Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/635

* CHEESE. 553 CHEESE. At the present day more than one hundreJ and fifty dilFerent kinds of cheese made in Kurope and America have been described. These depend for their characteristics upon the kind and condition of the milk used, llie process of making, the seasoning, and especially upon the conditions incident to the ripening or curing. (See Cheese-Makisg.) Cow's inilk is, of course, mainly used, but in some parts of Europe the milk of goats and sheep is also employed. The milk may be sweet or sour, it may contain dif- ferent amounts of fat. depending upon whether whole milk, skim milk, or milk to which cream is added is used, and the cheese may be hard or soft, according to the amount of water left in it and the character of the curing. The principal hard cheeses are the common Cheddar cheese, the English Cheshire, Gloucester, Wiltshire, and Stilton, the Dutch Gouda and Edam, the Schweit- zer (Swiss) or Emmenthaler (known also as GruySre), and the Italian Parmesan and Gor- gonzola. Among the soft cheeses are Brie {Fromage de Brie), Camembert, Neuchatel. Lim- burger. 'brick,' Philadelphia cream, and cottage cheese, or smierkUse.' The famous Roquefort is a semi-soft cheese. In addition to these, there are many fancy brands of cheese, made in the United States and Canada, by mixing ground cheese with cream, or butter, or oils, and some- times adding a flavoring material, such as Meadow-Sweet. Club-House. Canadian Club. et<>. Pineai)ple cheese is ordinary cheese made very firm and pressed into the shape suggested by its name. In composition, cheeses of the same general variety vary quite widely, owing to differences in the richness of the milk used, the amount of water left in the curd, and the age of the product. As cheese ripens and ages it dries out consideralily, losing from 8 to h per cent, of its water. The water in ordinarj' factory cheese varies all the way from 15 to over 50 per cent., although in well-eured cheese it usually constitutes about one-third, or 35 jier cent. The remainder is solid matter, composed mainly of fat. casein ( protein! . and a little sugjir and ash (mostly salt). Fully one-half of the solids in a whole-milk cheese should be fat; in Cheddar CAmeriean) " madefrom partlj ekimnied milk •* Tna4]p from ekim milk Pineapple Schweitzer Edam Parmesan Stilton (made from milk and cream) CheBhire Roquefort Lim burger Neuchatel Fromage dc Brie Water Fat Protein U.i 33.7 25.9 3».i 29.5 25.4 «.7 16.4 31.6 23.0 38.9 29.9 32.7 32.6 29.5 34.0 27.4 30.9 32.7 25.1 36.8 29.1 35.6 27.4 34.8 29.5 28.6 38.8 31.5 23.4 42.1 29.4 23.0 43.4 32.3 • 17.1 51.4 25.7 17.9 Sugar, ash, etc. 6.4 8.2 6.2 7.7 5.4 7.9 7.1 6.3 5.6 7.2 5.0 skim-milk cheese the proportion is considerably less. Van Slyke found the average composition of whole-milk cheese made in New York factories to be: Water, 31..5: fat, .37; protein, 2fi.2.5: ash, sugar, ete., .5.2.5 per cent. The average of a large number of American analyses differs but little from this, and is as follows: Water. 34.2; fat, 33.7; protein, 2.5. !•; fsh, sugar, etc., 6.2 per cent. The average percentage composition of a num- ber of the more conunon kinds of cheese is sho>vn by the accompanying table. Many of the foreign cheeses, such as Emmen- thaler ( Schweitzer). Edam. Xeuchiltel, brick, and l.imburger, are now succi'S!,lully niailc in the Initcd Slates: but more than nine-tenths of all the cheese made in this country is the familiar standard variety known as Cheddar. The grades of this cheese commonly recognized are: 'Full cream,' made from whole (unskinnned) milk; 'skims,' made from skimmed or partly skimmed milk; and 'filled' cheese, in which foreign fat is substituted for the natural fat of the milk. The latter is the most serious form of adultera- tion of cheese, and as the product is palmed off
 * is 'full-cream cheese,' it is to be regarded and

should be treated as a fraud. Its base is skim milk, which is very abiuulant and cheap in creamery districts. The fat added is usually oleo oil or neutral lard, and from these cheap materials it is .said that filled cheese can be made for 4 or 5 cents a pound. It is not easily de- tected by ordinary sampling when fresh; but it has little flavor or aroma, and its quality is short-lived. The exportation of considerable quan- tities of this cheese under fraudulent names has unfavorably affected the export cheese trade of the United States. Several of the dairy States have prohibited its manufacture, and others have enacted laws requiring its proper labeling. The general reputation of American cheese at home and abroad has also suffered from the extent of the manufacture of skim cheese, or half-.skims. While these are regarded as legitimate products,
 * ind. if well made, are highly nutritious, they

should always be plainly marked and sold for exactly what they are. Unlike the ripe and finely flavored Parmesan cheese, which is mivde from skim milk, the American skims are gen- erally flat in flavor, hard, and horny. Several of the dairy States, notably Xew York and Wis- consin, have passed laws authorizing the use of .'^tate brands on cheese made from whole milk, jiiuiraiiteeing the quality of the cheese so brand- ed. Canada has prohibited by law the manufac- ture of either skim-milk or filled cheese. The cheese production of the United States in the middle of the last century was about 100.000.000 pounds a vear, and at its close about 300.000.000 pounds, from 30.000.000 to 50,000.- 000 pounds being ex-ported. Xew- York and Wis- eoiiKin are the two principal cheese-making States, the former making nearly twice as much as the latter, and both together producing three- fourths of the entire output of the country. Farm-made cheese has been almost entirely superseded by factory cheese. (See Cheese Factory.) .Viiproximately. 1,000.000 pounds of cheese are annually imported into the United States, nearly one-half coming from Switzerland (Schweitzer cheese), and 30 per cent, from Italy. Food Value. — In proportion to its bulk, cheese is a highly nutritive food, both as regards ti.s- sue-forming material (protein) and as a source of energy (fuel value K The few digestion ex- periments which have been made with cheese in- dicate that the protein and fat in it are quite thoroughly digested. Well ripened cheese is more thoroughly digested than green cheese. As legards e.ise of digestion, it appears that fat cheesie, thoroughly ripe cheese, or that which is porous, is more quickly digested than other