Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/360

 352 CHEESE to ten quarts of milk. After stirring, the mass is put into a tub in which a linen strainer has been laid. Coagulation is produced by rennet, the curd is cut into cubes, and without break- ing is carefully lifted into a strainer, to allow the whey to drain off, after which it is placed in a hoop seven or eight inches in diameter and eight or nine inches high, having a fol- lower pierced with holes at each end. When fitted, the hoop is placed upon a shelf and turned four or five times a day, the only pres- sure applied being its own weight. When sufficiently firm, which can only be known by experience, it is bandaged and taken to a curing room whose temperature is about 70, where it receives its salting, which is per- formed externally and not by salting the curds. After a time it is sometimes placed in a warmer room for the purpose of developing blue mould, which gives it a peculiar value to some cheese fanciers. Of the second class, or whole-milk cheeses, Cheddar, Cheshire, best Gloucester, and Wiltshire of England, Gouda and Edam of Hol- land, Gruy^re of Switzerland, and most of the American cheeses are examples. The famous Gruyere cheese, made in the canton of Fri- bourg, Switzerland, which is said by the Swiss to have been the first cheese made by the fac- tory system, is of whole milk, which, to the amount of 100 or more gallons, is heated while fresh in a caldron to blood heat, and rennet added to effect coagulation in about half an hour. The curd is then sliced with a knife and broken with a blunt stick armed with wooden pins, and the heat raised to about 135. Stirring is continued half an hour after, by which time the curd is divided into small, elas- tic pieces of the size of peas. A strainer cloth is then drawn under the curds, and they are laid upon a rack to drain, after which they are placed in a peculiar hoop, formed of a thin Eiece of board bent into a circle, with the ends ipping, but left free to slide over each other to allow the cheese to spread in pressing. The press is a simple lever loaded with a weight at one end. The salting is done after the press- ing, the cheese hoop being replaced after each application of salt for a few days, to preserve the form. Jura cheese, made in the Alps, is much like the Gruyere, and they are both known in this country as Schweitzerkase. A factory for making it is established in Oneida co., N. Y., which uses the milk of more than 200 cows; and it is also made in Ohio. It is said, however, that the American Gruyere lacks the flavor of the Swiss, because of dif- ference in the grass upon which the cattle feed. The process for making Parmesan, the cheese of Parma, is said to be precisely simi- lar to that for Gruyfere, the difference in the cheese being that the Parmesan is made of skimmed milk. Sour-milk cheeses are made in various parts of Europe. They are often of an inferior quality in consequence of the im- proper manner in which they are made and the extent to which the fermentation is carried. Cottage cheese is nothing more than newly pre- pared curd, drained, broken, slightly pressed, and salted to suit the taste, and is usually eaten in this condition. If kept for some time at a warm temperature, putrefactive fermentation takes place, and ammoniacal gases of an offen- sive odor are given out. There are persons whose palates are pleased with this product, and it is erroneously supposed by some that this is genuine Dutch cheese. Properly cured sour-milk Dutch cheese is as free from offen- sive odors as Cheddar, the fermentation having been carefully conducted until all gaseous pro- ducts cease to be formed; a sharp, clean-fla- vored, appetizing condiment is the result. It is sometimes flavored with sage and other garden herbs. Roquefort, a French cheese, is made of goats' or sheep's milk ; after coagula- tion by rennet, the curd is subjected to great pressure, and the cheeses are bandaged with coarse cloths and placed on shelves to dry, after which they are taken to caves, where the bandages are removed and they are salted. In 15 or 20 days they become covered with mould, which is scraped off with a knife, the operation being repeated every fortnight for two months, during which the color of the mould is said to be successively white, green, and red, the last color indicating that they are fit to use. Schdbziegerkdse is made in the canton of Glarus, Switzerland, of curd which has been fermented. It is mixed with the pulverized dried flowers of Schabziegerklee (meliotus cceruleu*, not M. offlcinalis, as is sometimes stated), and pressed in a mould. It is usually eaten grated, spread upon buttered bread, and has a sharp and peculiar flavor much relished by many. In Limburg, Bel- gium, a cheese is made which is eaten while in a high state of putrefaction. Large quantities are also made in New York, Ohio, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Oneida, Lewis, and Jefferson counties are the principal seats of its manufac- ture in New York. In 1872, as nearly as can be estimated, about 20,000 boxes were made, of 100 Ibs. each, containing from 50 to 60 " bricks," each weighing from ]{ to 2 Ibs. Annotto, a vegetable coloring matter of an orange red, is often used to color cheese ; but it is a disagree- able substance, whose use should not be encour- aged. (See ANNOTTO.) Cases of poisoning by cheese are not infrequent, and have lately been sufficiently investigated to show that they are Hnnlogous to sausage and salt meat poisoning, Vid take place from the use of cheese which has been hastily cured, and generally when considerable salt and warmth had been em- ployed. The cases are usually not fatal, but present symptoms of all degrees of violence. It is natural to suppose that a proteine body like caseine, in the presence of fats, would be likely to generate during fermentation substances of a character highly irritating to the mucous membrane, and therefore great caution should be observed in the use of cheese which has an unpleasant odor. Cheese, either new or old,