Cheese and cheese-making, butter and milk, with special reference to continental fancy cheeses

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CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

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Cheese and Cheese-making

BUTTER AND MILK

WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CONTINENTAL
FANCY CHEESES

BY

JAMES LONG
JOHN BENSON

LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, LD.

1896

[All rights resen>ed\

- •

RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
LONDON & BUNGAY

CONTENTS

CHAI<- PAGE

I. THE PRINCIPLES OF CHEESE-MAKING ... I

By James Long

II. THE TRADE IN FOREIGN CHEESE ... 12

By James Long

III. SOFT CHEESE MANUFACTURE ... 23

By James Long

IV. GORGONZOLA, AND THE VARIETIES OF

BLUE OR MOULDED CHEESE ... 37

By James Long

V. OTHER VARIETIES OF FANCY CHEESE
ADAPTED FOR MANUFACTURE IN
ENGLAND ... ... ... 53

By James Long

VI. ON THE BEST METHODS OF MANUFAC-
TURING CHEDDAR CHEESE ... ... 66

By John Benson

VII. ON THE BEST METHODS OF MANUFAC-
TURING STILTON CHEESE ... ... 80

By John Benson

8668'

Vlll CONTENTS

CHAl'. I'AGE

VIII. ON THE BEST METHODS OF MANUFAC-
TURING CHESHIRE CHEESE ... 94
By John Benson

IX. ON THE BEST METHODS OF MANUFAC-
TURING WENSLEYDALE CHEESE ... 104
By John Benson

X. THE MILK INDUSTRY ... ... 115

By James Long

XI. THE PRINCIPLES OF BUTTER-MAKING ... 127

By James Long

XII. CREAMERIES AND FACTORIES ... 138

By James Long

CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

CHAPTER I

THE PRINCIPLES OF CHEESE-MAKING

PROFESSOR HENRY, of the Wisconsin Agri-
cultural College, recently stated that the loss
of the American cheese trade with Great
Britain was owing to the fact that his country-
men did not make the best article, and that
in many cases imitation cheese was produced
for the sake of a possible temporary profit, but
to the ultimate loss of all concerned. Whatever
may be the immediate gain effected by the addi-
tion of foreign fat to milk, or by the removal of
a portion of the cream it contains, the permanent
value of the cheese industry to the producer is
maintained only by the manufacture of the best,
and of its production in the largest possible
quantity. To obtain both quantity and quality

B

CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

necessitates a close study of the subject and
a recognition of the principles which underlie
the practice of cheese-making. To obtain
quantity of cheese it is essential to have rich
milk. We are told by those who oppose the
institution of a standard in this country that
the solids present in milk do not exceed nj
to 12 per cent., but the cheese-maker who
produces or buys milk of this quality will
not find his returns very satisfactory. The
value of rich milk to the cheese-maker is two-
fold. In the first place, cheese is chiefly com-
posed of the fat and casein of the milk — its
two most important solids — and water ;
therefore, the more fat milk contains — and
this is by far the most important constituent
— the more cheese we produce per gallon, for
three reasons : first, because the fat itself adds
to the weight of the cheese ; next, because with
the increase of fat there is an increase of casein,
which follows in an almost constant ratio ; and
last, it is a fact worth knowing that cheese pro-
duced from rich milk, i.e. milk containing a
high percentage of fat, retains more water,
and consequently weight is obtained from this

THE PRINCIPLES OF CHEESE-MAKING 3

source also. Every good cheese is mellow in
its texture, and to some extent this mellowness
depends upon the proportion of fat the cheese
contains. Recognizing these facts, we come to
the first principle which it is essential to re-
member, that in order to produce rich milk the
cattle must be well selected, for quality depends
rather upon breed than upon food. Nor is it
entirely necessary to go to the Channel Islands
for rich milkers. There are milkers of a very
high order, as regards both quality and quantity,
to be found in every British breed, particularly
among Shorthorns and Devons.

It is, therefore, by selection and by testing
the milk of cows retained in the herd, and
excluding those which produce poor milk, that
quality is maintained. Although, as we have
remarked, breed has more influence than food
upon quality, yet the production of fat in milk
depends largely upon good feeding, inasmuch
as good feeding improves the yield — although
it may not increase the percentage of solids —
and consequently it increases the fat. Thus
we get to the soil, and it is usually found that
in those districts where the most luxurious

4 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

crops are grown — grass in particular, for it is
the commonest food of cows — the cattle are
best, and the milk they produce most abundant.
Soil, however, has another influence which it is
essential to mention. As we shall show, acidity
plays an important part in the process of cheese-
manufacture. But acidity is to some extent
controlled by the alkaline properties which are
present in milk, and as a proportion of these
properties depends to a large extent upon the
soil from which they are obtained, so does
the soil indirectly influence the quality of the
cheese, unless, by the exercise of the highest
skill, sufficient allowance is made and the acidity
controlled. Similarly, water exercises an influ-
ence when it contains an abnormal quantity of
lime, and it is next to impossible to produce
fine-flavoured cheese where such weeds as garlic
are common on the pasture. The dairy, too,
must be constructed with the object of providing
perfect ventilation, the maintenance of an even
temperature, and the exclusion of every possible
means of conveying a taint to the milk.

Upon the first part of the process of manu-
facture in the dairy — that of the coagulation of

THE PRINCIPLES OF CHEESE-MAKING 5

the milk — a great deal depends. The period of
the formation of the curd varies in accordance
with the variety of the cheese produced. In the
manufacture of soft cheese it is prolonged, some-
times for a considerable period ; in the manufac-
ture of pressed cheese it is usually short. The
period of coagulation is influenced by the quality
of the milk, the condition at the time the rennet
is added, its temperature, and the strength and
quantity of the rennet employed. The curd
produced in a short time is elastic and compara-
tively firm ; that produced after a prolonged
period of coagulation is tender, it will scarcely
bear cutting, and it parts with its fat, which is
carried off in the whey unless it is very carefully
handled. Thus it will be recognized that mel-
lowness in cheese is obtained in different ways,
but without sufficient moisture we can have no
mellowness. Hence, if too large a quantity of
rennet is used, if too much acidity is developed,
or if the temperature is raised too high, the
whey may be so rapidly and so completely
expelled, that an insufficient amount of water
will remain, either for the purpose of produc-
ing the necessary mellow condition, or even of

6 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

ripening the cheese. In the manufacture of
pressed cheese the whey is expelled by cutting
the curd — and the finer it is cut the larger the
surface exposed for its removal, — by heating to
a high temperature, by the development of
acidity — which causes the curd to contract —
and by pressing. In the manufacture of soft
cheese, however, the curd is not cut, except in
such large slices as are essential for its removal
into the moulds ; but the whey drains off slowly
by gravitation, and subsequently more is lost
by evaporation. The cheese is soft because it
retains more water than pressed cheese, while
its flavour is largely influenced by the fact
that it retains more sugar — the sugar being
in solution in the whey — and because, in con-
sequence, more acid (which is produced from
the sugar) Is developed. A tender curd, then,
such as is generally used in soft cheese-making,
is obtained by setting the milk at a low tem-
perature and by the employment of a small
quantity of rennet. In this way coagulation
will be delayed. It is also essential that the
milk used should be sweet, for if, as in pressed
cheese-making, a portion of the milk used has

THE PRINCIPLES OF CHEESE-MAKING 7

been allowed to stand for a number of hours,
acidity will have commenced to develop, which
hastens coagulation, and will in time actually
produce it.

The reason why curd which has been cut fine
in the manufacture of large pressed cheese is
left in the whey and heated, is that unless this
were done it would not be sufficiently acid, for
the curd when drawn from the whey is tough
and dry as compared with the curd used in
the manufacture of soft cheese. Unless this
process were carried out the whey would not
be expelled, and the cheese would not acquire
its mellowness of texture or its fine nutty
flavour. In soft cheese-making the curd is placed
in small moulds ; small cheeses are, indeed,
essential, otherwise the whey would be unable
to find its way to the surface ; but unless the
temperature is sufficiently high, it even then
refuses to move, and for this reason soft cheese-
making is conducted at specific temperatures
which are applied to each variety of cheese.
Theoretically, the time of coagulation is in
inverse ratio to the quantity of rennet em-
ployed, but in practice this axiom is not entirely

8 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

borne out, although the reasons do not detract
from its truth. The same conditions do not, for
example, apply to large quantities of milk, or
to entirely fresh milk, which apply to small
quantities or to milk which has been practically
ripened by exposure. Thus, in the manufacture
of small cheeses small quantities of milk are
employed, and this milk parts with its heat more
rapidly than is the case with a large volume.
Again, when acid is developed slightly in milk,
less rennet is required, and a milk rich in fat
does not produce the same result with the same
quantity of rennet as a milk poor in fat. It
is important, therefore, in cheese-making to
understand the quality of the milk employed,
and, where it has been exposed for any number
of hours, to ascertain the quantity of acid
which it contains. Where small quantities of
milk are set for curd, wooden vessels should be
used, as wood is a non-conductor of heat ; lids
should be employed, and the whole covered
with a blanket or any other non-conducting
material.

We have referred to the nature of the solid
matter of milk. The cheese-maker should early

THE PRINCIPLES OF CHEESE-MAKING 9

learn to understand that only a portion of these
solids find their way into the cheese, the bulk of
the sugar of milk, which forms a large proportion
of the total solid matter, remaining in the whey,
together with portions of the mineral matter, the
casein, the albumin, and the fat. Almost the
whole of the casein is, however, extracted in
cheese-making, this being coagulated by rennet
or by acid, whereas the albumin passes into the
whey in almost all varieties of curd which are
not submitted during manufacture to a high
temperature, as it is coagulated only by heat.
There is, however, a material which has been
described by chemists as albumose, which
always passes into the whey, not being coagu-
lated either by heat, rennet, or acid. In ac-
cordance with the very extensive results obtained
at the New York State Experiment Station,
which we have had the advantage of inspecting,
the average percentage of solids lost in cheese-
making, i. e. by passing into the whey, amounts
to 6-20, while the percentage of solids recovered
from the milk, i. e. retained in the cheese,
amounts to 6-30. The actual figures — from
my The Elements of Dairy Farming — may,

IO

CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

however, be quoted, as they are of considerable
value —

Milk-Constituents lost in Cheese-making.

Lost in Whey for 100 Ibs. Milk.

Least.

Greatest.

Average.

Water
Total Solids
Fat
Nitrogen Compounds ...
Sugar, Ash, &c.

82-53
6 '09

0'20

0-68
5'o6

84-61

6-39
0-36
076
5 '44

8370

6"2O

0-25
073

5 '22

Milk -Constituents recovered in Cheese-making.

Retained in Cheese for 100 Ibs. Milk.

Least.

Greatest.

Average.

Water
Total Solids
Fat

Nitrogen Compounds

3'io

5'95
3-I9

2'2I

4-08
672

3-63
2-51

3-68
6-32

3-4I

2-34

The term "nitrogen compounds" indicates
casein and albumin. The largest proportion of
solids which passed into the whey was in the
months of August and September. The
smallest proportion of fat lost in the whey was
in June and July, whilst the smallest proportion
of casein and albumin lost was in the months
of July and August. Upon the basis of the
work carried on at forty-eight cheese-factories,
it was ascertained that 50*6 per cent, of the total

THE PRINCIPLES OF CHEESE-MAKING II

solids of milk were recovered, including 90^98 of
the fat and 7571 per cent, of the casein and albu-
min. It has been supposed that a larger propor-
tion of fat is lost when the milk is rich than when
it is poor or of but moderate quality. But this is
not the case, and the following table will show that
the percentage of fat lost when the milk is rich
is positively lower than when it is of lower
quality ; also that the percentage of cheese made
is enormously increased as the milk increases in
quality.

Group

Fat
Percentage.

Lbs. Fat
lost in Whey
per 100 Ibs.
Milk.

Per Cent.
Fat of Milk
lost in
Whey.

Lbs. Cheese
made per
100 Ibs.
Milk.

i

2

3
4

5

3 to 3'5
3'5 to 4
4 to 4*6
4'5 to 5
5 to 5 -25

•32

•32

1

'3i

9'55
8-33
770

5'90
6-oo

9-14
10-04

n'34
12-85
13-62

CHAPTER II
THE TRADE IN FOREIGN CHEESE

IT is unnecessary to remark that our imports
of cheese are very large ; in a recent year, in
accordance with a calculation which we made,
no less than 5*7 Ibs. of imported cheese were con-
sumed per head of our population, as against
7*9 Ibs. of home-made cheese, and the value of
the cheese consumed in the same year per head
of the people amounted to 6s., of which 2s. ^\d.
went to the exporter. In 1892 we estimated
the value of the cheese consumed in this country
at eleven and three-quarter millions sterling,
the home-produced article being valued at
between six and a half and seven millions.
The imports, however, have tended to increase,
and if we take the month preceding that in
which we write (1895) we find that the imports
have reached 125,000 cwt, as against 71,000

12

THE TRADE IN FOREIGN CHEESE 13

cwt. in the same month of the previous year.
Taking the average quality of milk, this import
of cheese for a single month represents fourteen
million gallons, or the produce of 35,000 cows,
giving an average yield of 400 gallons each per
annum. A simple calculation, based upon the
average number of cows kept in any one district,
will show how many of our farmers are dis-
placed by the energy of the foreign producer,
and the low prices he is willing to take.

The variety of cheese which is imported in
the largest quantity into this country is made
upon the Cheddar principle, although it comes
from Canada, from Australasia, and from the
United States, in each of which countries there
is practically no rent to pay on the great major-
ity of farms, while in very numerous instances
the labour is performed by the occupiers them-
selves. Thus it is that we are under-sold, in
spite of the cost of freight across the ocean.
Next to Cheddar come the Dutch varieties,
Edam, or round, and the Gouda, or flat Dutch.
We have had the advantage of inspecting
numerous farms in Holland, and of seeing the
cheese manufactured, and we are in a position to

14 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

understand how easy it is for the thrifty and
industrious Netherlander to supply the British
market, although he does so, to a large extent,
with cheese of inferior quality.

Vast numbers of Dutch farmers are small
owners, and live in the most frugal manner.
Their cattle are deep milkers, and they feed
upon extensive and luxuriant pastures, which
are admirably managed, while the buildings
forming the homestead are usually under one
roof with the house proper, and are simplicity
itself. It is not surprising, therefore, that Dutch
cheese is sold at a low price. The Gouda variety
is not unlike Cheddar when it is well manu-
factured, but in the majority of instances both
Gouda and Edam are of second quality, whether
it be as regards flavour or texture. Gorgonzola
probably takes third place. This cheese, largely
manufactured in Italy, is produced by very small
as well as by larger owners of cows, who obtain
their curd in a manner which is not altogether
perfect, especially as regards cleanliness, and
who work upon a system, if such it may be
called, which is extremely crude and incomplete,
although in the Italian schools a well-defined

THE TRADE IN FOREIGN CHEESE 15

and perfect system is seriously taught by men
of considerable attainments, as we have had
opportunities of recognizing. As a rule, the
Italian farmer does not complete the process
of curing, and this applies equally to the large
and costly Parmesan, which is manufactured so
extensively in Emilia and Parma. There is a
class of middle-men who are capitalists and who
possess admirably arranged ripening cellars and
caves, and these persons buy the white cheese —
indeed it is often nothing more than green curd —
the curing of which they complete. Among
varieties of a still more tasty character, we have
the Roquefort, produced from sheep's milk,
although cows' milk is to some extent taking its
place; Camembert, Brie, Bondon, Neufchatel,
and Port du Salut, all of which hail from France,
the last-named being a partially pressed cheese,
whilst the others are entirely unpressed and
belong to the refined soft varieties.

At the market price of cheese, which has been
very low for some time, the English farmer who
makes a really good article probably obtains $d.
per gallon for his milk, net. There are, however,
large numbers of makers who obtain less and

16 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

who never make first-class cheese : there are
some who obtain more and who have a reputa-
tion for a first-class article. In the Colonies and
America it is probable that makers as a body
do not receive more than ^d. per gallon for their
milk, net. If, therefore, we take an average
cow of moderate pretensions, giving 400 gallons
of milk per annum (and it is an undoubted fact
that the majority of the cows in the country do
not exceed this modest quantity), we shall find
that the returns per cow, taking $d. as the
basis, would amount to £8 6s. 8d., while the
returns in the Cheddar-producing countries
abroad would only amount to £5. In a 4O-cow
dairy, therefore, the gross returns in England
would amount to £366 per annum, and in the
other countries referred to, to £200. The ques-
tion now arises, whether this difference repre-
sents the extra cost of rent, taxes, and labour :
whether, in fact, the farmer is better off in this
country with the higher receipts, or in other
countries with the lower receipts. We venture
to think that the British farmer holds the
superior position, and that it is better worth
his while to pay a good rent for good land and

THE TRADE IN FOREIGN CHEESE 17

an excellent equipment under a good landlord
in England than to pay no rent at all — and we
are speaking only of cheese-making — either on
the prairie of America or in the Australian bush.
We are quite aware of the fact that the figures
we have taken do not absolutely represent the
exact state of affairs in either country, inasmuch
as cheese is not made throughout the entire
season, but they are sufficient for our purpose,
for in both countries farmers obtain somewhat
higher receipts in the winter, either by the sale
of milk in England, or by the manufacture of
butter in America and the Colonies. Further,
the cheese-making farmer adds to his returns
by the production of pork, in the manufacture of
which he daily employs the whey from the cheese.
The Dutch farmer does very little better than
the Colonial farmer. As a small owner of land,
he has no rent to pay, and as the labour upon
his farm is confined to the management of the
cows and a few pigs and the production of
cheese, in which the wife of the farmer assists
materially, there is little out of pocket paid in
the year. The Italian farmers are not so fortu-
nate as the Dutch ; they are extremely poor,

C

18 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

and the bulk of the profit of the cheese industry,
which is very extensive, finds its way into the
hands of the curers and middle-men. In France,
however, at all events so far as the leading
varieties are concerned, the farmers do much
better, and in the past they have obtained
golden success in the production of their finest
cheeses, hundreds of men having bought the
farms they occupy out of the profits they have
made. It has been no uncommon thing, and it
is not uncommon to-day, to find French cheese-
makers realizing from iod. to is. a gallon for all
the milk they produce, through the medium of
cheese. As we have urged for years, there
are many varieties, some of which are well
known in this country, which would have by
this time enabled scores of English farmers to
have followed their example. But, in spite of
agricultural depression, in spite of the means
of education which exist, and of the fact that
we have introduced into this country the system
of manufacture of a number of these varieties,
systems which have been taught for some years
now, we are not acquainted with a single
practical farmer who has attempted to build up

THE TRADE IN FOREIGN CHEESE

a business in any one variety, although there is
an important market at his very door.

We have referred to a number of the varieties
of cheese which are imported. Naturally,
Cheddar stands at the head of the list as a
British cheese. A pound of Cheddar is usually
represented by about 10 Ibs. — or a gallon —
of milk ; but the quantity of cheese made from
a given quantity of milk depends upon the
quality of the milk, and this varies both with
the cow and with the month of the year. In the
Somerset Experiments and the New York State
Experiments at forty-eight factories, the follow-
ing quantities of milk, in pounds, were required
in the various months named to produce each
pound of cheese —

Somerset Expts.
New York Expts.

April

May

June

July

Aug.

Sept.

Oct.

Avge.

12-4
io'7i

n-8
9-98

"'5

9 '95

ii'i
10*07

io'9
9 'S8

TO '2

8-95

9 '7
8'43

II'OI

9-76

Thus we see that in Somerset, our great
Cheddar county, the milk was richest in
October, the month in which it was also richest
in New York ; but while it took considerably
more than a gallon, on the average, to produce
a pound of cheese in Somerset, it took less than

20 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

a gallon in America ; and in five sets of experi-
ments carried out upon an enormous scale in
the States, the milk was always richer than in
the experiments in Somerset, which were carried
out upon actual cheese-making farms. As
regards Cheshire cheese, which comes next to
Cheddar in this country, we have not the
same exact data; no work upon the same
extensive and well-considered scale having
been carried out in the successful county of
Chester. These varieties are pressed cheeses,
and in the same category come the Derby, the
Gloucester, and the Leicester cheeses, all of
which are but variations of the great Cheddar
type, having nothing really typical or charac-
teristic about them when considered apart from
their prototype. The unpressed firm cheeses
made in this country are known as Stilton,
Wensleydale, and Cotherstone, all of which
are mellow and ripened by the aid of the blue
mould which grows in veins within them. In
making these varieties, slightly more milk is
required to produce a pound of ripened cheese
than is the case with Cheddar or Cheshire, and
consequently the value is higher ; but, owing to

THE TRADE IN FOREIGN CHEESE 21

the extension of the system of dairy teaching,
the two first-named of these varieties have been
manufactured of late upon a much larger scale ;
so much so in the last year that if production
is further extended, the new makers will have
reason to regret their entrance upon the in-
dustry. They will find at the end of the
season, when their harvest should arrive, that
they have no market at any price ; and I,
therefore, venture to caution milk producers
against entering carelessly upon an industry
which is now overdone. Far wiser would it be
to commence the manufacture of the Swiss
Gruyere, the Italian Parmesan, or the French
Brie, Camembert, or Port du Salut, for each of
which the market is still supplied by foreign
producers. Broadly speaking, the cost of pro-
ducing Cheddar or Cheshire, Derby or Leicester,
Dutch or Gruyere, all of which are pressed
cheeses, is similar in amount ; but immediately
we handle the soft cheeses we reduce the cost
of the milk required and increase the cost
of labour. Abroad, old women are largely em-
ployed in the work, and are paid very small
wages, these persons assisting the female

22 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

members of the farmer's family. A Camembert
cheese sells readily for 6d., and weighs about
ii ozs. A Brie, weighing i-J Ibs., or a little
more, sells for is. 6d., also by retail. The quan-
tity of milk required to make a Brie varies from
two to two and a half gallons, and it may gener-
ally be taken as a standard that half a gallon of
milk of a little more than average quality will
produce about 14 ozs. of white or unripened
salable cheese, or 12 ozs. of ripened cheese,
these figures being liable to increase or decrease
in accordance with the quality of the milk.
There is a sale in London for Camembert and
Port du Salut as well as for Bondon, Neufchatel,
and Gervais, all of which are very small cheeses,
weighing a few ounces only, the first two being
produced from new milk alone, and the last-
named from a mixture of new milk and cream.
The possibility of success depends upon the
maker, for the London merchant is amenable
to reason, and will buy in the English market
if he can obtain a satisfactory article at a price
which is at least not in excess of that charged
by the Frenchman.

CHAPTER III

SOFT CHEESE MANUFACTURE

THERE is no doubt that the manufacture of
soft cheese is the most profitable branch of
dairy farming in France. We have for many
years paid much attention to this subject, in
the hope that the system might be established
in this country ; but, chiefly, perhaps, from
want of knowledge of the system of manufacture,
and to some extent from want of enterprise,
our dairy farmers still allow the French to
supply our markets, hesitating to take up a class
of work which careful investigation would show
them to be extremely profitable. The following
remarks are not based upon theory ; they are
the result of a considerable amount of labour
devoted to the study of the processes of manu-
facture of the leading varieties of soft cheese
made in France. We were led to investigate
23

24 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

the subject from the fact that no information
was obtainable, and in spite of considerable help
from personal friends in France we found great
difficulty in arriving at really correct methods,
while success was only achieved by continual
experiment and practice.

BRIE. — In an article in the Journal of the
Royal Agricultural Society, speaking of the
Brie cheese, I pointed out that in five parishes
in the Brie district alone six million cheeses
were made annually. Assuming that each
cheese weighed, upon the average, 4 Ibs., this
quantity represented the yield of 25,500 cows,
assuming each cow to produce 450 gallons of
milk per annum. Reference to the agricultural
returns will show that in a large number of
our English counties the cows kept do not
reach this number. It has been urged that
if every dairy farmer took up the manufacture
of a particular kind of soft cheese the market
would rapidly be overdone ; but it is beside the
mark to suggest what never has taken place
and never will take place in connection with
any industry, especially in this country, where
farmers are proverbially careful in the extreme.

SOFT CHEESE MANUFACTURE 2$

The prices realized for Brie in Paris are often
considerable, sometimes reaching a shilling a
pound. The Parisians are large cheese-eaters,
consuming about 12 Ibs. per head of the popula-
tion per annum ; and the money annually spent
in the wholesale markets of Paris in this one
variety of cheese alone is estimated at about four
million francs. The Brie is a large, round, flat
cheese, varying from three-quarters of an inch
to an inch in thickness, and from 8 to 12 inches
in diameter ; but in a market like that of London,
where the consumption is not large, chiefly,
perhaps, because of the difficulty of placing the
cheese before the public in prime condition,
it is seldom offered in more than one size. In
my own practice (for experimental work was
followed by systematic manufacture) 10 Ibs. of
rich milk or 12 \ Ibs. of ordinary milk were
required to make a cheese which sold at is. 6d.
The milk must not be skimmed, as the creamy
character of the cheese is by this process very
much diminished, as well as the mildness of its
flavour.

The plant required in the manufacture of soft
cheese is neither considerable nor expensive.

26 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

The draining-table should be made with a slight
fall to the front, on the edge of which should
be a narrow channel to carry off the whey ;
wooden tables are usually covered with metal,
but slate or brick-built stands faced with cement
are still better. In either case the whey is
enabled to run by gravitation into the channel,
and is carried by the same force into a receptacle
made for the purpose. The floor of the dairy
should be of smooth hard cement laid on concrete,
and the walls either of glazed bricks or smooth-
faced Parian cement kept washed with lime. The
utensils necessary are round wooden tubs with
lids, stools on which to stand them — preferably
with rollers on the legs — a large metal skimmer
without perforations, a thermometer, a rennet
measure, moulds made of tinned iron the exact
diameter of the cheese to be made, boards made
of seasoned wood so that they will not shrink,
and sufficiently large to place the cheeses upon,
mats made either of rush or fine rye-straw and
large enough to cover the moulds, a salt-dredger,
and some round osier plaques or plates, called by
the French clayettes. The plate is intended for
the cheese to rest upon instead of a plain board,

SOFT CHEESE MANUFACTURE 27

so that air may penetrate beneath it. The
mould is in two pieces, the bottom having a rim
into which the upper portion fits. The object
of these two pieces is that the cheese may
be. conveniently turned, as we shall presently
see.

In the process of manufacture, the milk is
strained into a ten-gallon tub, wood being used
to prevent loss of heat, and the rennet added at
a temperature of from 82° to 86° F. A little
practice will show the manufacturer which
temperature suits his milk best, and which to
adopt at different seasons of the year. The
curd should be fit to remove into the moulds
in four hours, the apartment in which the work
is performed being kept at from 60° to 62° F.
Great care must be exercised to set exactly
the quantity of milk required for the manu-
facture of a given number of cheeses, and, as
far as possible, each mould should be filled
equally. Before moulding, the boards must be
placed upon the draining-table, a dry, clean mat
being laid on each, with the moulds on the top.
The curd, which must be elastic, not sticking
to the finger or the thermometer when inserted,

28 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

is removed in large thin slices into the moulds.
If the slices are thick the whey escapes with
greater difficulty. When the moulds are filled
the curd is left to drain, and in three to four
hours, perhaps more in colder weather, the whey
will have escaped and the curd have sunk into
the lower portion of the mould. In this case
the upper portion is removed, a mat is placed
over the lower portion, followed by a board, the
whole is rapidly inverted, the bottom mat and
board removed, and subsequently cleansed, when
the bottom of the cheese will be seen to be
marked by the straws. On the following
morning the same operation will take place
again, so that the cheese will be marked on
each side ; but with this turning the new mat
is placed so that the marks will be crossed,
causing a number of little points to appear on
the surface of the cheese, instead of lines. These
points will subsequently be covered with mould.
In a few hours the last turning takes place, and
again in from four to six hours the curd will be
sufficiently firm to stand alone ; the mould will
then be removed and the cheese fit to salt, this
being done with extremely fine salt distributed

SOFT CHEESE MANUFACTURE 29

by a dredger. Unless every portion of the crust
receives salt the mould will not appear. Salting
on the second side occurs some hours after the
first salting : the cheese is then removed on its
mat to a dayette and taken to the drying-room.
Here it stays for a few days, being systematically
turned until it is covered with white mould.
In some cases it may stay in this apartment :
in others a third room will be essential for the
development of the blue mould, which gradually
appears until the whole of the cheese is covered,
so that at the end of from three to four weeks
it is salable. In France, however, consumers
of Brie prefer it in an advanced state of ripeness,
and the blue cheese is therefore taken to an
underground cave until it becomes so creamy that
upon the breaking of the crust it runs, and in this
condition it realizes a higher price. I venture to
think, however, that the English taste would
prefer the blue cheese, which is milder and more
substantial. No Brie is thoroughly ripe until
the white and somewhat solid curd has become
yellowish and creamy throughout. Ripening
proceeds from the outside, and on cutting any
soft cheese of this character while this process

30 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

is going on, it will be seen, if the ripening is
not complete, that while beneath the crust the
cheese is creamy, in the centre it is still solid
and to some extent insoluble. It has been
pointed out by Duclaux, a French chemist of
considerable eminence who has studied this
question perhaps more than any other inves-
tigator, that the moulds which grow upon Brie
and similar cheeses practically remove the acid
present through the medium of what we may
crudely term their roots, or mycelium, and that
until this acid is removed the bacteria which
are responsible for the ripening process are
unable to complete their work.

CAMEMBERT. — Several years ago, I had the
opportunity of inspecting a number of the most
important Camembert dairies in the north of
France, having already a close acquaintance with
the system of manufacture. In one of these
dairies — that of M. Roussel — 1800 cheeses were
made daily from 800 gallons of milk, the produce
of 400 cows. I estimated at the time that if M.
Roussel produced Camembert during only five
months of the year he would turn out 107 tons
of cheese, which at that time was realizing a

SOFT CHEESE MANUFACTURE 31

somewhat extravagant price. It is therefore
not surprising that the Camembert makers were
able to save money and to buy the farms they
occupied. From investigations made in the
county of Calvados, in which Camembert is
chiefly made, I learned that there were large
numbers of farmers who each made from 10,000
to 160,000 cheeses per annum. There were 50
farmers manufacturing more than 25,000 per
annum, and large numbers making smaller
quantities. From the station of Lisieux 655,000
kilogrammes were dispatched ; and from the
village station of Mesnilmauger 12,500 cases
containing 62,000 dozen. In some other
counties the manufacture was also considerable,
but now it is possible that it is doubled. Certain
it is that Camembert is much more largely
consumed, and that the bulk of the cheese which
arrives in this country is produced from milk
which has been partially deprived of its cream.
Camembert was invented during the Revolution
of 1791 by the ancestress of M. Cyrille Paynel,
a large maker in Calvados, recently dead, whose
acquaintance I made on my first visit to the
district. It is well known in every part of

32 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

England, and would be certain to sell in much
larger numbers than at present if its production
were taken up as an industry. A gallon of rich
milk produces about 2\ cheeses, so that a cow
yielding 600 gallons would make 1350 cheeses,
which, at afed. each — which I believe to be the
wholesale price of average cheese — would realize
£2$ 6s. 6d. without the whey. The manufac-
ture of Camembert, in a word, enables the
producer to realize from lod. to is. per gallon
for his milk during the summer season, when
Cheddar realizes only $d. to 6d. a gallon (slightly
more or less according to its quality), and butter
about ^d.

The following is a description of the system
adopted in the manufacture of the cheeses made
in my own dairy, which gained the £10 prize
at the Royal Agricultural Show at Newcastle,
and the silver medal at the London Dairy
Show. Seventy-five pounds of milk was set
in the morning, and a similar quantity in the
evening, at a temperature of 80° F. The
quantity of rennet added to each lot was 2j
cubic centimetres. The curd was fit for removal
into the moulds in 8J hours. The moulds are

SOFT CHEESE MANUFACTURE 33

small, deep cylinders, the inside diameter being
equal to the diameter of the cheese. They are
perforated, and are placed close together on an
inclined draining-table upon large mats. A
hundred and fifty pounds of the milk used,
which, by the bye, was of high quality, produced
three dozen cheeses ; the 36 moulds were, there-
fore, nearly filled with the curd of the morning.
In the afternoon the curd had sunk more than
half-way down the moulds, which were again
filled to the brim with the curd of the evening.
On the following day, the curd having become
partially firm by drainage, each mould was in-
verted on fresh mats. This is a somewhat delicate
operation, and skill is only acquired by practice.
Turning continues until the cheeses are firm
enough for the moulds to be removed. They
were then salted alternately on each side and
placed in batches upon clean mats, which were
laid upon boards made for the purpose, and left
upon shelves which were fixed above the draining-
table. Here they were regularly turned until the
white mould commenced to grow, when they

were taken to the sechoir or drying-room. In

D

34 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

this apartment they remained until the blue
mould commenced to grow, when they were
removed to a cave, which was excavated in the
chalk. Here great attention had to be paid
to ventilation, and to the hygrometric condition
of the atmosphere, and until this was perfected
it was impossible to obtain first-class cheese;
but once the condition was acquired there was
no further difficulty. With the continued growth
of the mould, ripening is pursued ; insoluble
curd becomes soluble, the flavour is acquired,
and the cheese becomes fit for market. In
some cases it may be necessary to heat the
milk up to 86°, while some makers in France
do not remove the curd until four hours,
and others remove it in two. Small quantities
of milk are always renneted in preference to
large quantities. Great care must be taken in
preventing a damp atmosphere either in the
drying or ripening rooms. During fine weather
both Vooms are well ventilated, cross draughts
being arranged in the former apartment, but
during wet weather draughts are excluded
and the room is kept as dry as possible. With

SOFT CHEESE MANUFACTURE 35

excessive humidity the white mould changes to
black, a variety known as the Aspergillus niger,
while the blue mould, which is responsible for
so much work in the process of ripening, is the
common Penicillium glaucmn — the shape of the
tiny filaments known as hyphae, which are re-
sponsible for the propagation of the spores of the
mould, resembling a painter's brush, hence the
Latin word penidllium. It is curious that these
tiny fungoid plants should have so important
an influence in the ripening of cheese. The
blue mould is unquestionably the dominant
fungus in the atmosphere of the dairy ; it will
not only grow luxuriantly at the temperature
at which soft cheese ripens, but at a still lower
temperature when it is provided with a suitable
soil or feeding material. It has been assumed
by some writers that it is essential to cultivate
the moulds common to cheese ; but this is not
the case. It is common to every household,
and its spores or seeds are so easily dispersed
by the movement of the atmosphere that
wherever such a material as cheese is placed
it is certain to be attacked. The maker
of soft cheese should, therefore, observe the

36 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

recognized rules of cleanliness which apply to all
dairies : lime, boiling-water, and the scrubbing-
brush being used with absolute freedom, and
without any fear of eradicating the fungus, the
aid of which is so essential to success.

CHAPTER IV

GORGONZOLA, AND THE VARIETIES OF BLUE
OR MOULDED CHEESE

IT is curious that the public should hold
opinions with regard to the production of the
various cheeses having blue or moulded veins
within, which are entirely unwarranted by the
facts. I refer to such varieties as the Gorgon-
zola of Italy and the Stilton of this country.
It is supposed by some that Gorgonzola, for
example, is the product of goats' milk, or of
the milk of the goat blended with the milk of
the cow ; and by others that the blue mould is
introduced by the insertion of metal skewers,
which, by the way, are sometimes used, and
used, too, for the purpose indicated, although
the result is achieved in a very different manner
from that supposed. The blue mould of cheese

is the common penicillium which attacks bread
37

38 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

and other materials common in the household.
It is probable that it is abundant in every apart-
ment of a house, and nowhere more so than in
the dairy where cheese is made. If we regard
the mould as a plant, and that plant as a weed,
we shall better understand the principle which
is followed in its extensive production by
remembering that as the seeds of weeds are
more prolific in the production of plant life
when they fall upon fertile soil (such as the
well-tilled and well-manured arable land of the
farm) than when they fall upon the highway,
so does the tiny plant which we call mould
increase with great rapidity when it alights, as
it were, from the atmosphere upon curd, which
to it is a most fertile soil. It grows, elaborates
its seeds or spores, which in their turn are shed
abroad, falling upon similarly fertile soil, the
curd of other cheeses, ultimately covering the
portions in which they are permitted to grow.

GORGONZOLA. — Gorgonzola cheese is made
from average cows' milk of the northern part
of Italy, in which country I had the advan-
tage of learning a great deal about the system.
The cows' milk of Lombardy, to which refer-

GORGONZOLA, AND MOULDED CHEESE 39

ence is chiefly made, is not so rich as is
generally supposed, but it is not absolutely
essential that the milk intended for conversion
into Gorgonzola or Stilton cheese should be
specially rich in fat. To a very large extent
this milk is produced by small owners of cows,
who manufacture the cheese, but do not perfect
or ripen it, selling it to merchants for this
purpose, who in their turn finish the process
in the cellars and caves which they own.
Gorgonzola is a cheese which is produced from
two curds, that is to say, from two lots of curd
made at different times. When the two curds
are put into the mould which gives form to the
cheese, one is cold and stale and the other warm
and fresh. For example, assuming the cheese
to be moulded in the morning, the milk of the
evening previous having been brought to a
temperature varying from 80° to 85° F., and
in some cases 90° F., the rennet is added.
It is important, however, to make one or two
remarks at this point. In dairies which are
conducted upon defined principles the temper-
atures adopted are systematically arranged in
accordance with the weather ; but large

40 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

numbers of small farmers who have no dairies
worthy the name, add the rennet to the milk
just as it comes from the cow, so that the
temperature may vary from 90° up to 93°.
Again, the rennet generally used in Italy
is a filthy preparation which is, practically
speaking, the macerated stomach of the calf,
the actual animal matter itself. A portion of
this material is placed in a piece of cloth and
dipped with the left hand into the milk, the
right hand the while squeezing it in order that
the extract which exudes may be mixed with
the milk, which is subsequently stirred. In
Italy the curd, when fit for cutting or breaking,
is gently broken with an instrument called a
paumdrilo : the operation lasting about a
quarter of an hour. The whey is gradually
expelled until the curd is fit to be hung up
in a cloth on to a hook in the ceiling, and
there left until the following morning. It
is essential that the apartment in which it
hangs should be at least 60°, but not
more than 65° F. If higher, it may become
too dry; if lower, tco heavy, the whey
not leaving it properly. Naturally, however,

GORGONZOLA, AND MOULDED CHEESE 41

difficulties are met with by the small dairymen
in the mountainous districts, especially those
who are constantly moving with their herds of
cattle, and therefore compelled to make the cheese
wherever they may be ; this system it is which
accounts for so much inferior Gorgonzola.

The curd of the morning is in the first place
treated in a similar manner to that adopted with
the curd of the evening, but when broken every
effort is made to obtain from it a large quantity
of whey while it is still warm. A small quantity
of acid forms in the evening's curd, but the
curd of the morning should be perfectly sweet.
The mould used in the manufacture of Gorgon-
zola is a curled piece of wood, preferably beech ;
but in some cases metal is being introduced in
consequence of the fact that it can be more
easily cleaned, not absorbing the whey, as is
the case with -wood. To one end of the mould
a cord is attached, so that the cheese may
be tightened or loosened as may be found
desirable. When ready for moulding the curd
is placed on the draining-table, which is fluted
to carry off the whey, and the mould is placed
on a rye-straw mat. Sometimes the mould is

42 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

divided into two parts, the upper portion fitting
into the rim at the head of the lower portion,
and being removed when the curd sinks. Before
filling, the mould is lined with a strainer cloth.
In commencing, the bottom of the mould is
covered with a thin layer of the warm morning's
curd. Above this is placed a layer of the curd
of the previous evening, followed again by
another layer of warm curd, and so on until
the top is reached, care being taken that the
warm curd covers the entire surface of the
cheese. The prime object, as I believe, of thus
alternating the two different kinds of curd is
that the mould is enabled to grow in the inter-
stices which are formed, inasmuch as the warm
and cold curds never unite in the same close,
homogeneous manner as is the case where the
curd is all made from one lot of milk, and is
all of one temperature.

MOULD-RIPENING. — In different countries
different methods are followed for the pro-
duction of the mould. For example, in that
part of France where the famous Roquefort
cheese is produced from the milk of the ewe,
the makers do not rely absolutely upon its

GORGONZOLA, AND MOULDED CHEESE 43

natural growth, but they specially prepare a kind
of bread, which is crumbled, and upon which
mould is induced to grow, which it will easily
do by exposure to a slightly warm, humid
atmosphere. The mouldy crumbs which are
thus produced are mixed with the curd, which
is subsequently converted into cheese.

After the cheese has been formed it remains
for drainage in an apartment at about 66° F.
It is frequently turned, taken out of the
mould, the cloth changed, and turned again.
In Lombardy, where the cheese is sold in its
new or green form, it is weighed at the time
it is last taken out of the mould. It is then
ready for removal to the salting-room, where
it subsequently remains a few days at 68° F.
The cheese will then be found covered with
a fine growth of white fungus, which is an
indication that it is ready for salting. The
finest salt is used by the best manufacturers,
although those who exercise little care use
any salt which comes to hand. The surface
of the cheese is entirely covered by gently
sprinkling, the salt being subsequently rubbed
into the crust with the hand. As a rule,

44 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

this method of salting continues daily for a
considerable period, from two to four weeks ; u
but in some cases the upper portion of the
cheese is salted at one time and the lower portion
at another, that is, on the following day, so that
the entire cheese is really salted from twelve to
fifteen times. When this process has been
completed, the texture of the cheese may be
examined. If it is too close, it is possible that
the fungus or blue mould will not grow with
freedom. In this case the cheese is pierced with ^
metal skewers, which admit the air, and with it
oxygen, which the fungi require, for they are
unable to grow in its absence. Should the
texture, however, be sufficiently light and
generous, nothing need be feared, as it will
grow equally as well as in the Stilton, in which
the texture is generally closer and mellower.

When Gorgonzola cheeses are taken to the
cave to ripen — and some of the Italian caves
which we have been enabled to see are very fine
and well arranged — they are laid upon shelves
covered with rye- straw and kept at a temperature
of about 55° F. As with other cheeses, ripen-
ing can be hastened by a rise in the temperature,

GORGONZOLA, AND MOULDED CHEESE 45

but the best cheese is that which is produced
during the process of a longer time, and at a
lower temperature. During the ripening process,
which may take as long as from four to five months,
or even more, different varieties of fungi grow
upon the crust. The first to appear is a fungus
of a dark colour, which is followed by a white
mould, and subsequently by a red fungus, which is
supposed to give colourtothe cheese, although this
colour is generally simulated by artificial means.
The best Gorgonzola is of a very high type
indeed, but it is seldom seen in this country.

STILTON. — The leading blue moulded cheese
in this country is the famous Stilton, and the
system adopted in its manufacture is not unlike
that which is followed in Italy in the manufacture
of Gorgonzola, or in France in the manufacture of
Roquefort and several other varieties of a similar
character. Stilton is the leading cheese of a
class which in this country includes the Wensley-
dale and the Cotherstone, both of which when
really perfect are varieties which it is difficult to
beat ; indeed, a perfect Wensleydale, with its mild
flavour and mellow texture, is scarcely equalled
by a perfect Gorgonzola, and I am not sure,

46 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

although Stilton is made in my own dairy, that
this more famous variety can at its best equal
either of those named at their best. It is,
however, fair to say that perfect cheeses of
either kind are much less often seen than is the
case with Stilton, in the production of which
very considerable skill is now brought to bear,
the industry being one in which there is keen
competition, and which, in consequence, it is
to be feared, will in the future yield lower prices
to those who produce this cheese. There are
different methods adopted in the production of
Stilton, which it is proverbially supposed can
only be manufactured with success in Leicester-
shire. This, of course, is fallacious ; but there
is a great deal in Leicestershire herbage, if not
in Leicestershire cattle or climate. A method
which will be found successful is that of setting
the morning's milk at 85° R, and removing the
curd in thin layers at the end of an hour into
the draming-cloths which are laid upon a
properly constructed draining-table. It should
be observed, however, that in no case is it
possible to lay down definite figures for all
cases, whether they relate to temperature, time,

GORGONZOLA, AND MOULDED CHEESE 47

or the quantity of rennet used. The quality
of the milk and the climate of the district have
considerable influence, and these influences
must be met by a slight deviation either in
the temperature at which the milk is set
or the quantity of rennet added, to say
nothing of one or two subsequent details.
The curd then is placed layer by layer into the
drainers. Here, being warm, it gradually parts
with its whey, and as it becomes firmer the
corners of each cloth are tied loosely together,
in order that the slight pressure thereby
exerted may cause the whey to leave it still more
effectually. These corners are from time to
time tightened until the curd is fairly firm, and
can be handled without breaking into pieces.
When the temperature of the air is about 60° F.
the curd may be generally left throughout the
night, but when the temperature is below 60°, the
curd had better be slung in a cloth from the
ceiling, as suggested with regard to the Gorgon-
zola. In this way the curd parts with its whey
more freely. On the following morning it may
be removed, cut in cubes, and laid in an open
shallow tin vessel to air. Airing is a somewhat

48 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

indefinite term, but it may be mentioned that
the object is to create or increase acidity in
the curd. There can be no acidity without
contact with oxygen, and as the air contains
oxygen, so the curd is aired.

The morning milk is treated in a similar

manner, and sometimes on the evening of the

day on which this curd was produced

it may be placed within the mould, but it

depends upon its condition, for it must not

be broken up for moulding until it is

sufficiently firm and ripe, more particularly if

the weather is cold, as in this case the cheese

would swell and be utterly spoiled. On the

second day, however, it is always possible to

mould. The mould used is a cylinder slightly

larger in diameter than a Stilton cheese itself.

It is perforated with a number of rather large

holes, through which a certain quantity of the

whey exudes when the curd is within it. The

mould is placed upon a cloth and is gently

filled by the hands with the mixed curd of the

two milkings. At this time the earlier curd is

distinctly acid both in taste and smell, and also

silky and mellow. Before mixing, both curds

GORGONZOLA, AND MOULDED CHEESE 49

are broken into fine pieces with the fingers as
gently as possible, and, after weighing, mixed
with a fair proportion of salt. It is salted curd,
therefore, of which the cheese is made, and in this
particular, as well as in others, it differs from the
Gorgonzola process. Both top and bottom of the
cheese are carefully finished off so that the edges
are cut clean and the surface level. In the
course of three or four days, should the tempera-
ture be maintained at from 60° to 63° F., the
cheese will be firm, and will have left the sides
of the mould, which may be lifted from it,
allowing it to stand alone. It is now bound
with a calico binder somewhat tightly, and
pinned top and bottom. This bandage is
removed and a clean one put on every day
until the somewhat wrinkled coat of the cheese
has partially formed. It is then taken to the
drying-room and subsequently to the ripening-
room.

All cheeses of this character lose con-
siderably in weight, in spite of the fact that
they are not pressed, and yet they maintain a
mellower, softer, creamier texture than cheeses
which have been pressed. It is possible to

50 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

hasten the process of ripening : first, by drying
the cheese at a slightly higher temperature than
is common, and next, by ripening it in an
apartment kept at from 65° to 67° F., and pro-
nouncedly humid. On the other hand, ripening
may be delayed by the adoption of a lower
temperature, which both prevents the mould
from growing so freely, and the bacteria (which
play an important part in the conversion of
the insoluble curd into soluble cheese) from
carrying out their work so rapidly.

New makers are apt to take up a variety
of cheese, the producers of which are already
numerous. The Italians are producing more
and more Gorgonzola, while in England, Stilton,
being the most fashionable of the blue moulded
cheeses of this country, has had the ranks of its
makers reinforced so much of late, that the price
has fallen to such an extent that the industry
will presently not be worth following. There is
great room for the extension of the system
adopted in Wensleydale, and it is certain that if
this cheese were systematically produced, and if
it were mild and mellow as the very finest of
the samples are, it would be much more largely

GORGONZOLA, AND MOULDED CHEESE 51

sold than is possible under present conditions,
under which its sale is almost localized, and its
existence practically unknown in many parts of
the country, to say nothing of the other English-
speaking countries of the world. The manu-
facture of all these varieties is taught at the
British Dairy Institute, Reading, and we are in
a position to know that the instruction is really
worthy of the attention of those engaged in
dairy work.

CHAPTER V

OTHER VARIETIES OF FANCY CHEESE ADAPTED
FOR MANUFACTURE IN ENGLAND

THE term " fancy cheese " has usually been
applied to varieties produced from cream or full
milk, or a mixture of cream and milk, which are
small in size by comparison with the large cheeses
of all countries, and which are unpressed, or only
partially pressed, in the course of manufacture.
But the Americans have applied the term to
some cheeses which are pressed and which
really have no claim to it in any sense of the
word. Sometimes a private maker, who has a
considerable reputation as a prize-taker, and
who is in consequence enabled to obtain high
prices, is termed a maker of " fancy " cheese
for the simple reason that his product is excep-
tionally excellent, and that it is obtainable only

by those who are willing to pay the price for it.
52

OTHER VARIETIES OF FANCY CHEESE 53

It should be the duty of every maker to en-
deavour to produce fancy cheese in this sense,
but there is no fear of the article being
placed before the public in too large a quantity,
as there are comparatively few makers who
excel, the great majority producing cheese of
second quality. Fancy cheese has not been
produced in this country to any considerable
extent. We have already named a few varieties ;
there are, however, others which are worthy
of the consideration of the manufacturer. On
the Continent, and more particularly in France
and Italy, there are numbers of small cheeses
of various types produced in different localities,
each of which has its admirers who consume it
in large quantities, and who pay the producer a
relatively larger sum per pound than is obtained
by the makers of the huge pressed cheeses of
Great Britain, America, and the Australian
Colonies. Let us refer to some of these varieties.
We have already mentioned the famous Gruyere
of Switzerland, the Parmesan of Italy, both of
which are pressed cheeses of considerable size ;
we have also referred to the blue cheeses made
in our own country, to the Gorgonzola of Italy,

54 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

and the Roquefort of France, as well as to the
two leading soft cheeses made by different
sections of the French people, the Brie and the
Camembert. These varieties may be supple-
mented by the Port du Salut, Pont 1'Eveque,
and Neufchatel, the Gervais, Coulommiers, and
Bondon, all of which are made in France.

PORT DU SALUT.— The Port du Salut has
long been one of the most delicate and popular
varieties made upon the Continent, but although
there are numerous makers, those who produce
the perfect article are extremely few in number.
The system of manufacture has until recently
been supposed to be the secret of the Trappist
monks, a colony of whom are located at the
Monastery of Bricquebec, in the Department
of Manche. A few years ago I had the
pleasure of accompanying to the north of
France a party of our own countrymen who
desired to see something of the dairy system
pursued by the most successful among the
Norman farmers. We were enabled to see a
great deal in consequence of the kindness and
liberality of several of the farmers and others
with whom I was previously acquainted. But

OTHER VARIETIES OF FANCY CHEESE 55

my application to the Monastery, although
backed by an introduction from one of the
highest officials in the French Agricultural
Department, was met by the response that no
outsider was ever allowed to see the process of
manufacture pursued ; that, in a word, the monks
could not trust their own friends, who under the
guise of curiosity had in previous years appar-
ently taken advantage of the privilege extended
to them to describe something of the system
pursued, and thus to place other people in
possession of a secret which is so jealously
guarded. Secrets of this kind, however, are
not long-lived, and it is impossible to prevent
those who are acquainted with the principles of
cheese-making from producing a variety of this
character if they care to take the trouble to
make a few thoughtful and well-arranged ex-
periments for themselves. The Port du Salut
cheese is not unlike a variety made in this
country and known as the Caerphilly ; it is
circular in form, flat, about an inch in thickness,
and partially pressed. The pate, or flesh of the
cheese, is extremely mellow or creamy, and yet
homogeneous and firm in consistence, although

56 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

there are a large number of holes throughout,
which are characteristic of the variety, and
which, in proportion to their size and number,
are concurrent with its flavour. The milk
is brought to a temperature of 86° F., and
sufficient rennet is added to bring the curd
in thirty minutes. The temperature is slightly
varied with the season, as with almost every
other variety of cheese, while the rennet used
is in proportion to the quality of the milk.
The curd, which is primarily deprived of a portion
of its whey by gravitation, is subsequently en-
closed in a mould which is lined with a strainer-
cloth, and subjected to slight pressure. The
press generally used is of a very simple character ;
a number of screws are placed side by side on
a beam, several cheeses being pressed at the
same time. The screws are really turned by
hand, so that it will be seen in a moment how
slight and simple the process is. Port du Salut,
having been deprived of its superfluous water,
is ripened at a temperature of 54° F. The
object is to prevent it becoming dry, and to
ensure that slow process of change which is
brought about by bacteria, so that it will be

OTHER VARIETIES OF FANCY CHEESE 57

soft, mellow, nutty, and yet mild in flavour.
This variety is already sold in England, and
it is appreciated in London, where it is
growing in favour. It is one of the most
delicious cheeses, and its character is such that
if it became better known to the English
people it would be more highly appreciated,
and would obtain a considerable sale. I know
of no variety which is more worthy of pro-
duction, and those who take it in hand will not
only find that it is easily made, but that it will
return them a profit far in excess of anything
which can be obtained by the manufacture of
the pressed cheeses which are made in such large
quantities.

PONT L'EVEQUE. — Pont PEveque cheese is
a variety with a great local reputation in the
north of one of the most important dairy depart-
ments of France. It takes its name from a
village not far from Havre and Lisieux, and
is sold in considerable quantities in the fashion-
able watering-places of Trouville and Deauville.
I was enabled to see the system pursued by the
most famous maker, a highly intelligent farmer,
upon his own farm near Pont 1'Eveque. This

58 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

cheese, although unpressed, is firmer in texture
than either the Brie or the Camembert, owing to
its being deprived of its whey with much greater
rapidity. The cheese is either square or oblong,
slightly less than an inch in thickness, and weigh-
ing from 14 to 17 ounces, for the size is not
uniform; its crust is comparatively tough, and it
may be kept for a considerable time with safety.
Practically speaking, a gallon of milk will produce
a good cheese, but as milk varies considerably
in quality, it follows that very rich milk would
produce a much larger cheese than poor milk.
The milk is set at a temperature of 88° F.,
with sufficient rennet to bring the curd in fifteen
minutes. A large rush or rye-straw mat is
laid upon the draining-table. This mat may
measure a yard in length by 26 to 30 inches
in width, in accordance with the quantity of
curd handled. When the curd is firm enough
to remove, it is gently cut in cubes of large
size, and with equal gentleness removed
with a metal dish on to the mat, where it
immediately commences to part with its whey.
As the whey runs off, the curd toughens, the
ends of the mat are drawn together, the slight

OTHER VARIETIES OF FANCY CHEESE 59

pressure involved causes a still further loss of
whey, and this goes on until the curd can be
handled and placed in the metal moulds, which
are made in accordance with the size the cheeses
are intended to be. The newly-moulded
cheese is then placed upon a small mat, and
on the evening of the first day turned on to
another mat. The result is that both sides of
the cheese are free from fractures, the curd being
homogeneous, and both are marked with the
straws. It need hardly be added that where a
large number of cheeses are made the mats are
numerous and large, and provision is made for
the moulds to stand side by side in order that
space may be economized. Turning goes on
from day to day until the metal mould is re-
moved. Fungi then gradually appear on the out-
side of the cheese until it is ultimately covered
with blue. This growth depends upon the tem-
perature adopted : in the first stage of manu-
facture the temperature of the dairy is 63° ; when
the cheese is removed into the first ripening
apartment it is kept at 58°, and when it is
taken to the cave for slow ripening, it is kept
at 56°. Here, again, the apartment should be

60 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

slightly humid as well as cool, one reason being
that it is essential to maintain the moist character
of the cheese, and to prevent the evaporation
which, if allowed to continue, would ensure its
being dry, unpalatable, and unsalable.

i/' GERVAIS. — The Gervais cheese is a delicate
little luxury produced upon an enormous scale
by several makers in France, two of whom are
pre-eminent, M. Gervais and M. Pommel, both
of Gournay. These makers produce millions in
the course of a year. M. Gervais supplies Paris,
sending up fabulous numbers every day ; M.
Pommel, I believe by private arrangement
with his neighbour, supplies other markets, in-
cluding that of London. I have paid a visit to
both establishments, and was able to see a great
deal that was interesting and instructive in the
factory of M. Pommel. Gervais is a mixture of
cream and milk ; it is unnecessary to suggest what
proportion should be used, inasmuch as every
maker has his own idea, but one-third of average
cream mixed with two-thirds of whole milk will

J produce a most palatable and luxurious cheese.
The essence of this system is the low tem-
perature at which the mixture is set, 65° F.

OTHER VARIETIES OF FANCY CHEESE 6l

The rennet added is so small in quantity — it is
also mixed with water — that coagulation is not
complete for from eight to ten hours : indeed, one
maker made a practice of delaying coagulation
until twenty-four hours. The object after the
removal of the curd is to extract the whey, and
one of the simplest plans is to suspend it in a
cloth or bag until it is sufficiently firm to be
removed to the Gervais press. The somewhat
firm curd is laid in a cloth, which is placed within
a slatted wooden frame from six to nine inches
in depth, and a heavy wooden block is then
placed upon it : examination takes place from
time to time until the curd is perfect in texture.
It is then placed in batteries of little moulds
which have been already lined with specially
made unglazed paper — in order to envelop
each cheese — on the outside of which the maker
stamps his name and address. These cheeses
are extremely profitable, and, partaking so
much of the character of cream (with which the
flavour of the cheese is combined), they are
readily salable at a remunerative price.

BONBON. — Bondon cheese is largely made in
the country districts around Rouen. It is pro-

62 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

duced entirely from milk, and is an important
industry among the very small farmers and cot-
tagers of that part of France. Once, upon a visit
to a large farm in the district, I was taken to see
the dairies of a number of the smaller occupiers,
whose wives my conductor systematically but
fraternally kissed, and who were really the makers.
Bondon, like Gervais, is extremely small, and
from seven to nine cheeses are made from one
gallon of average milk. The milk is set at a low
temperature, and the curd takes a long time in
coagulation. It is removed when firm to a
strainer-cloth which has been stretched by the
four corners over a vessel somewhat resembling
an ordinary washing-tub. Here it gradually parts
with its whey, being occasionally and gently
moved, when the curd forms a coat which
prevents the passage of the whey through the
cloth. At a certain stage it is removed into a
clean cloth, which is folded over it, covered with
a board, and gently pressed. The right con-
, sistence having been obtained, the little cheeses
are moulded by hand in a most expert
manner, the mould being a small copper
cylinder some three inches in length by an

OTHER VARIETIES OF FANCY CHEESE 63

inch and a half or thereabouts in diameter.
I am bound to say that the process is
difficult for an inexperienced maker, but like
every other difficulty, it can be overcome by
patience and practice. The cheeses are sub-
sequently salted, and either sold at the end of a
week in their fresh and white form, or kept in a
cave until they have been covered with mould,
when their flavour is enhanced and their value
increased. They are sent in trays to the mar-
kets, the smaller makers sending weekly or
fortnightly, and the larger makers nearly every
day. In the manufacture of the Neiifchatel,
which resembles the Bondon in form, care is
taken to prevent the curd being too close and
homogeneous ; the curd is drained without pres-
sure, and in consequence of its lighter texture
when moulded, the spores of the common blue
fungus, Penicillium glaucum, are enabled to
develop during the ripening process, so that the
interior of the cheese is blue as a Stilton and
is prized in consequence, realizing a higher figure
in the market.

For some years several of these varieties have
been sold in the London and other markets in

64 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

considerable numbers, but these quantities do
not represent what would be considered an
extensive industry were they produced in this
country. Coming from France, they realize
prices which, in consequence of the cost of car-
riage, are, perhaps, a little more considerable
than they need be. If, however, we remember
that a cheese which can be made at the rate of
seven or eight to the gallon of rich milk, as is
the case with the Neufchatel, realizes $d.y it fol-
lows that the remuneration which the farmer
obtains by producing a cheese of this character
is very considerable as compared with the small
prices which milk obtains in the open markets.
Lastly, a few words about the Coulommiers
cheese, which is made in the Brie district. I
believe this to be one of the most important and
most delicious cheeses made on the Continent,
and it was the first the manufacture of which
I introduced into this country. The first
lessons I received in the principles of its pro-
duction were given me by a very famous maker,
Madame Decauville, of Coulommiers, who
produces an article of the very first quality.
It resembles the Camembert in form, but is

OTHER VARIETIES OF FANCY CHEESE 65

slightly smaller in diameter, and thicker. It is
made upon the Brie principle, and may be sold
new at the end of a week with great advan-
tage, for in this state it is much appreciated
by the people of England ; but ripened, and
sold at the end of six or seven weeks, it is
infinitely more delicious, and will return from
lid. to is. per gallon for all the milk utilized
in its production.

CHAPTER VI

ON THE BEST METHODS OF MANUFACTURING
CHEDDAR CHEESE

THE making of a good Cheddar cheese
depends largely on conditions which are con-
veniently summarized by the word " medium."
A first-rate quality of Cheddar can be made in
any district, provided that you have soil of
medium quality, which will grow a short, sweet
herbage. Soils resting on and derived from
limestone rocks are ideal ; yet any soil of fair
body, growing herbage free from all coarse
grasses, &c., and containing a small percentage
of leguminous plants, is equally appropriate.
The breed of cattle is of considerable importance,
owing to the great variation in the nature and
quality of the milk which they yield. Those
yielding milks rich in fat, and with a great

difference between the size of the largest and
66

METHODS OF MANUFACTURING CHEDDAR 67

smallest fat globules, are not so suitable as
those yielding a milk containing an average
percentage of fat, with only a slight differ-
ence between the size of the fat globules.
When a milk is rich in fat there is danger of
loss during the making of the cheese. When the
fat globules are nearly uniform in size, you are
able to get a more perfect distribution of them
throughout the cheese. The milk of different
breeds varies in colour, some yielding a milk
almost white, others one decidedly yellow. The
nearer white the milk the better, if artificial
colouring of the cheese is not going to be
practised. A typical cheese-making milk is
that of the Ayrshire breed.

The food which the cow receives influences
the milk. The ideal food for producing a cheese-
making milk is grass ; and the addition of cake
to the diet of a cow renders the milk more
suitable for butter than for cheese-making.
This is because prime Cheddars are made from
a medium quality of milk rather than from an
excessively rich one. Besides, the increase in
the richness of milk from such feeding is largely
that of the fat of the milk, and consequently no

68 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

appreciable increase in the quantity of cheese
is obtained ; whereas if butter was made a cor-
responding increase in the butter yield would
be got. Again, cheese made from the milk of
cake-fed cows is liable to deleterious changes
during manufacture. The drinking water of
the cows should be free from all suspicion of
contamination. Water from stagnant ponds,
or the effluent water from sewage farms, renders
cheese liable to become spongy. The surround-
ings of the cow must be clean. The chief cause
of complaint against milk is probably due to
contamination after it is drawn from the cow.
Given a suitable district, breed of cow, food,
water supply, and surroundings, the cheese-
maker can depend on commencing with a first-
class raw article, i. e. a milk of average quality,
suitable colour, with uniformly sized fat globules,
and free from contamination either in the form
of injurious bacteria or acquired taints.

A Cheddar is a whole milk cheese, and con-
sequently no fat is extracted from the milk
which is intended for its making. The evening's
milk is strained into the cheese- vat, and kept
at 64° to 68° F. The temperature is varied

METHODS OF MANUFACTURING CHEDDAR 69

according to the conditions of the weather and
the keeping qualities of the milk. In the
morning the cream is skimmed off, heated to
90° F., and returned to the vat through the
strainer along with the morning's milk. By
this plan we get thorough mixing of the
cream off the evening's milk, with the mixed
evening's and morning's milk. The milk is
now allowed to ripen, if it is not already ripe
enough.

RIPENING is essentially acidity development.
There are two methods of attaining the desired
result, (a) The old Cheddar method in which
a certain amount of sour whey is added to the
milk in the vat. This is an empirical plan
which does not take into account the amount
of acid already present in the milk, and also
risks one day's contaminated whey tainting the
rest of the season's make of cheese. (#) The
more modern method, and that adopted by the
Canadian makers, is to keep the milk at a certain
temperature (90° to 95°) until the required acidity
develops. This temperature is the one that
is most favourable to the growth of the bacteria
which produce the acid we desire to obtain.

70 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

TESTING FOR ACIDITY.— There are two
methods by which to determine the ripeness
or amount of acidity developed — (a) By means
of rennet. Take 4 oz. of milk at the temperature
at which it is intended to rennet the milk, and
add i drachm of rennet ; if the milk coagulates
in 20 to 22 seconds it is ready for renneting.
(b) By means of chemical re-agents. Take out
10 c.cs. of milk with a pipette, run into a white
porcelain dish, and add three drops of phenol-
phthalein solution (addition of an alkali to a
solution of phenol-phthalein produces a pink
coloration). From a burette allow to drop
soda solution of such strength that i c.c. of it
will neutralize O'Oi gramme of lactic acid.
Whilst adding the soda solution, keep constantly
stirring the milk in the dish, and on the appear-
ance of the faintest tinge of pink which remains
permanent, you know that the whole of the
lactic acid in the milk is neutralized. If it
requires 2 c.cs. of the soda solution for this
purpose, we know that we have O'2 per cent, of
acid in the milk, which is about the correct
amount for making Cheddar. The former of
these methods is probably to be preferred,

METHODS OF MANUFACTURING CHEDDAR 7 1

owing to its requiring materials which are
always at hand, and similar materials to those
you are going to use in the actual cheese-
making. The ripening or development of
acidity is done with the object of aiding the
coagulating action of the rennet, to assist in
expelling moisture from the curd, and to shorten
the whole process of manufacture.

RENNETING. — Assuming that the correct
amount of acidity is developed, and that the
temperature of the milk is 82° to 85°, depend-
ing on the season of the year, the atmo-
spheric conditions of the day, &c., we add a
sufficient quantity of rennet to ensure coagula-
tion in 45 to 60 minutes. Usually 4 to 4! oz.
of Hansen's rennet extract to each 100 gallons
of milk is sufficient. After thoroughly stirring
the milk and rennet, cover the vat with a cloth,
and leave the curd until firm enough for cutting.
When the curd makes a clean break over a
finger inserted under and along its surface, it
is ready for cutting. If cut before it is firm
enough, you get a white whey owing to loss
of fat, and this will happen however carefully
the cutting is performed. If, on the other hand,

72 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

the curd is too firm, you require to use such
force in cutting that you also get a white whey,
owing to the injury done to the curd.

CUTTING. — In the old Cheddar system a large
single-bladed knife was used. In the Canadian
system American cutters are used. With the
latter the curd is first cut with a vertical knife
lengthwise and crosswise, then with a horizontal
knife in the same manner. Clean the sides
and bottom of the vat with the hands ; cut
again with two knives both ways, and allow to
settle ten to fifteen minutes, the shorter period
if the curd is hard, the longer if it is soft. The
object of cutting is to facilitate the escape of the
whey, and cutting into uniform-sized cubes aids
in the securing of a good curd.

BREAKING. — After settling, stir the curd care-
fully with the shovel breaker or rake for fifteen
to twenty minutes, until the curd is the size of
peas, and thoroughly intermingled with the
whey. Then commence the application of
heat or scalding, which usually takes place
some forty minutes from the time cutting
commences.

SCALDING. — This is done to render the curd

METHODS OF MANUFACTURING CHEDDAR 73

firm, and to develop acidity. There are two
methods of scalding —

(a) The old method in which the operation is
performed in three stages. The process consists
in drawing off a proportion of the whey, and
after heating it to a certain temperature adding
it slowly to the contents of the vat. This is
repeated three times. The first time the whey
is heated to 110°, the second to 120°, and the
third to 130°. The temperature of the contents
of the vat is raised the first time to 90°, the
second to 95°, and the third to 100°. To
ascertain the number of gallons of whey to
draw off, multiply the number of gallons of
milk at the commencement by the number of
degrees it is intended to raise the contents of
the vat at the first scald. This product, divided
by the number of degrees of heat it is intended
to raise the whey, gives the number of gallons
of whey required ; e.g. —

Contents of vat, 100 gallons.

Temperature to which it is intended to raise
the contents of the vat, 90°.

Temperature of whey before commencing
heating, 85°.

74 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

Temperature to which it is intended to raise
the whey, 110°.
Thus we have —

90° - 85° = 5° x 100 gals. = 500
100° - 85° = 25°

•< -r = 20 gals., amount of whey required.
I 25

The contents of the vat are stirred fifteen
minutes after each scalding, but after the last
scalding stir until the curd is sufficiently
cooked.

(b) The more modern method (which requires
a jacketed vat and steam) is to raise the temper-
ature continuously at the rate of i° in three
minutes, until 100° is reached, and then keep it
at 100° until the curd is sufficiently cooked.
Scalding ought to be done more slowly if little
acid is present in the curd, and more rapidly if
the acid is well developed.

The curd is known to be scalded sufficiently
when it is shotty, hard, sinks quickly, has an acid
smell, and answers to the hot iron test. This
last test is simple and gives constant results.
It is performed by taking a small quantity of

METHODS OF MANUFACTURING CHEDDAR 75

curd, compressing it tightly in the hand, drying
it on a cloth, and then applying it firmly to a
bar of iron heated to black heat, and gently
drawing it away. If acid enough, the curd
attenuates to fine threads of |-inch length.
If not acid enough, it will not so attenuate ; if
too acid it attenuates to a greater length. The
sufficiently scalded curd is allowed to pitch for
a quarter of an hour, and then a rack is put on
and weighted with a 56-lb. weight. Thus the
curd remains until it is consolidated or begins
to mat. It is then cut up the centre with a long
knife, rolled to the upper end of the vat, and the
racks and weights placed on as before. Draw
off the whey, remove the weights from the
curd, cut it up and spread it on the bottom of
the vat.

PACKING AND " CHEDDARING." — Replace the
curd in a square block in the bottom of the vat,
sweep up all the crumbs, re-weight and allow
to remain ten minutes. Cut into bricks and
remove to the curd-sink ; cover with dry cloths
and put on the weights. Open and turn every
twenty minutes, turning the outside of the curd
within. When the curd is firm and tough, cut it

76 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

into two-inch cubes, tie up in a cloth, cover with
dry cloths and a tin pan and apply the weights.
Open out and separate every half-hour, using
dry cloths each time until it is ready to grind.
The above method of manufacture results in a
more open and meaty cheese than that obtained
by adopting the modern or Canadian plan.

CANADIAN METHOD. — In this method the
whey is drawn off before any matting or con-
solidating takes place, and the loose curd is
removed from the vat to a curd-cooler, where it
is stirred until it is dry enough to mat, which,
however, is a point rather difficult for inexperi-
enced persons to decide. Matting goes on until
the curd is ready to grind. A curd is ready to
grind when it is distinctly acid to the taste and
smell, dry and solid in cutting, tears stringy, and
attenuates from i in. to ij in. on the hot iron.

GRINDING is done to reduce the curd to
such a condition that salt can be thoroughly
distributed ; it also allows of the cooling of the
curd. When ground the curd is ready for weigh-
ing, and, if cool enough, for salting.

SALTING. — About two per cent, of salt is the
amount usually added, and the temperature of

METHODS OF MANUFACTURING CHEDDAR 77

the curd should not be above 80°. The salt
hardens the curd, helps to dry it, has a slight
antiseptic action and therefore arrests decay to
some extent, and also has a tendency to check
further development of acidity in the curd. After
adding the salt stir the mixture well for fifteen
minutes, which will ensure thorough incorpora-
tion of the salt and the curd. When the tem-
perature of the curd is 70° to 75° it is ready for
putting into hoops which are lined with a cloth.
In filling the hoops press carefully with the
closed hand. After the hoop is full place it in
the press.

PRESSING. — The pressure must be gradually
applied, and should reach 10 cwt. in two hours'
time, at which pressure it is allowed to remain
over night. If pressing is excessive during the
first few hours, fat is expelled with the whey,
and the quality of the cheese is lowered. Besides
this, a hard firm coat round the external portion
of the cheese is got, which checks the drainage
of the whey. The object of pressing is to bind
and consolidate the curd, and to expel whey.
A suitable temperature in the press-room (60°)
aids the objects of pressing. The morning next

78 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

after the day of making, the cheese is taken out
of the press, the cloth is removed, and the cheese
bathed for one minute in water heated to 120°.
This improves the condition of the coat, render-
ing it tougher and less liable to crack. After
bathing put on clean cloths, and return to the
press. Apply 10 cwt. pressure during the first
two hours, and then 15 cwt. until next morning.
On the morning of the third day turn the
cheese, grease it, cap one end, and return to
press with a smooth cloth ; then apply i to i J
tons of pressure. The grease is applied to fill
up cracks, to render the outside of the cheese
smooth, and to enable the bandages to stick.
On the fourth day turn the cheese, put a cap on
the bare end, place in a clean cloth, and then
apply pressure until the afternoon. In the
afternoon bandage with a laced or winding
bandage, weigh, and take up to the curing-
room.

CURING OR RIPENING. — The temperature of
the curing-room should be 65° to 70°. New or
young cheeses require the higher, — old cheeses
the lower temperature. The ripening - room
requires to be kept at an even and correct

METHODS OF MANUFACTURING CHEDDAR 79

temperature, for although the making of a
Cheddar depends so largely on success in the
first stages of the operation, there is yet a
possibility of spoiling the best of curds if due
attention is not given to the temperature of
the ripening-room. When the temperature is
too low the result is a soapy cheese lacking
body and flavour; when too high, sweating
occurs, loss of fat, and dryness in the cheese.
The cheese must be turned daily for six weeks.
Neglect to turn results in redness on the ends
of the cheese, and moisture descends to the end
which is resting on the racks. A certain amount
of ventilation is necessary, but there must be
no draughts. Usually the room is kept dark,
which, however, is of little if any advantage,
except that cheese-flies are not then quite so
numerous.

CHAPTER VII

ON THE BEST METHOD OF MANUFACTURING
STILTON CHEESE

THE process of making a Stilton cheese has
more similarity to that of the manufacture of
some of the Continental cheeses than any other
British make. Despite this fact it is a British
cheese, and the county of Leicestershire can
justly claim the honour of being its home.
Indeed many people consider that it is im-
possible to make the real article outside the
county named. This, however, is an error, as
with suitable buildings and utensils, with perfect
cleanliness and with sufficient skill on the part
of the maker, prime Stilton can be made in any
district. The cost of producing a Stilton is
however rather greater than that of a Cheddar

or Cheshire. This is owing to the greater cost
80

METHOD OF MANUFACTURING STILTON 8 1

of the buildings, the greater amount of labour,
the longer time taken in curing, and lastly, to
the fact that less ripe cheese is obtained from a
given amount of milk by the Stilton method
than by the methods just mentioned.

The Stilton is popularly considered to be a
cream-cheese, but at the present time it is
nearly always made of whole milk without the
addition of cream, and yet the quality produced
leaves nothing to be desired. Nevertheless the
milk intended for making Stilton should be of
at least average quality, and that produced by
cows grazing on rich old pastures is the most
suitable. The giving of large quantities of cake
to the cows is not to be recommended, as this
usually produces a milk that causes trouble
during the making of the cheese.

In the method of manufacture about to be
described, two separately made curds are used.
This method is the one by which the best
Stiltons are made. One reason why this is so
is found in the fact that separately made curds
do not unite as closely as curds made at one
operation. The consequence is that we get a
great amount of air space in the body of the

82 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

cheese, and therefore fulfilment of one of the
conditions essential to the development of the
mould which it is the pride of the Stilton maker
to obtain.

Before commencing operations the maker
should have in remembrance the leading
characteristics of an ideal Stilton. These are
as follows-\A drab-coloured rough wrinkled
skin, a texture salvy and mellow but not soapy
(indeed, as the old Stilton maker's maxim says,
" beware of chalk and beware of soap," which
implies medium texture, and avoidance of
hardness on the one hand and soapiness on the
other),! a marbling throughout the body of the
cheese due to the growth of a blue mould
(Penicillium glaucum\ and the possession of an
unique flavour. T

The following is a list of the requisites for the
manufacture of Stilton — (a) Building. The
building or dairy must be divided into at least
three separate apartments, or better still if into
four. These are — (i) A setting-room and
draining-room. One room may be made to
serve the double purpose of setting and draining,
or a separate room may be used for each

METHOD OF MANUFACTURING STILTON 83

purpose. (2) A drying- or coating-room. (3)
A storing- or curing-room. Besides these a
cellar is a great advantage, as the cheeses can
be taken there when they are ripe, or even
before they are ripe if the weather is hot, and
the ordinary rooms are out of condition. For
Stilton-making it is imperative that all the
rooms should be high and well ventilated, and
that they should be so constructed as to allow
of cooling them in very hot weather. Further,
they must have apparatus for heating purposes,
as during spring and autumn artificial heat is a
necessity. (#) Utensils. Briefly enumerated
these are — (i) A renneting-vat made of tin ;
(2) a curd-ladle or scoop of about half a gallon
capacity; (3) straining-cloths; (4) a curd-sink
made of glazed earthenware ; (5) a draining-sink
lined with tin ; (6) perforated metal moulds or
hoops ; (7) boards (9 in. x 9 in.) ; (8) draining-
shelves; (9) turning- and bandaging-table ; (10)
knife, bandages, &c.

MANUFACTURE.— -Milk. (The milk for Stilton-
making should be perfectly fresh, and not slightly
acid . as is the case in the making of some
British cheeses. This necessitates the renneting

84 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

of the milk as soon as received into the dairy,
and that which has never lost its animal heat is
the most suitable.

RENNETING.— The rennet is added when the
temperature of the milk has fallen to 84° F. ;
and the amount required is i J drachms to every
60 Ibs. of milk. ) Most makers consider that
prepared rennets are inferior to the home-made
ones. Yet we know that the use of home-made
rennets is not essential to the making of the
best Stiltons, as these are constantly made
from prepared rennets. It seems probable that
in using prepared rennets the makers accustomed
to the home-made article make no allowance for
the greater strength of the former, and conse-
quently add too much. This results in an
inferior cheese, but the fault is due to the maker
and not to the rennet. After adding the rennet
to the milk, thorough^ mixing of the two should
be brought about by stirring. Let this be
continued ten minutes, by which time mixing
will be complete and there will be no danger of

"S^Ajt/VV

any cream rising. Now 'allow the contents of
the vat to set for I to if hours, according to the
state of the curd. This, although a somewhat

METHOD OF MANUFACTURING STILTON 85

prolonged coagulation, is not unusual in the
making of sweet curd cheeses.

CURD DRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OF
ACIDITY. — When ready, the curd is ladled out
of the vat into straining-cloths, placed in the
curd-sink. These cloths are about a yard
square, and hold from three to four gallons each.
In the act of ladling the curd is cut into thin
slices, whereby the drainage of the whey is
facilitated. The curd is allowed to stand for half-
an-hour in its own whey, or longer if it is
soft. The whey is then let off, and the curd tied
up by bringing together the three corners of the
straining-cloth and using the fourth as a bindery
and here in the curd-sink it drains until evening.
To aid the draining, tighten the cloths every
hour during the first eight hours. This tighten-
ing requires to be done with care, so that no curd
is crushed in the operation. In the evening the
curd is cut up into squares of about four inches
and laid in the draining-sink with a light cotton
cloth thrown over it. Here it remains over
night, and during this time it slowly oxidizes.
The evening's milk is treated in the same
manner as the morning's milk, being allowed to

86 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

drain during the night whilst in the curd-sink.
In the morning cut up the evening's curd, and
then allow the two curds to develop the requisite
amount of acidity. If acidity does not develop
rapidly enough, tear up the curds to aid it, or
place them upon racks and keep them warm
with hot water.

SALTING. — When the curds are ready, i.e.
when they have developed a sufficient amount
of acidity, and are of a certain mellowness, they
are broken up by hand into coarse-grained
pieces. It is always difficult to decide when
the curds are ready, and experience is the only
teacher. The following, however, are some of
the signs that guide the maker as to the fitness
of the curds — The first curd made should be
clean, flaky, decidedly acid, and free from
sliminess or sponginess ; the second should be
in about the same condition, but not so acid.
It takes usually thirty-six and twenty- four hours
respectively before the curds show the above
signs. After these are broken they are mixed
together, and a rather coarse salt is added at
the rate of about I J per cent, by weight of the
curd. If the curd is wet add more salt, if dry

METHOD OF MANUFACTURING STILTON 87

add less. It is usual to obtain 18 Ibs. of curd
from 12 gallons of milk.

HOOPING. — The curd, after a thorough mixing
with the salt, is put into hoops holding 20 to
24 Ibs. each. If the cheese is for sale in a
wholesale market let it be made full-sized, as
such cheeses are easier to sell than small ones.
The temperature of the curd at the time of
hooping should be about 60° F. Before com-
mencing to fill the hoops, place them on a
board covered with a piece of calico. In filling,
the curd should be firmly pressed at the bottom,
and lightly at the sides, and the larger pieces
should be put into the loosely-filled centre. By
taking these precautions a cheese is obtained
that presents a good surface.

CHEESE-DRAINING. — When the hoops are
filled, they are carried, together with the board
and cloth on which they stand, to the draining-
shelves. The temperature of the room in
which the shelves are placed should be 65° F.
The hoop and cheese should be turned after
standing two hours, an operation performed
by inverting them upon a board and cloth
similar to those on which they stand. The

88 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

turning should be repeated before leaving for
the day, and it must be performed at least
once each day for the next nine days. Neglect
in turning at this stage causes unequal ripening
of the cheese, and the ends become uneven.
If the curd does not settle properly it should
be skewered through the perforations in the
hoop, and a little salt should be rubbed on
each end.

SCRAPING AND BANDAGING. — In about nine
days the cheese is taken out of the hoop,
and if ready it is scraped with a knife. It
is known to be ready for scraping when the
cheese leaves the side of the hoop, when it
is creamy on the outside, and when it has
a smell similar to that of a ripe pear. The
scraping makes a smooth even surface, fills
up cracks, and aids in the production of the
much-desired wrinkling of the coat of the
cheese. This last result is brought about by
the consolidating effect of the scraping on the
surface of the cheese, and the comparatively
loose and free state in which the central portion
remain's. In consequence of this difference
the external portion of the cheese settles less

METHOD OF MANUFACTURING STILTON 89

than the internal portion, and consequently a
wrinkling of the coat of the cheese follows.
After the cheese has been scraped, a bandage
is tightly pinned round it, a cap placed on its
upper end, and the cheese is put back into
the hoop. Next day remove the hoop and
bandage, and scrape the cheese, then tightly
pin on a clean bandage round the top. Allow
the bandage to hang loosely down, invert
the cheese, and loosely fold the bandage over
it. The cheese is then put upon the draining-
shelves without the hoop, and there it remains
until the coat begins to appear, which usually
happens about the eleventh day counting
from the day of hooping.

FORMATION OF THE COAT. — About the
eleventh day the external surface begins to
show signs of white mould, also dry patches
appear on the bandage. These are the first
signs of the coat, and on their appearance the
cheese is ready to go to the drying- or coating-
room. This room should be cool and damp,
have a temperature of from 55° to 60°, and if
possible it should have a gentle, cool, moist
draught passing through it. By thus keeping

go CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

the air of the coating-room cooler and moister
than that of the draining-room we minimize
the loss of moisture, and consequently avoid
lowering the quality of the cheese, and at the
same time we prevent fermentation becoming
too rapid. If the coating-room is too dry,
and the cheese shows signs of becoming hard,
cover it with a moist cloth. The cheese on
going to the coating-room has no bandages
on it, but there is the small cloth on the board
on which it rests, and this requires changing
each day when the cheese itself is turned.
Turning goes on for a fortnight, and by the
end of that time the coat should be firmly
fixed.

CURING. — When the coat is firmly fixed,
the cheese is ready to go to the storing- or
curing-room, which may be an airy cellar, or
a cool upper room kept at a temperature of
from 55° to 60° F. If the temperature is too
high excessive evaporation ensues, and as a
consequence a hard dry cheese ; if too low the
ripening of the cheese is retarded. The shelves
of the curing-room must be kept quite clean
and free from mites, and the cheese turned

METHOD OF MANUFACTURING STILTON QI

daily. It takes a Stilton from four to six
months to ripen, but some people try to shorten
the period by skewering. This, however, is a
rather doubtful proceeding, and yet it is per-
missible if the cheese is close, and there is a
lack of mould-growth. When such a plan is
followed, care must be taken that the apertures
made in the cheese are closed up, so that flies
and mites will not be able to enter. The
skewers should be put into the cheeses from
each end, not at the sides, and their ends should
pass each other.

Besides this two-curd system of Stilton-
making there is a " wet-curd " system. The
essential difference between the two is to be
found in the length of time during which the
curd is allowed to stand in its own whey. In
the wet-curd system the whole of the whey
is not drained off until the curd is ready
for vatting ; whereas in the method just
described the curd stands in its own whey about
half-an-hour.

Before concluding, we may with advantage
briefly sum up the points of difference in the
making of a Stilton, and in that of the better

92 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

known and much more widely made Cheddar.
In Stilton-making the rennet is added to
a perfectly fresh milk, in Cheddar-making to
slightly acid milk ; also less rennet is added
if Stilton is to be made. It is owing to these
two factors that the coagulation in Stilton-
making is more prolonged than in the case
of Cheddar. Again, in Stilton-making the
development of acidity is not pushed by scald-
ing as is the case with Cheddar, and instead
of taking eight hours, it takes usually twenty-
four and thirty-six hours. It may, however, be
noted that in Cheddar-making acidity is allowed
to develop in both milk and curd, whereas in
Stilton-making it is only allowed to develop in
the curd. Less salt is added to the curd of
a Stilton than to that of a Cheddar, but this
is more apparent than real, for when the curd
of a Stilton is ready to salt it is much moister
than that of a Cheddar. Lastly, the curd in
Stilton-making is put to drain in a much softer
condition than in Cheddar-making, but no
pressure is applied to the former, whereas a
ton and upwards is required for the latter.
Finally, we feel fully justified in stating that a

METHOD OF MANUFACTURING STILTON 93

well-made Stilton stands without rival amongst
the better known varieties of cheeses ; and
we know from experience that by the system
just detailed it is possible to produce an article
of prime quality.

CHAPTER VIII
CHESHIRE CHEESE-MAKING

CHESHIRE cheese is of more local than cos-
mopolitan repute; indeed the making of it is
practically confined to Cheshire and the counties
that border upon it. The locality in which this
cheese is made is really restricted to that where-
in a demand for it exists, as its fragile nature
renders it unsuitable for exportation purposes.
The general conditions as to the food of the
cow producing the milk intended for Cheshire-
making are similar to those applicable to Cheddar.
The dairy required is also similar. It consists
of three apartments — a making-room, a press-
room, and a curing-room. The press-room in
Cheshire-making, however, must contain, in
addition to the presses, an oven, wherein the
cheeses can be placed immediately after hoop-
ing. This so-called " oven " is merely a recess

94

CHESHIRE CHEESE-MAKING 95

in the press-room wall, so situated as to have
the kitchen fire at the back of it. The utensils
required are such as are used in any process
of cheese-making, but the hoops are usually
perforated, the vat is jacketed and rather
shallow, and the curd-mill is fine-toothed, so
that the curd can be ground down to a rather
fine state of division.

There are three methods of manufacturing
Cheshire cheese, each of which produces a special
type of cheese. The three methods are the early
ripening, the medium ripening, and the late
ripening, named after the predominant char-
acteristic of the cheese produced, i.e. an early
ripening cheese, a medium ripening cheese, and
a late ripening cheese. The two latter of these
cheeses are of much higher quality than the first
named. Yet at the present time the quick or
early ripening cheese is much made, and this
probably is one of the causes of the prevailing
low prices.

The method of manufacture about to be
detailed refers to a cheese which will take about
three months to ripen, and is therefore classed
as a medium ripening cheese. The qualities

96 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

looked for in such a cheese are — a rather high
colour produced by the addition of colouring,
a looseness, granulation, and openness in the
body and texture known as " meatiness," a
certain amount of crumbliness, and a mellow,
rich, tasty flavour.

PREPARATORY TREATMENT OF THE MILK.— -
Strain the evening's milk into the vat, and keep
it at such a temperature that it will be about
68° F. in the morning. In the morning skim
off the cream, and heat it to 95° F. ; then pour
it along with the morning's milk into the vat.
If the correct amount of ripeness has been
developed (and this is of the utmost importance),
rennet the milk ; but if not, either keep the milk
in the vat at a temperature of 94° F. until it is
ripe enough, or add sour whey, which latter is
the more common method. A little before this
stage is reached the colouring is added, indeed
it should be added ten minutes before renneting.
When the colouring is added immediately before
the rennet, there is great liability of getting a
discoloured cheese. This, although one of the
causes of discolouration, is not the chief one.
At the present time white or uncoloured cheeses

CHESHIRE CHEESE-MAKING 97

are being made, a method that is to be recom-
mended, as it avoids all danger of discolouration
from improper mixing of the colouring. But
unfortunately the public demand is for a high-
coloured cheese, and therefore colouring is still
added by most makers, although it is so
risky.

RENNETING.— When the milk is ready to
rennet, it should give a rennet test of twenty-
two seconds, which is rather longer than is re-
quired in Cheddar-making, or in other words the
milk is sweeter. The temperature of the milk at
the time of renneting should be 86° to 88° F.,
and the amount of rennet required is one oz.
of rennet extract to twenty gallons of milk,
or such an amount as will produce a curd that
is ready to cut forty-five to sixty minutes from
the time of adding it. After adding the rennet,
stir the mixture in the vat for five minutes.
Next cover the vat with a cloth, and when the
curd is firm enough, cut it with the American
horizontal knife, and then with the vertical knife
until it is in a rather coarse condition. Just
after the curd is cut, a little whey is usually

drawn off for adding to the next day's milk, to

H

98 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

aid the development of acidity. Next clean
down the sides and bottom of the vat, and with
the hands stir well for about fifteen minutes,
when scalding should begin.

SCALDING. — The scalding is only partial, and
the curd at the termination of it is considerably
softer than that produced in Cheddar scalding.
The scalding should be gradual, and a rate of
i° in five minutes is very suitable. Scald until
a temperature of 92° to 94° is reached, and
during the whole process careful and continuous
stirring is required. When the correct temper-
ature is reached, continue the stirring until the
curd is quite firm, and the corners are rounded.
Then allow the curd to settle for about an hour,
or until it leaves the sides of the vat. Next cut
the curd up the middle, roll it up to one end
of the vat, and let off the whey.

DRAINING THE CURD. — When the whey
has drained off cut the curd into blocks, and
place it at one end of the vat. Then put a rack
in the bottom of the vat, spread a cloth on it,
and place the curd upon it, carefully covering
it with a dry cloth. Turn the curd every ten
minutes, and at each turning break it up into

CHESHIRE CHEESE-MAKING 99

pieces of about two inches diameter. The turn-
ing is repeated until the curd is sufficiently dry
and acid, and four or five turnings are usually
required. After the last turning grind the curd
twice, making it finer than the curd of a Cheddar.
The object of the fine grinding is to produce
the granular, open, crumbly texture that is so
much sought after in a Cheshire.

SALTING.— Salt is added at the rate of 7 to
8 ozs. per 20 Ibs. of curd, more being used if the
curd is wet, less if it is dry. The temperature
at the time of salting should be above 70° F.,
and below 80° F. If below 70° the curd will
not take the salt, and the cheese will afterwards
become black in the centre. If 80° or above,
there will be loss of fat during the after treat-
ment of the cheese. Thoroughly mix the salt
and the curd, and then put the salted curd into
a hoop lined with a coarse cloth. After hooping
take the cheese into the press-room, and place
it in the cheese-oven, where a temperature of
75° to 80° is maintained. Here the whey slowly
drains from the curd, the curd itself contracts,
and the amount of acidity gradually increases.
The escape of the whey is facilitated by the

100 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

insertion of skewers, and their occasional re-
moval. After the cheese has been in the oven
for four hours it is turned, put into a dry coarse
cloth, placed back again into the oven, and there
it remains until morning.

PRESSING. — Next morning the cheese is re-
moved from the oven and put into a fresh cloth.
It is then placed in a press, but no pressure is
applied, or only a very little. On the next three
or four mornings the cheese-cloth is changed,
and the pressure is gradually increased. By
about the fourth morning whey will have ceased
to exude, and when such is the case the cheese
should be removed from the press and taken
into the curing- room.

CURING. — Before taking the pressed cheese
to the curing-room a bandage is pasted on to it,
the paste used consisting of flour, boiling water,
and borax. Over this bandage, an ordinary
cheese-bandage is placed, and the corners of
the cheese are often ironed with a hot iron to
render them smooth. When the cheese is band-
aged take it to the curing-room, which should
have a temperature of 60° to 65° F. The shelves
of this room are frequently covered with straw,

CHESHIRE CHEESE-MAKING IOI

upon which the cheeses are placed. Such a
plan tends to produce a growth of green mould
on the external surface of the cheese. The
cheeses require to be turned daily for the first
week or two ; then gradually lessen the number
of turnings until once per week is reached, and
this must be continued until the cheese is sold.
The cheese will be ripe in about four months.

Although we have just detailed a method of
making Cheshire cheese, no exact data can
be really considered to represent the Cheshire
method, since it varies considerably with different
makers, and according to which one of the three
kinds of cheeses it is intended to produce. The
aim throughout each system is undoubtedly to
produce the best article of its kind, and the
following principles, considered along with the
details of the medium process just described,
will roughly indicate the variations that have
to be made in order to produce the different
types of Cheshire cheeses : — The milk to be
moderately sweet when the rennet is added ;
the temperatures throughout the process of manu-
facture to be varied according to the moistness
of the curd required ; if a dry curd is wanted the

102 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

temperature should be comparatively high, if
a wet one comparatively low ; the quantity of
rennet used to be varied according to the time
the cheese is intended to ripen in, more being
used if for quick ripening, and less if for slow
ripening; the size to which the curd is to be
cut depends on the amount of whey that is to
be left in it, and this again depends on the kind
of cheese ; for a quick-ripening cheese leave a
deal of whey in the curd, and cut into large-
sized pieces ; for a slow-ripening cheese expel
the whey thoroughly, and cut the curd into very
small pieces ; the amount of acidity to allow to
develop in the curd whilst in the whey must be
greater the sooner the cheese is required to be
ripe ; the size of the particles of curd on salting
also to be varied according to the time in which
the cheese is wanted to ripen ; the shorter the
ripening period the coarser should be the curd,
and vice versd ; the pressure to be regulated
according to the amount of whey required to
be expelled, i.e. according to the dryness the
curd is wanted; for quick ripening expel little
whey, and therefore apply little pressure ; for
slow ripening expel all the whey possible, and

CHESHIRE CHEESE-MAKING 103

therefore apply much pressure ; a quick-ripening
curd on hooping should be coarse-grained, and
saturated with acid whey ; a slow-ripening curd
on hooping should be fine-grained, dry, and
contain very little free whey.

Throughout the Cheshire systems the en-
deavour is to develop more or less of acidity
after the curd is hooped, and hence the use of
the oven.

The alreadydescribed medium ripening process
produces a good Cheshire cheese of such quality
that when ripe it will keep a few months, should
the markets necessitate such a plan. This
clearly indicates one of the advantages of adopt-
ing this process (and this remark is also appli-
cable to the late process), for should the early
ripening one be adopted, the produce must be
sold as soon as ripe, or else be wasted, as it has
no keeping properties. On the other hand, the
quick-ripening process produces a greater weight
of cheese than the other two processes, and it
also gives quicker returns, but the quality of the
cheese produced by it is not first-class, and the
risks as above indicated are great.

CHAPTER IX
WENSLEYDALE CHEESE-MAKING

THE making of this cheese is practically
confined to the beautiful dales that render the
north-western portion of Yorkshire so pictur-
esque. As the name implies, the chief locality
in which it is made is Wensleydale, and here
the cheese has been made for centuries. This
dale is not only famed for its cheese, but also
for its variety of sheep, the so-called "blue-
faced Leicester" or Wensleydale.

A study of this method of cheese-making
shows us that the fine pastures of the Yorkshire
dales, chiefly on soils derived from limestone
rocks, are especially adapted for producing a
first-class cheese-making milk. Apart from this
nothing special is needed in the way of food

for the cow producing the milk used in the
104

WENSLEYDALE CHEESE-MAKING IO5

making of this cheese ; also no special dairy ac-
commodation is required, and no special utensils
are employed. In the old-fashioned method,
a large brass or copper pan, called a "cheese-
kettle," was used in place of a cheese-vat, but
the use of this is fast dying out.

The cheeses are made of two shapes, "flat"
and " Stilton " shape. The former of these are
suitable for making during spring and autumn,
and also when the cheeses are intended for
immediate consumption. When the cheeses
are made of the " Stilton " shape, they are
supposed to develop a greenish-blue mould
just as a real Stilton, but with the flats this is
not looked for. The Stilton-shaped Wensley-
dales are therefore classed as British blue
mould cheeses. The period of ripening of
Wensleydales varies according to the shape
adopted, but this is only so owing to the differ-
ences in the curds used in making the respective
shapes. The " flats " take only a short time to
ripen, the " Stiltons " a longer time. Although
we speak of " Stilton-shaped " Wensleydales it
is rare to find them exactly resembling a Stilton
in shape, as the cheese usually becomes much

IO6 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

distorted after its removal from the hoop.
Indeed, some makers consider that irregularity
in shape is a sign of good quality. Nor is this
without reason, for, in order to acquire the
distinctive characters of a Wensleydale, the
curd must be hooped when it is in a moist
condition, and only a small amount of pressure
must be applied to the cheese ; and these two
factors render a cheese liable to unshapeliness.

A good Stilton-shaped Wensleydale possesses
the following characteristics — A smooth surface,
frequently a distorted shape, a soft, yielding
texture similar to a Stilton but tougher, a blue
mould evenly distributed throughout the body
of the cheese, and not running in veins as in
the real Stilton, and a mellow, creamy, mouldy
flavour.

In the past there was no fixed method of
making the cheese, but now teaching is aiding
to bring about a definite system, and also
it is raising the average in regard to the
quality of the cheeses produced. Some good
cheeses were formerly made, but there were
also many bad ones, and the average was
decidedly lower than that of the present time.

WENSLEYDALE CHEESE-MAKING IO?

The method of manufacture about to be
detailed is the modern method, and although
the utensils used are not such as most of the
dalesmen possess, yet they would undoubtedly
be able to get a greater uniformity in their
produce by using such. More especially would
this desirable result be brought about if they
gave attention to the quantity of rennet recom-
mended ; to the temperature of coagulation,
of scalding, of the curd on salting, of the
curd on hooping, &c. ; to the amount of acid ;
and finally to the method of salting. The
adoption of such particulars avoids the hap-
hazard results of the old style of making.

PREPARATORY TREATMENT OF THE MILK. —
Allow the evening's milk to run into the cheese-
vat, and cool it down to 60°. Stir the milk
occasionally during the evening, which will help
it to cool, and will also prevent the cream from
rising. In the morning skim the cream off the
evening's milk, and heat it to 90° F. Then
pour the morning's milk, and the heated cream
along with it, into the vat amongst the evening's
milk, and raise the temperature of the mixed
milks to 86°— 88° F.

108 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

This method of treating the milk is appli-
cable to cases where making is followed once
a day, and only in very hot weather need
the cheese be oftener made. If an excessive
amount of acidity develops in the milk, the
cheese will be dry and hard, and will never
possess the true qualities of a Wensleydale.

RENNETING. — Given that the temperature of
the milk is as stated, and that the milk itself
is perfectly sweet, the rennet may be added. One
drachm of rennet extract to 40 Ibs. of milk will
produce a firm coagulation in about an hour,
and therefore is the right quantity to add. After
the addition of the rennet stir the mixture for
five minutes. When the curd is sufficiently firm
break it into cubes of about half-an-inch square,
using American knives for the purpose. This
breaking or cutting takes about five minutes,
and after it is performed the curd is allowed to
settle for five minutes. After settling, the curd is
stirred for about twenty minutes with a shovel-
breaker, rake, or hand. The latter of these is
preferred when a small quantity of milk is being
handled. After the stirring allow the curd to
settle for ten minutes.

WENSLEYDALE CHEESE-MAKING IOQ

PARTIAL SCALDING. — Sufficient whey is now
drawn off, so that when heated it will raise the
temperature of the contents of the vat to what
it was previous to renneting ; the whey taken
off should not be heated to more than 130° F.
After adding the heated whey, stir constantly
for about half-an-hour, and then allow the curd
about twenty minutes to settle. It is not always
necessary to even partially scald in the making
of Stilton-shaped Wensleydales ; indeed in
summer-time it is only requisite when the
weather is damp and cold, or whenever the
curd seems as if it would be long in getting
dry and firm. When "flats " are made scalding
is always requisite.

In case of not scalding the curd, the stirring
is longer continued, and the curd is given a
longer time to settle. The whey is let off when
the curd is in the right condition. This,
however, is not easily described, and experi-
ence is the only guide. One sign of suffi-
cient scalding is that you have 16 to 1 8 Ibs.
of curd from 12 gallons of milk. If more
the curd is too moist, if less it is too dry.
The whey is usually drawn off one and a half

110 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

to two hours from the time of cutting the
curd.

DRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OF ACIDITY.
— After drawing off the whey, take the curd
out of the vat, and place it in a straining-cloth.
Put it on a draining-rack, open it out after
the first half-hour, and cut it into pieces ;
continue to do this every hour until the curd
is ready to grind. A board is also placed
on the curd whilst on the draining-rack, and
7 to 28 Ibs. weight is placed upon the board.
The amount rof pressure is regulated according
to the weather, and the drainage of the whey.
When the weather is cold, and the drainage is
slow, apply more pressure to the curd, and vice
versa. The curd when ready to grind should
be decidedly sour, fairly dry and flaky, but not
hard. It should be weighed before grinding.

SALTING.— The ground curd is salted at the
rate of i oz. of salt to 4 Ibs. of curd. The curd
preparatory to salting is either ground in a
mill or broken by hand, but in either case
it must not be made too fine. The effect
of fine grinding is a tight cheese in which no
mould will develop. The time elapsing between

WENSLEYDALE CHEESE-MAKING III

adding the rennet and salting the curd is from
six to eight hours. In the old system of making,
the direct application of salt to the curd was
only practised with large cheeses, the rule being
to place the pressed cheeses in a strong brine,
and leave them there for three or four days.
The objections to this method are — (i) The un-
certainty as to the amount of brine the cheese
actually absorbs, as owing to differences in the
amount of acidity present in the curd, the
cheeses rarely absorb similar quantities, and as
a consequence there is great variation in the
cheeses produced. (2) The brine frequently
does not penetrate to the centre of the cheese,
and as a consequence a portion of it remains
unsalted. (3) Placing cheeses in a brine cools
them down to a very low temperature, and this
interferes with the curing.

When direct salting of the curd is practised,
it is necessary to allow a greater development
of acidity than when brining is practised. The
necessity for this arises from the rapid check
of acid development when hand salting is
followed, and the slow check of it when brining
is followed.

112 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

HOOPING. — After grinding and salting the
curd, put it into perforated tin hoops or moulds,
without bottoms or with movable ones only.
Place the hoop on a board and cloth, and
loosely fill in the curd. The curd required to
fill a standard-sized Wensleydale hoop is that
which can be obtained from 14 gallons of milk.
The temperature of the curd on hooping should
be 64° to 65°. This comparatively low temper-
ature is required in order to encourage mould
development. Usually the cheese is put into
the hoop without a cheese-cloth, but if the
weather is hot it is better to use one. The
cheese after being hooped is placed on a slab in
the cheese-making room. Two hours after filling,
the hoop and cheese should be turned and the
cheese put into a dry cheese-cloth. Before
leaving for the night a 4-lb. weight and a board
are usually placed on the top of the cheese.
When the cheese is left all night without pressure,
or only with such as indicated, the temperature
of the room in which it is placed should not be
less than 60°.

PRESSING. — Next morning turn the cheese,
put it into a dry cloth, place it in a press, and

WENSLEYDALE CHEESE-MAKING 113

apply I \ cwt. pressure for about five hours. Then
remove it from the press, and turn it into a
smooth cloth ; replace it in the press, and apply
3 to 5 cwt. pressure until night. Next morning
take it out of the press, sew on a bandage,
and remove the cheese to a cool, moist room,
placing it on a stone shelf. Let the cheese
remain here for seven to nine days, turning it
daily.

CURING. — Take the cheese to the drying- or
curing-room, kept at a temperature of about
60° F. Turn the cheese daily, and if the weather
is hot turn it twice a day. During the first few
days it is necessary to skewer the cheese to
prevent excessive heating. After six weeks
in the curing-room, the cheese should be un-
clothed, and if the blue mould is not developing,
the cheeses must be skewered. The skewering
must be done from the ends, and after the
operation care must be taken to cover up the
entrance to the skewer-holes, to prevent the
passing in of flies, &c.

The Stilton-shaped Wensleydales are ripe in
four to six months ; the flats are ripe in about
two months. In the making of flats the curd is

114 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

usually scalded, and is made much drier than if
for Stiltons. The curd for Stilton shapes should
be moist, slightly acid, and rather coarse at the
time of hooping, whereas that for " flats " should
be drier, more acid, and finer.

Properly made Wensleydales are prime
cheeses, and there seems to be quite a possibility
of their supplanting a deal of Stiltons within
the next few years. This is not only on account
of their possessing all the good qualities of a
genuine Stilton, but also on account of the
greater yield of cheese from a given amount of
milk by the Wensleydale process, as compared
with the real Stilton process. Indeed up to
within the last few years Wensleydale cheeses
were little known outside the locality of their
making, but now that they are becoming of
much wider repute, the demand for them is
steadily increasing.

CHAPTER X

THE MILK INDUSTRY

THE production of milk in Great Britain is,
next to the production of meat, the most im-
portant branch of our agricultural industry.
During the past ten years it has attained gigantic
proportions, and the old system of retailing milk
to which water was frequently added, drawn from
cows the great majority of which were stalled
and fed within the precincts of our large towns,
has given place to an improved system under
which pure milk is dispatched, after production
on the farm, direct from the rural districts to
the distributor. The result is that the most
valuable of all foods has been placed before the
people of every class at a price within their
reach, and under conditions which render it
purer and safer than was formerly the case.
What the consumption of milk was twenty-five

Il6 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

years ago it is impossible to say, but in spite
of the enormous increase in production, it is
believed, upon the basis of careful estimates, that
the consumption per head of the population per
day does not exceed a quarter of a pint. In
America the milk industry has increased with still
more rapid strides, and in the great States of New
York and Massachusetts the consumption has
been raised by leaps and bounds, until, e.g., the
per capita consumption in the city of Boston has
reached 1*33 half-pints per day. It is a curious
fact that the milk consumption of the oldest city
of the New World should be so much greater —
in fact, nearly three times as great — as the con-
sumption per head of the inhabitants of the city
of Manchester.

The fact that milk production has been more
profitable to the farmer than most of the other
branches of his industry, has, of late, induced
numbers of tenants to keep dairy cows and
produce milk for sale, or manufacture butter or
cheese. Increased production has in this way
increased competition, with the result that prices
have fallen. Hitherto the prices of cheese and
butter have been regulated by the imports from

THE MILK INDUSTRY 1 1/

other countries, but until recently there have
been no imports of milk except in a condensed
form, so that the price of milk, as retailed from
day to day, has been regulated by home competi-
tion. Now, however, winter milk and cream are
dispatched from Holland and Scandinavia, and
although the quantity sent us is small as com-
pared with the quantity we consume, yet it is
evident that if a hundred thousand gallons can
be sent successfully, it is probable that the trade
will rapidly increase, and should this be the case
the prosperity of the dairy farmer will decline
more rapidly than it has hitherto done. We
cannot prevent the importation of food from
abroad, but we can control the system under
which that food is imported, in order, first, that
there may be no unfairness in the competition
between our own people and the farmers of
other countries ; and second, that the food im-
ported shall be pure and wholesome. In
regard to the first point there is no fairness.
The charges for conveyance of foreign milk
and cream are infinitely less than the charges
for the conveyance of the same materials
at home ; and as regards the wholesome con-

Il8 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

dition of the milk sent us we have no guarantee
whatever. Contagious diseases abound on the
Continent, and farm workmen who have
suffered from these diseases may be employed
as milkers before they are fit for the work,
while the fact that many of the cattle are
diseased is sufficient to show that there is
real danger in the consumption of imported
milk which has not been sterilized before it
is delivered to the consumer. We have re-
marked that home competition is intensified.
The result is that prices have fallen to a
figure which is without precedent, which means
that unless dairy farmers combine to protect
their own interests, prices will fall still further
until no margin of profit remains. Nor is a
reduction of price brought about by the action
of the consumer, who in our experience has
never sounded one note of complaint in this
direction. It is owing to competition between
the various competitors in the milk trade, so
many of whom have striven to retain the retail
price of milk and to pay the farmer, as they
were accustomed to pay, such a sum as will
enable him to conduct his business with success.

THE MILK INDUSTRY 119

By combination further reduction might be suc-
cessfully resisted, but so long as action is isolated,
the necessities of the milk trade resulting from
the keenness of competition will ensure a further
fall.

The milk represented by the butter and
cheese we import amounts to nearly 1,245,000,000
gallons, whereas the milk produced for consump-
tion, assuming the cows in this country — 85 per
cent, of which are in milk — to yield 400 gallons
per annum, is 1,400,000,000 gallons. In a calcu-
lation made for a paper read at the Imperial
Institute in 1895, I estimated the milk produced
and sold as milk and in the form of butter
and cheese at 1,405,000,000 gallons, so that the
estimated yield on the basis above mentioned
closely approximates to the estimated quantity
consumed in some form or other. In the first
place, the anual consumption of raw milk is
placed at 13 gallons per head of the population
per annum. The milk used in the manufacture
of butter is estimated at 2*8 gallons to the
pound ; while the milk utilized in the manufacture
of cheese is estimated at one gallon to the pound.
If we add to this the milk used for condensing,

120 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

and deduct 25,000,000 gallons, which I estimate
to be the quantity displaced by the adulteration
of whole milk with separated milk, we get the
total to which we have already referred. Now,
it is evident upon the face of these figures that
we must necessarily import both butter and
cheese in order to provide for the requirements
of our people ; at the same time, we are also
shown that we have an enormous market if we can
only provide the material for it. That material
we should largely provide if the conditions
were equal, but the foreign producer is assisted
by defective British legislation, and by the unfair
action of the railway companies, who carry his
produce to the disadvantage of the English pro-
ducer. There is -no doubt that the consumption
of milk will immensely increase, and the more the
people realize that it is the most wholesome as
well as the cheapest food in the world, the more
readily will they increase their daily consump-
tion. If they are shown, as they should be, as
often as possible, that while a large proportion of
the solid matter of meat is absolutely indigestible,
and that apart from this there is considerable
waste as between the joint purchased and the

THE MILK INDUSTRY 121

joint consumed — every particle of the solid
matter in milk is digestible in the highest degree
— they will be able to appreciate the fact that
the one food is not only more valuable in the
sustenance of mankind, but infinitely cheaper,
pound for pound.

The cost of production of, milk depends upon
various circumstances, the rent of the land and
its quality, the cost of labour and the cost of
food. It also depends, particularly in winter,
upon the manner in which the food is selected
and utilized. Generally speaking, dairy cows
graze in summer, grass being occasionally sup-
plemented— and this is extremely wise — by the
addition of cotton cake, grains, or meal, whereas
in winter a common ration is chaff, pulped roots,
with cake, meal or grains mixed and given, after
heating for some hours, at the rate of so many
pounds per day. The cost of the production of
milk, then, depends upon the cost of the pro-
duction of the hay, straw, roots, or whatever is
grown upon the farm, as well as upon the cost
of the purchased foods. It follows, therefore,
that in producing milk, one of the chief objects
of the dairy farmer should be to grow heavy

122 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

crops of those materials which are consumed by
the cow, and of which hay, straw, and roots are
the chief in winter, and grass in summer. To
this question, however, we cannot devote any
space. It is, nevertheless, clear that those who
feed upon a principle which has been found to
succeed in practice, obtain the best results.
They recognize that the cow needs the necessary
material to maintain the heat of her body, to
provide for the waste of tissue which is per-
petually going on, and for the manufacture of
the solid materials which are present in milk,
and in consequence they compose a ration which
includes the necessary proportion of albuminoids,
which they obtain by using such foods as cake,
beans, peas, vetches, or various meals with
liberality. There is no doubt that the cost of
production plus the cost of conveyance and the
supply of railway churns closely approximates
to the summer price of milk, which is perhaps
upon the average no higher than 6d. a gallon, a
great deal being sold below this figure.

We have referred to the system of adulteration
which is now so widespread, and which is in-
creasing from month to month. The Centrifugal

THE MILK INDUSTRY 123

Cream Separating Machine, excellent as it is, has
become, in some hands, a medium for the dis-
tribution of adulterated milk. When skilfully
used, separated milk can be mixed with whole
milk to a large extent and sold to the consumer
without any fear of detection and punishment,
and the reason is obvious. There is no standard
of quality, and so long as a sample of milk
satisfies the requirements of the public analyst
it usually passes muster. The analyst is generally
liberal-minded and generous, and in the absence
of a definite law he frequently permits individuals
to escape who ought to be severely punished.
An average sample of good milk, from whatever
part of England it may be taken, contains at
least 3*4 per cent, of fat and 12*3 per cent, of total
solids, but so long as a sample contains 275
per cent, of fat, and is not otherwise suspicious, it
generally passes muster. There is practically no
milk the produce of a well-fed herd of cows which
contains at any time less than 3 per cent, of fat,
but there are thousands of herds in which the
average milk contains from 3*5 to 5 per cent.
It is perfectly easy, therefore, to obtain milk of

124 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

good quality, and by mixing it with separated
milk to produce a mixture which, if analyzed,
will be found to contain more than 275 per
cent, of fat.

It has been urged by various responsible
bodies that a standard requiring milk to contain
3 per cent, of fat should be fixed by law. I
have myself urged that it should be raised to
3*25 per cent., and for reasons which are easily
given. The trade insists that farmers as well
as members of their own body would be fre-
quently fined in consequence of the fact that
milk occasionally falls below the proposed
standard. It sometimes does fall below that
figure in the case of individual cows, but a just
law would provide that the owner of a single
cow should be allowed to appeal to her, a
sample of her milk being taken direct by the
analyst, or in his presence. As regards the
farmer, however, the matter is entirely different.
It is in his power to select his cattle, to dispose
of producers of poor milk, and to replace them
with producers of rich milk, which are common
enough ; but no such steps are taken by the

THE MILK INDUSTRY 125

farming community to-day simply because the
law does not control the quality of milk, and so
long as anything will suffice which is passable,
farmers cannot be expected to take trouble which
will not increase their receipts. By the aid of
recent inventions, farmers and milk-sellers alike
are able to test a number of samples of milk in
a few minutes, so that there would be no excuse
for the distribution of a sample containing less
fat than the standard required. If the present
system is allowed to continue, the whole milk
trade will degenerate into more or less fraudulent
competition connived at by the authorities in
power. If there were no precedent for the pro-
posal which has been made, it would be more
difficult to urge its expediency, but standards
exist in many parts of the world — in America
in particular; and it is remarkable that in
Boston, Massachusetts, where the consumption
of milk is greater than in any part of England,
the standard is higher than in any other city
in the world. After myself investigating the
question in America, and being shown by those
responsible for the conduct of the law that the

126 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

consumption of milk as well as its quality
has immensely increased since the institution
of a high standard, I am satisfied that, bear-
ing the above suggestions in mind, we should
benefit the dairy industry of England in a
high degree by instituting a standard for
ourselves.

*- • TH.*.

f TJV IT Y

CHAPTER XI

THE PRINCIPLES OF BUTTER-MAKING

A SAMPLE of pure butter should contain no
more than from 10 to 15 per cent, of moisture,
a good sample averaging about 12 per cent, and,
unless heavily salted, an almost infinitesimal
proportion of mineral matter. Theoretically,
butter should contain nothing more than the fat
of milk, the salt which is added during manu-
facture, and the water which up to a certain
point is inseparable from butter. Those who
understand the manufacture of butter are well
aware that both by the exercise of skill and care-
lessness a much larger amount of water can be
added to it than is essential ; and it follows that
the larger the amount of water, the greater the
weight of the butter produced. To knowingly
manufacture butter with excessive moisture is

fraudulent, for the consumer pays the price of
127

128 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

butter for water; but it should be remembered
that the perpetrators of a fraud of this character
often defeat their own object, inasmuch as butter
of high quality cannot be produced, nor will it
keep if the water is excessive. Excessive
salting is equally deleterious to the quality ; a
minute proportion of salt improves the flavour
common to butter, but a large quantity masks
it, at the same time adding to the weight. We
have remarked that there should be no other
material in butter than fat, water, and salt.
In practice, however, it is next to impossible to
remove either the whole of the sugar, or the
casein or curdy matter ; and this being the case,
in the course of time — and it depends entirely
upon the proportion of caseous matter left in the
butter — a sample becomes rancid and unfit either
for sale or consumption. The prime object,
therefore, under the British system of butter-
making is to produce as large a quantity of
butter of the finest flavour as possible, re-
ducing the moisture and the extraneous curdy
matter and sugar to the lowest possible pro-
portions. In the first place, then, in order to
produce quantity it is necessary to use the cream

THE PRINCIPLES OF BUTTER-MAKING 129

separator, which extracts more fat from the milk
than is obtainable by any other process. If this
is followed by treatment which has for its object
the conversion of as much of this fat as possible
into butter, a maximum quantity will be ob-
tained. As regards quality, it is first of all im-
portant that the milk should be obtained from
carefully fed cows which are milked by clean
hands into clean vessels, the milk being sub-
sequently strained before manipulation. The
apartment in which the various operations take
place should be perfectly pure. In this case
the cream from the separator will in due
course ripen properly, and fine flavour will in
consequence develop. Having obtained quan-
tity and flavour, we have next to deal with the
conversion of the butter-fat obtained in the
churn into made-up butter. As we shall see,
the grains of fat as they are first produced are
floating in buttermilk, the particular constituent
of which is casein. This casein is an essential
food of the lactic ferment; hence its removal
is necessary. Careful washing, therefore, is
the first process; and if the tiny grains are
washed at a given stage, which is shown in

K

130 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

every dairy school, the greater portion of the
curd will be removed, and almost pure butter-
fat left behind.

Let us, however, assume that inferior butter is
produced in a dairy, and that the occupier is
unable to improve the quality. It may be asked
how the production of an inferior article can be
converted into the production of one of really
high quality. The thing is easy if the work is
carried out with intelligence and thoroughness.
The manufacturer must condescend to details and
recognize scientific facts. The alteration which
takes place in cream, that is to say its change from
perfect sweetness to a condition of sourness,
acidity, or ripeness, is owing to the presence of an
organism or bacterium which can only be dis-
covered by those who are skilled in the use of the
microscope. This organism rapidly increases in
number when milk is warm and exposed to the
atmosphere. It converts the sugar of milk into
lactic acid ; hence the^ourness of milk. If this
change is allowed to continue unchecked, the curd
of the milk will coagulate, and it is for this reason
that cream when allowed to ripen for churning
becomes thicker. If cream is churned while it is

THE PRINCIPLES OF BUTTER-MAKING 131

still sweet it is frequently longer before it is con-
verted into butter, it produces less butter, and
the flavour is less full and nutty. The object,
therefore, of ripening cream is to increase the
quantity of butter and improve the flavour. In
every dairy the lactic ferment is present either
upon the utensils or in the atmosphere itself;
but in some cases there are other organisms
which, unlike the lactic ferment, have a
contrary influence, producing a disagreeable
flavour which reduces the value of the butter.
The object of the dairyman, therefore, should be
to maintain the apartment in which the milk or
cream is placed, as well as the utensils employed,
in as cleanly a condition as possible. There need
be no fear about boiling water or lime destroying
the lactic ferment. If it is removed from the
utensils it is present in the air, and present, too,
in a clean dairy perhaps in much larger numbers
than any other organism is likely to be, and it
is absolutely essential to the production of good
butter. On the other hand, in a dirty apartment
and on dirty utensils dangerous ferments are
common ; and if through conditions which suit
them — and dirt is the chief of these — they are

132 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

induced to increase in number, they may obtain
the mastery, and destroy the flavour and quality
of the butter produced. Let us suppose, there-
fore, as we have suggested already, that bad
butter is produced in a dairy which has not been
kept under the most perfect conditions. How can
a change be brought about ? In the first place,
the whole of the utensils, shelves, and tables
should be removed and thoroughly cleansed
with boiling water. The walls and ceilings
should be lime-washed and the floor scalded
and dried, for a dairy should be dry. In this
way every colony or nest, as it were, of the
undesirable bacteria will be destroyed, and the
clean utensils being returned to the dairy may
be employed both in the raising of cream and
in the manufacture of butter without any fear
whatever. If, however, the manufacturer desires
to proceed upon still more definite lines, 'and to
omit no course of procedure which will ensure
success, he may introduce from the most success-
ful dairy with which he is acquainted a small
quantity of the sour buttermilk which has been
produced from the same day's churning. This
buttermilk will contain the germs or bacteria

THE PRINCIPLES OF BUTTER-MAKING 133

which have been responsible for the production of
butter-flavour of high class. If this buttermilk is
added to the cream which has been obtained from
the milk in the now thoroughly clean dairy, that
cream will be inoculated, and when it has ripened
it will be sufficiently perfect to be churned with
every hope of success ; and henceforth, so long
as cleanliness is observed, there need be no fear
as to the maintenance and constant reproduction
of the friendly bacteria which are so desirable, as
we have pointed out, in the manufacture of butter.
Let us now deal with the actual process of
manufacture. The milk is drawn from the cows,
and arrives in the dairy at a temperature of
about 90° F. or a little higher. It may be at
once passed through the mechanical separator
and skimmed, or it may be poured while still
warm into shallow vessels in order that the
cream may rise by gravitation. Under such
conditions the dairy should not be more than
60° F. — if it is as low as 50°, so much the better.
The reason is that the greater the difference
between the temperature of the milk and the
temperature of the dairy the quicker and the
more effectually will the cream rise. Cream is

134 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

present in milk in the form of tiny globules ;
these globules are much lighter than the other
portion of the milk, hence when the milk is at
rest they rise to the surface just as a cork rises
to the surface of a volume of water at the bottom
of which it has been placed. The reason why
the fat rises better in warm milk placed in a
cold apartment is that the fat feels the change
of temperature less rapidly than the rest of the
milk, inasmuch as it is a non-conductor of heat.
This being so, the difference in the density or
specific gravity of the fat and the liquid portion
of the milk is greater, and the fat is relatively
lighter than it would otherwise be where there
is no difference in the temperatures. In hot
weather cream rises with far greater rapidity
than in cold ; milk rapidly becomes acid, both
cream and milk thicken or coagulate, and for
this reason the smaller globules of fat which are
at the bottom of a milk-setting vessel are not
able to rise at all — they are impeded, as it were,
by the coagulation of the casein, hence a pro-
portion of the butter-fat is lost to the churn.
When, however, cream is raised upon a shallow
vessel, it forms a thin layer on the surface and is

THE PRINCIPLES OF BUTTER-MAKING 135

brought into direct contact with the air, and
consequently is oxidized or ripened with greater
perfection : on the other hand, where cream is
obtained through the medium of the separator
it is kept in bulk and is less throughly oxidized,
because in passing through the machine it has
been in contact with the air for but a few seconds,
while the air does not so thoroughly affect the
mass of cream which is kept in a particular
vessel as it does when the same cream is raised
over a large area on the milk in a number of
vessels. It is next to impossible to describe the
exact flavour and appearance of cream which
is just ripe for churning. Those who desire
to know what it is like should take a lesson
from an expert — and fortunately there are now
plenty of teachers in almost every county in
England.

When ripe the cream is passed through a
strainer into the churn, and churned at a tem-
perature which varies in accordance with the
season of the year. In summer it may be
churned at 56° F. and in winter as high as 64°
F., but the exact degree depends upon the heat
of the atmosphere, as we have suggested : a

136 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

little experiment will enable the operator to
thoroughly understand this point. Mixed cream
should never be used : i. e. sweet and sour cream
mixed together. The churn should be well
cooled in summer and slightly warmed in winter
by the aid of clean water, and let us remark
that nothing is of greater importance than pure
water; if it is impure, containing organic matter,
this matter will be imported into the butter and
will assist in decomposing it. After churning
gently for a few minutes the carbonic acid gas
which has formed in the churn may be allowed
to escape by pressing the ventilator. Churning
then continues until the grains of butter have
reached the size of rice. At this point great
care must be exercised. Some excellent makers
here add a few quarts of very cold pure water,
which gives crispness* to the grains, preventing
their adhering to each other so completely.
The butter-milk is then drawn off through a
sieve and more cold water added. It should be
sufficient to enable the grains of butter to float
in the churn and to partially harden. The water
is then again drawn off and fresh cold water
added two or three times, the churn being

THE PRINCIPLES OF BUTTER-MAKING 137

turned gently that the butter grains may be
washed, although they should not unite and
increase in size. Lastly, thin brine may be
added, and in this the butter may remain for
some little time before it is removed, or the
floating butter may be removed from the brine
with a scoop and placed upon the butter-table,
or into the butter-drier or delaiteuse, from either
of which the water is removed, by working in
the one case, and by centrifugal force in the
other. If dry salting is now performed the
salt should be weighed, having previously been
thoroughly rolled as fine as possible, dried in
an oven and rolled again. It may be distributed
by the aid of a dredger over the butter at the
rate of half an ounce to the pound. If the
butter is to be salted for keeping, from three-
fourths of an ounce to an ounce may be used to
the pound. The water having been perfectly
expelled, the butter is made up for the market,
or it may be allowed to remain in a wooden
trough to still further drain, or it may, as in
Denmark, be made up into rough rolls, allowed
to harden for five or six hours, again worked,
and finally made up for sale.

CHAPTER XII

CREAMERIES AND FACTORIES

A CREAMERY is generally understood to be
an establishment in which the cream sent by the
producer is converted into butter, whereas the
entire milk of the farmer is handled in a factory,
either for conversion into butter or cheese, or
both, as may be found most convenient. The
creamery system, which has been adopted in
America on a somewhat large scale, has certain
advantages which are worthy of notice, although
when compared with the modern factory, these
advantages are more than counterbalanced by the
disadvantages. For example, the farmer who
supplies a factory is required to deliver the milk
twice daily. If he resides some miles from the
building, it becomes essential to keep a horse
and cart for the purpose, while the time of a

man is very largely occupied on the road. The
138

CREAMERIES AND FACTORIES 139

cream-supplier, however, is not required to
deliver his produce daily. He removes the
cream from the milk on his own farm and
retains it, in accordance with the regulations, for
perhaps a couple of days, taking care to mix
every skimming carefully with the bulk. Thus
the journeys are diminished in number, while the
weight carried on each is incomparably less.
In supplying the factory, too, the farmer either
parts with the separated milk, which is a great
loss to his stock, or he buys it back at a price
which is often higher than it ought to be, while
in all cases it has to be carried back to the farm.
Formerly cream was purchased in America at
so much per inch, but as cream differs in quality,
this was found to be an unsatisfactory system.
Latterly, the principle of churning the cream of
each contributor separately has been adopted,
with payment in accordance with the butter
produced. I have had the advantage of inspect-
ing creameries where this plan has been carried
out, and of ascertaining from the books that not
only was the quantity of butter produced very
often exceptionally small, but its market value
varied enormously, sometimes falling as low as

140 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

yd. per pound, and at other times reaching
as much as nd. The difference was owing
almost entirely to the system prevailing on the
various farms. Where care was taken to pro-
duce absolutely pure, clean milk, to raise the
cream in an equally pure dairy, and to ripen it
properly, the result was butter of high quality ;
but where no care was taken disagreeable
flavours were developed in the cream, and the
butter was in consequence immensely reduced
in value. It must be evident that where cream
of varying qualities are thus separately churned a
dairy organization is placed at a great disadvan-
tage. Success depends so much upon high
quality all round and upon the acquisition of a
name for a perfect sample. The very fact of a
creamery turning out a variety of samples
differing in quality, is sufficient to handicap it
so seriously in the market that even the best
butter it produces realizes less than would be
the case if the whole of the produce were alike
good. It may be safely pointed out, however,
that although the produce of a butter factory is
of much higher average quality than the samples
of butter made in a creamery, that quality is to

CREAMERIES AND FACTORIES 141

some extent controlled by the fact that the
milk is mixed. For example, assuming that
fifty farmers contribute milk to a factory, there
are certain to be some who do not grasp the
fact that the quality of butter depends almost
entirely upon the purity of the atmosphere in
which the cows exist, of the water they drink, of
the vessels into which the milk is poured, and of
the cleanliness of the udder, the hands and
clothes of the milkers. The introduction of a
few lots of unclean milk into a volume of clean
milk will immensely depreciate its value and
the value of the butter obtained from it. Thus
it happens that the careless contributor obtains
as much for his milk, if it passes muster, as the
man who exercises the greatest care and skill.
We may take it for granted that the creamery
system is next to impossible in England,
although it may still answer in some parts of
Ireland, where, in consequence of the difficulties
of locomotion, it is impossible to deliver milk
twice daily. The same objection cannot be
made to the factory system, which is the only
system applicable to such countries as Canada,
Western America, and the Australian Colonies,

142 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

as well as to parts of Ireland and a few districts
in England and Scotland.

Hitherto the reason why the factory has
failed to obtain a hold upon the milk-producing
portion of our population is that by means of
butter or cheese production on a large scale it
has not been possible to pay the producer so
much for his milk as he can obtain by selling it
for consumption in the large towns. There is,
however, it is to be feared, a possibility that the
value of milk for consumption will fall still lower
until it approximates in value to the price paid
to the factory. Should this be the case, the
factory system is certain to extend ; but under
present conditions it is applicable — unless in a
few special instances and for reasons which it is
unnecessary to state — only to those parts of the
country which are too distant from large centres
of population, or which are badly supplied with
railway communication. It is for this reason
that we find factories existing in parts of
Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall, and it is obvious
that where butter realizes no more than from
lod. to lid. a pound during several of the
summer months, the milk cannot be worth

CREAMERIES AND FACTORIES 143

anything like so much as its market price for
consumption, which has seldom fallen below 6d.
a gallon until last year, especially where it
requires 2 J gallons to produce a pound of butter.
Let us refer for a moment to what has been
done in Ireland by the Irish Agricultural
Organization Society. Last year there were
fifty-six co-operative dairies with eight branches,
while some fifteen other dairies were in course
of formation. The returns obtained by the
Secretary of the Society show that the average
yield of the cows from which the factories
obtained their milk is 435 gallons per annum.
It has been pointed out that the average value
of farm-made butter in Ireland in 1894 was 8d.
a pound, so that, on the assumption that each
pound of butter produced at home required three
gallons of milk, the return per cow to the farmer
would be £4 i6s. 8d. On the other hand, the
price paid for the milk by the factories having
been -$\d. per gallon, the farmer contributing
received £1 los. 2.d. per cow more than had he
retained his milk for conversion into butter at
home. In each case the separated milk would
be utilized upon the farm, although we are

144 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

bound to point out that something must be
allowed for the conveyance of the milk between
farm and factory. Estimating the value of the
separated milk returned to the farm at id. per
gallon, and the quantity returned at 345 gallons,
the total receipt per cow would be £7 15^. yd.
If we take the average value of milk sold in
England for consumption at 7<£, and it is
possible that it will not reach a higher figure in
the immediate future, we arrive at a total of
£12 i$s. gd., from which the cost of railway
churns and of the conveyance of the milk to the
station must be deducted. Again, a cow yielding
the same quantity of milk would, if that milk
was of exceptionally high quality, as in the case
of the Jersey, produce 24 Ibs. of butter, which, at
the Irish price of 8d. per pound, would yield
£8 os. %d.y or, plus 90 per cent, of the skimmed
milk, £g i$s. 2d. ; while at an average of is. a
pound the return would equal £13 i$s.6d. How
small, however, are all these figures compared
with what was obtained a few years ago by butter-
makers, cheese-makers, and milk-sellers alone !
We have been enabled to examine accounts of
dairy farmers in the county of Cheshire, where

CREAMERIES AND FACTORIES 145

over £20 a head has formerly been realized on
herds of from eighty to one hundred cows. As, in
many cases, rents have not decreased, as labour
has maintained its value, and as the reductions
in food stuffs and manures have been compara-
tively small, it would seem that the deficiency is
to be made up out of the farmer's pocket. The
Irish factories realized an average price of
iO'22d. per pound for butter in 1894, which
was i '2gd. per pound less than in the previous
year. While prices have fallen, however, the
quality of the milk has risen. Thus, in 1893 the
Irish factory milk produced 6' 19 oz. of butter per
gallon, but in 1894 6*33 ozs., and this is one
feature to which closer attention will have to be
paid in the future. Prices cannot fall below
a certain figure ; and it is possible that the
farmer may, by the exercise of higher and still
higher skill and care, not only increase the yield
of milk per cow, but the quality of that milk
also. It is, for example, quite possible to main-
tain a herd of Jerseys which will yield a still
higher average than 435 gallons per annum, and
at the same time to produce milk which will

146 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

yield butter at the rate of one pound per 17^ Ibs.
of milk, instead of one pound to 2^ gallons, as
is now the case in the best factories. In Ireland
the cost of production based upon the general
working expenses is about 10 per cent., or id.
per pound when butter is at lod. ; but in the
respective factories this figure may slightly
differ for several reasons. Taking the factories
working in 1894 as an example, it is found that
the value of the butter produced varied from an
average of 9-63^. to ir6od. per pound, while the
cost of the milk varied from $d. to 3*83^. ; and
still further, the yield of the butter produced
from the milk varied from 5-82 oz. to 678 ozs.
to the gallon. Thus, then, the cost of production
depends upon the quality of the milk, the price
paid per gallon, and the market value of the
butter, as well as upon the actual amount of the
working expenses, such as wages, packages,
machinery, wear and tear, carriage, and
management.

We have already referred to the fact that
cream has been paid for by the inch. It is now
generally recognized that milk should be paid

CREAMERIES AND FACTORIES 147

for in accordance with its butter value, or, where
cheese is made, by its cheese value. Let us see
how this system can be worked, taking the case
of a factory paying a regular price to its con-
tributors of 6d. an imperial gallon, or what is
preferable, 6d. per 10 Ibs., for the measurement of
milk is never satisfactory, the fluid being larger
in volume when it is warm and smaller when it
is cold. Let us suppose, too, that the factory
manager is willing to pay an extra penny per
gallon to be distributed among the contributors
in proportion to the value of their milk, no milk
being received which does not contain more
than 3 per cent of fat. During the three months
over which the accounts run, 108,000 gallons
have been delivered, representing an average of
about 1 200 gallons a day. The extra penny
per gallon upon this quantity would amount to
£450, which is the sum available for distribution
among the various contributors upon the basis
of quality. One contributor may have supplied
60 gallons a day with an average fat percentage
of 3 '2. Another may have supplied 30 gallons
with an average percentage of fat of 3*5, while a

148 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

third contributor has sent in 20 gallons daily,
containing 4 per cent of fat. Now we shall see
how the account stands —

GALLONS. DAYS. PER CENT. DEGREES.

A ... 60 ... 90 ... 3-2 ... 1,728

B ... 30 ... 90 ... 3-5 ... 945

C ... 20 ... 90 ... 4*0 ... 720

Remaining contributors ... 34,300

37,693

Each degree of fat is shown to be worth 2'86d.,
so that C, who has contributed i per cent of fat
more than the minimum permitted, becomes
entitled to £8 us., multiplying the 720 by 2-86.
He receives more than the full penny allotted,
whereas, had his milk failed to reach more than
3 per cent he would not have received a single
shilling. This plan, which is ingenious and prac-
tical, is of American origin, and if we do not
think our cousins equal us in the quality of their
produce, they at least exhibit much greater skill
and originality in their system of management.
Let us take another system. Assuming that the
whole of the milk delivered to the factory is of
good quality, it is paid for in accordance with
the butter actually produced. As it is impos-

CREAMERIES AND FACTORIES 149

sible, unless the milk is separately handled, to
ascertain the exact amount of butter produced
by each of the contributors of milk, every
sample is tested by such a machine as the Bab-
cock Tester, and the quantity of fat present
ascertained. Supposing A has produced 3000
pounds of milk containing 4 per cent, of fat, and
B 4000 pounds containing 4! per cent, A will
have produced 120 Ibs. of fat and B i8o.lbs., or
300 Ibs. in all. It follows, therefore, that when
the money value of the butter produced, after
deducting the cost of manufacture, is^distributed,
B will receive exactly two-thirds as much as A,
B's larger cheque being entirely owing to the
fact that his milk was richer, and had produced
more butter.

We are bound to remember that excellent as
factory butter and cheese are, as compared with
the average farm-house samples, there can be no
question about the fact that the finest sample
made by a skilled maker from milk which has
been produced under his own supervision is
superior to any sample produced in a factory
which is necessarily obtained from mixed milk,

ISO CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING

produced under various systems of feeidng from
cattle managed in different ways, and by more
or less cleanly individuals. The factory is of
enormous value, but we cannot admit that it
can or that it ought to beat the produce of the
farm, where that produce is obtained by the aid
of the greatest skill.

THE END

Richard Clay 6° Sons, Limited, London &* Bimgay.

THISTLE MILKING
MACHINE.

MILKI?i- MACHINE
DAIRY OUTFIT C t L!

KING'S CROSS LONDON

SOLE AGENTS :— DAIRY OUTFIT CO., LTD., KING'S CROSS, LONDON,

Who also supply the Victoria and Empress Cream Separators
and all Appliances for Dairy use.

iry use.

BRITISH DAIRY-FARMING,

TO WHICH IS ADDED

A Description of the Chief Continental Systems.

BY JAMES LONG.
With numerous Illustrations. Crown 8vo, gs.

" By far the most important part of Mr. Long's valuable contribution to the literature of
dairy-farming is that mentioned in the sub-title of the book, ' A Description of the Chief
Continental Systems.' By this comparison we do not intend to disparage the chapters
relating to British dairy-farming, which are full of useful facts, figures, hints, and illus-
trated descriptions of most approved dairy implements and appliances ; but a great deal
of this is over old familiar ground, whereas in his chapters on Continental systems of
dairying Mr. Long introduces us to fresh fields and pastures new. . . . Mr. Long has
travelled in France, Switzerland, and Italy, with the special object of studying the
manufacture of the cheeses for which these countries are famous all over the civilized world,
and he has given such complete details in the book before us that it will be the fault of his
agricultural readers if they do not make some of these fancy products of the dairy. . . .
He has also a great deal to tell his readers about butter-making in France, Denmark,
and other parts of Europe. His book is not a large one for his comprehensive subject ;
but it is crammed with valuable information which every dairy-farmer would do well
to study."— Pall Mall Gazette.

FARMING FOR PLEASURE AND
PROFIT.

By ARTHUR ROLAND. Edited by WILLIAM ABLETT.
Eight vols. , large crown 8vo, 55. each.

Dairy- Farming, Management of Cows, etc.

Poultry-Keeping.

Tree- Planting, for Ornamentation or Profit, suitable to

every soil and situation.
Stock-Keeping and Cattle- Rearing.
The Drainage of Land, Irrigation, and Manures.
Root-Growing, Hops, etc.
Market-Garden Husbandry.
The Management of Grass Lands, Laying down Grass,

Artificial Grasses, etc.

" This is another, and probably the last, of the series of agricultural hand-
books, which are convenient in form, handy in price, and bring the informa-
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used, the preparation of the soil, the cultivation of the crop during its early
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are all matters which are clearly dealt with. The treatment of meadows,
haymaking, &c., are very fully entered into, as also the cultivation of artificial
grasses, fodder crops, &c."— Field.

Uniform with the above Series.

BRITISH BEE-FARMING: ITS PROFITS
AND PLEASURES.

By JAMES F. ROBINSON.
With 21 Illustrations. Large crown 8vo, 55.

" It puts before the public, on unquestionable authority, an unvarnished
and honest statement of the advantages and difficulties (such as these are) of
bee-keeping, and is in itself, therefore, a far more powerful incentive to the
industry than any number of philanthropic or sentimental exhortations to the
same object."— Daily Telegraph.

In small crown 8vo, 35.

THE PLEASURES AND PROFITS OF

OUR LITTLE POULTRY FARM.

By G. HILL.

" A charming picture of rural life."

"This is not by any means a dry collection of statistics, garnished with
frequent tables bristling with figures. On the contrary, it is a very pleasantly
written record of the successful experiments in poultry-farming made by a
gentleman who had settled down on a small property in the north-east part
of Hampshire. There is an abundance of useful information for those who
are interested in the keeping of poultry."

CHAPMAN AND HALL, LIMITED.

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