Cheddar cheese

“ There is no need, it may be presumed, to instruct the reader in the two things for which Cheddar is deservedly famous—its cheese and cliffs. Time was, and that until quite recent years, when the tourist who by some strange chance knew nothing of Cheddar cheese might proceed through the picturesque village without a glimpse of its staple product. So modest was Cheddar that no one would deduce or suspect a cheese in the entire district. But nowadays—these being days of strenuous publicity—shops that do nothing else but sell cheeses are a feature of the place. ”

“ In this country the cheese is prepared twice a day, since it is necessary to work up the milk while it is perfectly sweet. Indeed, the milk is received at the factories while it is still warm, and within five or six hours after it is drawn from the cow the cheese is on the press. If the attempt is made to prepare Swiss cheese from the kind of milk that is best suited for cheddar purposes, i.e., milk in which the acidity has increased to some extent, the flavor of the resulting product is likely to approximate a cheddar cheese rather than that of a Swiss. ”

“ Unlike the beginning of the classical Jugged Hare recipe: "First catch your hare!" we modern Rabbit-hunters start off with "First catch your Cheddar!" And some of us go so far as to smuggle in formerly forbidden fromages such as Gruyère, Neufchâtel, Parmesan, and mixtures thereof. We run the gamut of personal preferences in selecting the Rabbit cheese itself, from old-time American, yellow or store cheese, to Coon and Canadian-smoked, though all of it is still Cheddar, no matter how you slice it. ”

“ Factory Cheddar
U.S.A.
Very Old Factory Cheddar is the trade name for well-aged sharp Cheddar. New Factory is just that—mild, young and tractable—too tractable, in fact.
Farm
France
Known as Ferme; Maigre (thin) ; Fromage à la Pie (nothing to do with apple pie) ; and Mou (weak) . About the same as our cottage cheese.
Farmer
U.S.A.
This is curd only and is nowadays mixed with pepper, lachs, nuts, fruits, almost anything. A very good base for your own fancy spread, or season a slab to fancy and bake it like a hoe cake, but in the oven. ”

“ It is rich, double-thick cream cheese, ranging from a pale to a dark yellow, although when uncolored it may be white. Such cheese, when fresh, has a milk flavor, but when it is well ripened it has a characteristic sharp taste. New Cheddar cheese is soft, but not waxy, in texture and may readily be shaved or broken into small pieces; when it is well ripened, it may be grated. English Cheddar cheese is not unlike AMERICAN CHEDDAR CHEESE, or, as it is commonly called, American cream cheese, which is shown by b. ”

“ Cheddar cheese much resembles Parmesan. It has a very agreeable taste and flavour, and has a spongy appearance. Brickbat cheese has nothing remarkable except its form. It is made by turning with rennet a mixture of cream and new milk. The curd is put into a wooden vessel the shape of a brick, and is then pressed and dried in the usual way. Dunlop cheese has a peculiarly mild and rich taste: the best is made entirely from new milk. New cheese (as it is called in London) is made chiefly in Lincolnshire, and is either made of all cream, or, like Stilton. ”

“ In using cottage cheese as a meat alternate, use about a fourth more by weight than you would of Cheddar cheese. For instance, it would take 10 ounces of cottage cheese (compared with 8 ounces of Cheddar cheese) to alternate for a pound of beef with a moderate amount of fat and bone. Ten ounces of cottage cheese measure about 11⁄4 cups; a pound measures a little more than 2 cups.
We lean heavily on milk as a source of our day’s protein. But it takes almost 7 cups of fluid milk, or about 2 cups of nonfat dry milk, to provide enough protein for 4 servings of a main dish. ”

“ Pure cultures may be bought for a few shillings in the open market.
Table IX.—Comparison of the Estimates of Total or Original Manure-Value when Foods are
consumed for the Production of Fattening Increase, with those when the Food is consumed
by Cows giving different Yields of Milk. The factory-made cheese of Canada, the United States and Australasia, which is so largely imported into the United Kingdom, is all of the Cheddar type. The factory system has made no headway in the original home of the Cheddar cheese in the west of England. ”

“ Professor J. R. Campbell, as the result of experiments on pure cultures for Cheddar cheese-making, states [7] that (1) first-class Cheddar cheese can be made by using pure cultures of a lactic organism; (2) this organism abounds in all samples of sour milk and sour whey; (3) the use of a whey starter is attended with results equal in every respect to those obtained from a milk-starter. It is well within the power of any dairyman to prepare what is practically a pure culture of the same bacterium as is supplied from the laboratory. ”

“ Like meat and eggs, it contains high-quality protein and is an excellent supplement for the protein in bread and such other cereal foods as macaroni, noodles, and spaghetti.
Cheese is not equal in food value to the milk from which it is made. It contains one of the milk proteins but the other is separated out when cheese is made and is left in the whey.
American Cheddar, sometimes called American or “store” cheese, is the cheese most commonly used in cooking in this country. It is sold in natural and processed forms, and varies in flavor from mild to very sharp. ”

“ The latter being raised to 85° Fahr., and the former to 135° Fahr. or upwards, the mixture attains a temperature of about 90° Fahr. The remainder of the process is identical with that used in the manufacture of American Cheddar cheese, except that a special mechanical agitator is used to insure that the curd shall be evenly stirred and cooked, so as to [149] avoid any loss of fat in the whey. Success or failure in the manufacture of imitation cheese seems to depend chiefly upon the perfect emulsion of the skim-milk with the fat in the preliminary process of making artificial cream. ”

“ All middle-aged people who have in younger days lived in localities where dairying reached even modest pretensions can recall the sweet-savored cheese room, an adjunct of the kitchen, whose furnishing of primitive milk utensils was then considered ample for the housewife's use. Associated dairies or factories soon came upon the stage, and their vast superiority of method, coupled with the adoption of the cheddar system, marked an era in cheese improvement, which said in effect, if not in words, that "home dairy cheese must go." ”

“ We are strangely monotonous and unoriginal. About three-fourths of our cheese is an imitation of the English Cheddar, while the rest consists mostly of imitations—generally very poor ones—of Swiss, Dutch, Italian, or German cheeses, or the French Camembert, Roquefort, and so on. Have we no gastronomic imagination? Shall we permit not only the epicures but the peasants of Europe to look down on us for our lack of it? We have, to be sure, a few specialties, such as the Pineapple, the Brick, Isigny, and some special varieties of cream cheese ”

“ Then add the cottage cheese, soda and bread crumbs. Beat the eggs until light and fluffy and add to the cheese mixture. Pour into a well-greased baking dish, and bake for about 30 minutes at 350° F. Serve at once with a hot cheese sauce, made by adding snappy American or Cheddar cheese to a medium white sauce. ”

“ The amateur will usually find it easier to make Neufchatel or Cream or Cottage cheese for home use or for the home market.
Danish kettle and cheese vat
If Cheddar cheese is to be made regularly it is best to get an outfit consisting of a small boiler and a jacketed 105vat, although cheese may be made in a plain wooden tub or any other convenient vessel. The double bottomed vat generally used in American as well as in Danish dairies facilitates both the heating of the milk before setting and the “cooking” of the curd in the whey after cutting. ”

“ Most, but not all, Rabbits are begun by heating a bit of butter or margarine in the pan in which one cup of roughly grated cheese, usually sharp Cheddar, is melted and mixed with one-half cup of liquid, added gradually. (The butter isn't necessary for a cheese that should melt by itself.)
The two principal ingredients are melted smoothly together and kept from curdling by stirring steadily in one direction only, over an even heat. The spoon used should be of hard wood, sterling silver or porcelain. Never use tin, aluminum or soft metal—the taste may come off to taint the job. ”

“ Cook onion in butter until light golden, then blend in flour, wine and soup with the soda and all seasonings. Stir in cheese slowly until melted and finish off by thickening with the egg and stirring until smooth and velvety. Serve on crisp, buttered toast with a dry red wine.
Although wine Rabbits, red or white, are as unusual as Swiss ones with Gruyère in place of Cheddar, wine is commonly drunk with anything from a Golden Buck to a Blushing Bunny. But for most of us, a deep draught of beer or ale goes best with an even deeper draught of the mellow scent of a Cheddar golden-yellow. ”

“ The curd is then salted and pressed into the regular Cheddar shapes and sizes.
A very satisfactory Sage cheese is made at the New York State College of Agriculture by simply dropping green coloring, made from the leaves of corn and spinach, upon the curd, after milling. An even green mottling is thus easily secured without additional labor. Sage flavoring extract is sprayed over the curd by an atomizer. One-half ounce of flavoring is usually sufficient for a hundred pounds of curd and can be secured from dairy supply houses. ”

“ As-with Brie and with oysters, Camembert should be eaten only in the "R" months, and of these September is the best.
Since Camembert rhymes with beware, if you can't get the véritable don't fall for a domestic imitation or any West German abomination such as one dressed like a valentine in a heart-shaped box and labeled "Camembert—Cheese Exquisite." They are equally tasteless, chalky with youth, or choking with ammoniacal gas when old and decrepit.
Cheddar
The English Encyclopedia of Practical Cookery says:
Cheddar cheese is one of the kings of cheese ”

“ This little work on cheese manufacture is inscribed to makers, dealers and consumers, in the hope that its careful perusal may be of aid to one and all. The prestige that American cheese holds in the markets of the world has been threatened from many quarters, but we who inaugurated the Cheddar system on this side of the Atlantic are not prepared to succumb to competition, however sharp, or to prejudice, however strong. American cheese will hold its own as long as it has a square quality basis to stand upon. We possess the most natural and privileged dairy regions on earth. ”

“ Manufacture of Foreign Types of Cheese in the United States. —The improvement of cheeses made in the United States by securing different forms [202] of ferments and utilizing the best method of setting, pressing the curd, and ripening used in other countries is worthy of all encouragement. Unfortunately a disposition has arisen in our country of giving the names of foreign varieties to the domestic articles. Many fancy domestic cheeses are sold under strictly foreign names such as Cheddar, Stilton, Cheshire, Schweitzer, Limburger, Camembert, Brie, Roquefort, etc. ”

“ Ditto.—Take rather a thick slice of either Cheddar or Gloucester cheese, cut into small pieces, put it into a small saucepan, with 1 teaspoonful mustard, 2 tablespoonfuls ale, a very little salt, and a small piece of butter; let it get well heated, stir it up well till it becomes the consistency of thick cream. Pour the mixture on a slice of toast cut into four, dredge a little pepper on the top and serve on a table napkin, very hot. ”

“ Two pounds of salt and the fractional parts of a third pound, up to sixteen ounces per 1,000 pounds of milk, covers the cheese maker's scale for the season in this department. As a rule, two pounds in the spring, with a gradual ascendancy in quantity as the apex of hot weather approaches, and then a declination in quantity toward fall, is about the average amount used per 1,000 pounds of milk for the Cheddar process. There are more makers who do not salt above two and a half pounds in hot weather than there are who use three pounds. ”

“ American Cheese, as it is called in the English markets, whither large quantities are shipped for sale, is made of almost every conceivable variety and quality, from the richest Cheddar or Cheshire to the poorest skim-milk cheese. ”

“ By a charter of 1231 extensive liberties in the manor of Cheddar were granted to Bishop Joceline, who by a charter of 1235 obtained the right to hold a weekly market and fair. By a charter of Edward III. (1337) Cheddar was removed from the king’s forest of Mendip. The market was discontinued about 1690. Fairs are now held on the 4th of May and the 29th of October under the original grants. The name of Cheddar is given to a well-known species of cheese (see Dairy) , the manufacture of which began in the 17th century in the town and neighbourhood. ”

“ More than nine tenths of all made is of the familiar standard variety copied after the English Cheddar, but new kinds and imitations of foreign varieties are increasing. The cheese made in the country, with the small importations added, gives an allowance of less than four pounds a year to every person; but as thirty to fifty million pounds are still annually exported, the per capita consumption of cheese in the United States does not exceed three and a half pounds. ”

“ Cheshire cheese has a fairly firm and uniform texture, neither flaky on the one hand nor waxy on the other; is of somewhat sharp and piquant flavour when fully ripe; and is often—at eighteen months old, when a well-made Cheshire cheese is at its best—permeated with a blue-green mould, which, as in the case of Stilton cheese, contributes a characteristic flavour which is much appreciated. Cheshire cheese is, like Cheddar, sometimes highly-coloured, but the practice is quite unnecessary; the weight is about 55 ℔. Gloucester cheese has a firm, somewhat soapy, texture and sweet flavour. ”