Page:Foods and their adulteration; origin, manufacture, and composition of food products; description of common adulterations, food standards, and national food laws and regulations (IA foodstheiradulte02wile).pdf/239

 disapprove of the use of artificial coloring and it may be said that eventually it is pretty certain that all cheese makers will come to the same conclusion. The use of coloring matter in cheese, even of annotto, adds nothing to its richness, and tends to deceive the customer into thinking that the milk employed was richer in cream than it really was. The Leicester cheeses are small in size compared with Cheddar. About eleven pounds of milk are used to make an ordinary cheese.

Stilton cheese is probably the most familiar and highly prized of all English varieties. It is not always to be obtained, and many imitations of Stilton are made and bear its name. The name it bears is from the name of the town where it was first, and is now, made. It is a cheese which has been known for about a century and a quarter. It is principally made between March and September and solely from the milk of cows fed on natural pasture, that is, for the finest variety. The use of artificial food for the cows is at once detected in a change for the worse in the character of the cheese. At first the rennet employed was made from the stomachs of lambs instead of cows and in the olden times the cheeses were not considered to be sufficiently mellow and ripe until they were two years old and exhibited spots of green in the interior.

The most approved modern process of manufacture is mixing the morning and evening milk and bringing it to a temperature of 79 degrees. Rennet is then added and the mass allowed to stand for about an hour and a half. The curd is removed into cloths set in frames for the purpose of allowing the whey to separate. Usually about an hour is allowed for the natural separation. The cloths are then tightened and brought closer together to produce slight pressure and placed in a cheese tub, several of them together, where they are allowed to remain for twelve hours. Usually a longer time is allowed before the curd is cut up. The salt is added in proportion of one pound to 60 pounds of fresh curd. The curd is then placed in tin cylinders with perforated sides, the cylinder being 12 inches deep and 12 inches in diameter, and put in a room at about 65 degrees to favor the separation of the whey which requires from six to seven days. The cheeses are then removed from the cylinders, brought into proper shape by a knife and wrapped with strong cotton cloth and allowed to remain for twelve days longer when they are removed to the drying room and kept at 65 degrees. During this process the original curd placed in the cell loses about one-half its weight so that ten pounds of curd in the end make five pounds of cheese. A very common method also is to make cheese twice a day from morning milk and evening milk separately. Extra cream is often added in making Stilton cheese, only whole milk or milk and added cream being used. The principal point to be considered with curing is the regulation of the temperature.

Other varieties of cheese which are known in England are mostly named from the localities where they are produced and partake in general of the