Cheshire cheese

“ Johnson down to the present day unbroken links of tradition connect the Cheshire Cheese of the twentieth century with the Cheshire Cheese of the eighteenth, and through that with all the taverns in story, which begin with the Tabard and pass on, through the Mermaid and the rest, to the old house in Wine Office Court. This venerable survivor of a vanished race has a double interest: to the lover of antiquity in general it appeals as the type of the place our forefathers loved ”

“ CHEESE RENNET, or Yellow Bed-Straw, Galium verum, L. is a native plant growing on the sides of fields and roads. It has a firm, erect, square stem; short branches, terminating in spikes of small yellow blossoms, appearing in July and August.
The flowers of this plant coagulate boiling milk; and it is, we apprehend erroneously, supposed that the best Cheshire cheese is prepared by their influence. When boiled in alum-water, says Dr. Withering, they tinge wool yellow. The roots dye a very fine red, not inferior to madder. They also impart a similar colour to the bones of animals fed upon them. ”

“ And who, again, has never yet been so fortunate as to witness that appetising procession to be seen every Saturday during the winter months, when Mr. Moore, the master of the house, in dress coat clad, and armed with a mighty carver, precedes into the room that mighty steak and oyster pudding, the secret of whose manufacture has never been allowed to penetrate beyond the mazes of Wine Office Court.”
And again the same writer observes:—“The secret of the success of the Cheshire Cheese is that everything sold within its doors is good. ”

“ The sign beneath which the Doctor stands intimates to all and sundry that “The Cheshire Cheese” was rebuilt in 1667, seven years after the glorious Restoration, on the site of that older Cheshire Cheese, where Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and many another Elizabethan wit were wont to quaff their sack amid laughter and eager bandying of jest. We will leave the Doctor to make for his favourite seat in the room on the left, while we enter the bar. This [Pg 16] is a delightful apartment in its tranquil reminder of the past. ”

“ Cheshire Cheese is remarkable for its uniformity, being, in dairies of the best repute, made by fixed rules, and usually by the same persons. If the number of cows is sufficient to make a cheese from one meal, that amount is used ”

“ But in Fleet Street there is one that is specially interesting. We can fancy the Doctor tramping up to his favourite tavern, the Cheshire Cheese.
“Passing into the dark alley known as Wine Office Court, we come to a narrow flagged passage, the house or wall on the other side quite close and excluding the light. The ‘Cheese’ looks indeed a sort of dark den, an inferior public-house, its grimed windows like those of a shop, which we can look at from the passage. On entering, there is the little bar facing us, and always the essence of snugness and cosiness ”

“ More or less throughout every day of the week barristers and journalists—even members of Parliament are not always missing—come to this house for their dinner, and sit contentedly round the sides of two good old-fashioned rooms. But it is on Saturday that the Cheshire Cheese is seen at its best. Then it is that ‘rump-steak pudding’ makes its appearance ”

“ Grate three ounces of fat Cheshire cheese, mix it with the yelks of two eggs, four ounces of grated bread, and four ounces of butter, beat the whole well in a mortar, with a teaspoonful of mustard, and a little salt and pepper. Toast some bread, lay the paste as above thick upon it, put it into a Dutch oven, covered with a dish till hot through, remove the dish, and let the cheese brown a little. Serve as hot as possible. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Sharp Cheddar makes tangy Ramekins, as will be seen in this second oldster; for though it prescribes Gloucester and Cheshire "'arf-and-'arf," both are essentially Cheddars. Gloucester has been called "a glorified Cheshire" and the latter has long been known as a peculiarly rich and colorful elder brother of Cheddar, described in Kenelme Digby's Closet Open'd as a "quick, fat, rich, well-tasted cheese."
Cheese Ramekins IV
Scrape fine 1⁄4 pound of Gloucester cheese and 1⁄4 pound of Cheshire cheese. ”

“ For the third of the three best-known varieties of British cheeses—Stilton—there is a considerable demand for the tables of foreign epicures, as it exports well.
Stilton is a blue-molded cheese, which is manufactured of unskimmed milk in a way similar to the methods of making the French Roquefort and the Italian Gorgonzola. Like those, it owes its piquant Flavor to the mold, which is artificially spread throughout the cheese in diverse ways. [18]
Every American tourist who visits London goes to take a meal at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, made famous by Dr. ”

“ A worthy solicitor named Jay—who is garrulous, but not unentertaining in a book of anecdotes which he has written—frequented the Cheshire Cheese for fifty years during which long tavern life he says, ‘I have been interested in seeing young men when I first went there who afterwards married; then in seeing their sons dining there, and often their grandsons, and much gratified by observing that most of them succeeded well in life. ”

“ Coming down to more modern times, among the many customers of the house have been Douglas Jerrold, Mark Lemon, Shirley Brooks, [Pg 67] Tom Taylor, Tom Hood, and last, but not least, Thackeray and Dickens.”
In “A Walk up Fleet Street,” which appeared in the Sunday Times, the following passage occurs:—“The Cheshire Cheese is not imposing in appearance, nor is it even to be seen from the street. Two little courts lead to its somewhat dingy portals; portals much frequented by the London correspondents of provincial journals and gallery reporters. ”

“ The “post and panel” work, the “magpie” style, to use the sobriquet sometimes familiarly applied to it, so plentifully strewn throughout its length and breadth, does certainly bring a very distinct contribution to the picturesqueness of the Palatinate, whose now fertile plain, studded with these timber structures, is where buildings of this traditional type most do congregate. Indeed, it is a question whether they do not serve to connote Cheshire quite as much as that prosaic product the cheese, which has [p. 81] made the name and fame of the county a household word! ”

“ The maturity of Stilton cheeses is sometimes hastened by putting them in a bucket, and covering them over with horse-dung.
Gloucester Cheese is likewise quite celebrated for its richness, piquancy, and delicacy of flavor, and justly commands a high price in the market. The management of the milk up to the time of curding is similar to that of Cheshire; a cheese, often being made of one meal, requires no additional heat to raise it to a proper temperature. After the curd is cut into small squares, the whey is carefully drained off through a hair strainer. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The soil is fat, fruitfull, and rich, yielding abundantly both profit and pleasures of man. The Champion grounds make glad the hearts of their Tillers; the Medows imbroidered with divers sweet-smelling flowers; and the Pastures make the Kine’s udders to strout to the Paile, from whom and wherein the best Cheese of all Europe is made.” No apology can be necessary for giving this opinion of his native county in Memorials of Old Cheshire, as it shows the estimation in which he held it three hundred years ago. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The process is not commendable and while it may sell to some extent, in certain markets where a soft, fresh cheese is liked, “washed” or “soaked” curd cheese can never compare favorably in quality with a well-made, firm Cheddar cheese that is mellowed down by long-time curing to a consistency so it will fairly melt in your mouth.
Composition.—The American cheese contains almost all the casein and the butter-fat of the milk, besides such portions of the milk-albumin, milk-sugar, and mineral matter as are held in the water or whey which is retained in the cheese. ”

“ With the present bettered quality of milk and the improved skill of makers in handling it, inflative cheese ought to now be foreign to the curing room. Bad taints are at present seldom met with, but slight ones creep in unawares, unless the maker is vigilant, and then it is his business to eradicate the ill-savor. Sour until acid has completely overcome the gas, grind twice, and give the curd a prolonged airing by frequent stirring. Try the prolonged stirring on common curds that are hot—too hot to go immediately to press—and notice how it will enhance the flavor of the cheese. ”

“ Named from cooking sour clabbered curd to the melting point. When cool it is allowed to stand three or four days until it is colored through. Then it is cooked again with salt, milk, and usually caraway. It is stirred until it's as thick as molasses and strings from a spoon. It is then put into pots or molds, whose shape it retains when turned out.
All cooked cheese is apt to be tasteless unless some of the milk flavor cooked out is put back in, as wheat germ is now returned to white bread. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The moment the acid is sufficiently developed, though the curd be yet soft and raw, the whey is drawn, the curd is further cooled and soaked, and then dipped, drained, salted and put to press. A leaky cheese is the result. If the weather [Pg 75] is cool and bad for curing, a sour cheese follows. But whatever the weather may be, we doubt if a leaky cheese ever yet turned out all right in flavor and quality. It can never have that nutty, new-milk flavor which belongs to cheese properly cooked. ”

“ The acid used in curdling milk acts upon the caseine alone, and not upon the butter particles, which are imbedded in the curd as it hardens, and thus increase its richness and flavor without adding to its consistency, which is due to the caseine.
It is evident, therefore, that cheese made entirely of cream cannot have the firmness and consistence of ordinary cheese. It is only made for immediate use, and cannot be long kept. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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." ”

“ The whey can be drawn when but very little acid has appeared, and the curd, packed and drained, waits for the sourness to develop there. It matures more slowly than when submerged in whey, and when the right point is reached the iron teeth of the mill attack it and tear it up and salt it when in a dry state, which is a great advantage. The make-room should be supplied with a gang press and patent hoops, because one screw will compress a dozen cheese and solidify them more firmly than old fashioned single screws. A good cheese can be spoiled after it is in the hoop by insufficient pressing. ”