and sometimes salt is rubbed on the cheese after it is made.
In Cheshire the making of cheese is carried on in great perfection, and the greatest pains are taken to extract every particle of whey. For this purpose, the curd is repeatedly broken and mixed, the cheeses are much pressed, and placed in wooden boxes which have holes bored into them. Through these holes sharp skewers are stuck into the cheese in every direction, so that no particle of whey can re main in the curd. The elastic matter formed also escapes through these channels, and the whole cheese is a solid mass without holes, which in this cheese would be looked upon as a great defect. The salt is intimately mixed with the curd, and not merely rubbed on the outside. This checks internal fermentation and prevents the formation of elastic matter.
Gloucester and Somersetshire cheeses are similarly made—with this difference, that the curd is not so often broken or the cheese skewered, and a portion of the cream is gene rally abstracted to make butter.
Stilton cheese is made by adding the cream of the preceding evening's milk to the mor ing's milking. It is generally preferred wh: a green mould appears in its texture. accelerate 'this, pieces of a mouldy cheese a sometimes inserted into holes made for t] purpose by the scoop Called a taster, and wii or ale is poured over for the same purpose hut the best cheeses do not require this, at are in perfection when the inside become soft like butter, without any appearance mouldiness.