Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 27 - CHI-ELD.pdf/391

 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING.]

DAIRY-FARMING

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 coldstorage 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 lb. 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 'lb. 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 flj. 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 lb, and the latter 13 to 15 lb. 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

355 such a cheese is about 35 lb. 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 lb. 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 a 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 lb. Caerphilly cheese is a thin, flat product, having the appearance of an undersized single Gloucester and weighing about 8 lb; 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 novhere 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. In France the pressed varieties of cheese with hard rinds include Gruyere, Cantal, Roquefort, and Port Salut. The first-named, a pale yellow cheese full of holes of varying size, is made in Switzerland and in the Jura Mountains district in the east of France; whilst Cantal cheese, which is of lower quality, is a product of the midland districts, and is .made barrel-shape. Roquefort cheese is made from the milk of ewes, which are kept chiefly as dairy animals in the department of Aveyron, and the cheese is cured in the natural mountain caves at the village of Roquefort. It is a small, rather soft, white cheese, abundantly veined with a greenish-blue mould, and weighs between 4 and 5 Eb. The I oi t-Salut is quite a modern cheese, which originated in the abbey of that name in Mayenne; it is a thin, flat cheese, of characteristic and not unattractive odour and flavour. The best known of the soft unpressed cheeses are Brie, Camembert, and Coulommiers, whilst Pont 1’Eveque, Livarot, and other varieties are also made. After being shaped in moulds of various forms, these cheeses are laid on straw mats to cure, and when fit to eat they possess about the same consistency as butter. The Neufchatel, Gervais, and Bondon cheeses are soft varieties intended to be eaten quite fresh, like cream cheese. Of the varieties of cheese made in Switzerland, the best known is the Emmenthaler, which is about the size of a cart-wheel, and has a weight varying from 150 to 300 Eb. It is full of small holes of almost uniform size and very regularly distributed. In colour and flavour it is the same as Gruyere. The Edam and Gouda are the common cheeses of Holland. The Edam is spherical in shape, weighs from 3 to 4 Bb, and is usually dyed crimson on