Cheese cloth

“ The butter being hot will strike in and lend toughness and elasticity to the rind. Date the cheese after they have been on the shelves a day. The bandage cloth will then have become dry, and the dates can be made to show clear and distinct. Turn cheese over every day and rub them thoroughly with a sponge of bandage cloth, well oiled. Dealers, retailers, and consumers insist on a good, perfect rind, and, as makers, we must give it to them. Appearance sometimes goes farther than quality, but we want both, and want them united. ”

“ In some dairies the cheeses, after being taken out of the wooden hoop, are bound tight round with a cloth, which cloth is changed every day until the cheese becomes firm enough to support itself; after the cloth is taken away, they are rubbed every day all over, for two or three months, with a brush ”

“ A firm, elastic rind, well oiled, and a spotless bandage cloth, if forming the cuticle of a squarely-built, well-shaped cheese, is all in the line of the appearance that is desired by dealers and retailers. In weighing the cheese, give good up weight, taking no account of anything less than a pound. Use the best quality of scale boards and boxes obtainable, and have the latter fit the cheese snugly. After a cheese is weighed, place a scale board on the top end and shove a box onto it. ”

“ This is best prevented by cutting a sufficient quantity for a few days’ consumption from the cheese, and keeping the remainder in a cool place, rather damp than dry, spreading a thin film of butter over the fresh surface, and covering it with a cloth or pan to keep off the dirt. This removes the objection existing in small families against purchasing a whole cheese at a time. The common practice of buying small quantities of cheese should be avoided, as not only a higher price is paid for any given quality, but there is little likelihood of obtaining exactly the same flavour twice running. ”

“ To keep cheeses moist that are in daily use, when they come from table a damp cloth should be wrapped round them, and the cheese put into a pan with a cover to it, in a cool but not very dry place. To ripen cheeses, and bring them forward, put them into a damp cellar ”

“ When dry and firm, lay them on a board and leave them to acquire hardness gradually in a place of very moderate warmth; should the heat be too great, as we have said, they will burst. When, in spite of all precautions, such accidents occur, the crevices of the burst cheeses are, in Germany, filled with curds and cream mixed, some being also put over the whole surface of the cheese, which is then dried again. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ This month avoid cold draughts through the make-room during the scalding process, as a vat presents a large surface for a current of air to exert a chilling effect upon. Be sure and cook the curd enough. There is a vast amount of fall made cheese that comes to grief through insufficient scalding. If you do not bake a loaf of bread thoroughly, you have a doughy and unpalatable article of food, and if curd is not cooked until it has passed the raw state, it will retain a certain quantity of whey and damage the product on the shelves. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A thorough stirring of the whole mass, therefore, will keep the cream more equally distributed, and it will also secure a greater uniformity of temperature. The cheese must be of evener texture than if made of curd of different degrees of richness mixed together.
It is a question for debate as to whether the cream which rises on milk is thoroughly incorporated with it by stirring. That butter is wasted in making cheese, is a fact that cannot be denied. Some think that nearly all the cream that rises on the vat during the night is floated off in the whey. ”

“ The more whey that is removed the better will be the flavor and keeping qualities of the cheese. The curd should drain out and not dry out. Mix in the salt to suit the taste by using a butter worker or a pail and potato masher. Ordinarily about one ounce of salt to four pounds of curd is sufficient. The cheese is now ready to be run through the food chopper and molded. Sometimes it is packed tightly into screw top jars or jelly glasses with tight covers, but usually the cheese is molded into shape and wrapped in parchment paper, surrounded by tin foil to exclude the air. ”

“ Flavor. —Under flavor also may be described taste, which should be of that biting, incisive character due to proper development of ripening and its attendant bacterial and enzymic products. The various foreign flavors in cheese may be due to the odor of cows or the stable or may suggest “rotten eggs,” or it may be the flavor of rancid butter due to the decomposition of butter fat in the cheese.
Body. —This is also a term which it is difficult to define. An American cheese is said to have a perfect body when it is solid, firm, and smooth in substance. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Concluding Remarks.—It is surprising that cheese is not more frequently made an article of domestic manufacture, especially by housewives resident in the country. The operations of cheese-making are all exceedingly simple, and not laborious, and will, in most cases, amply repay the outlay for the milk. Besides, cheese is not unfrequently coloured with stains and pigments which are injurious, and even poisonous, the risk of taking which is not encountered when it is made at home. Several persons have nearly lost their lives from eating cheese coloured with annotta, for instance. ”

“ The French make cheese from sour milk without heating it. They pour the milk into earthen molds which have holes in the bottom. A very fine sieve may be used instead of the molds. The whey drips out and the curd assumes a custard-like consistency and takes the shape of the mold. When sufficiently stiff, the cheese is chilled, and is eaten with sweet cream and sugar. ”

“ We have an objection to color, for reasons satisfactory to ourselves; and buyers can have no interest in inducing makers to color their cheese, beyond the fact that it makes it more marketable—and in this, patrons and factorymen have a much greater interest than dealers can have. The market demands a rich, even color, and will not be satisfied without it. We say, therefore, as a matter of dollars and cents—not of taste, choice or convenience—keep up the color.
We will give two recipes for preparing annotto: 1. To five pounds of prime annotto put five gallons of strong ley, made from wood ashes ”

“ 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 for the pine-apple cheese is prepared in the same way as the others; but, instead of being put into a vat and then into the cheese-press, it is put into a net with no other pressure than from the hand of the dairy-maid; who, however, prides herself on getting as much into the net as it can possibly hold. The net is then hung up in the cheese-room, and requires no further care.
I shall now give you only one more receipt for making keeping-cheeses, and that shall be for the far-famed Parmesan. This celebrated cheese is made with skim-milk. ”

“ Making good cheese out of poor milk is much talked of by makers and considered quite an accomplishment. It consists in clothing the product in a glamour of deception, propagating dyspepsia and shielding careless dairymen. ”

“ Butter a thin slice of rye or pumpernickel and spread with ripe imported Camembert, when in season (which isn't summer) . Make a mixture of sweet, sour and dill pickles, finely chopped, and spread it on. Top this with a thin slice of white bread for pleasing contrast with the black.
Q Queijo da Serra Sandwich
On generous rounds of French "flute" or other crunchy, crusty white bread place thick portions of any good Portuguese cheese made of sheep's milk "in the mountains." This last translates back into Queijo da Serra, the fattest, finest cheese in the world—on a par with fine Greek Feta. ”

“ The color will also be paler than in those that are properly cooked, the general look will be clammy, and no rind will form that will be satisfactory. Even when well-cooked and well-made, if a cheese does not have sufficient warmth, it will sour on the ranges and spoil; and it stands to reason that cheese made from a curd insufficiently cooked must work a great deal worse under unfavorable conditions for curing. Our experience is, that a curd needs more cooking in the spring and fall than will answer in hot, dry weather. ”

“ As the goodness of this mortar depends on the preservation of the natural properties of the cheese, or curd, made use of, all those parts the least tainted or rotten must be rejected; and as the cheese, like the curd produced from skim-milk, is divested of its buttery and oily particles, and on that account possesses a powerful cohesive quality, which makes it better for this work than that made of milk in its rich and pure state; it is at all times to be bought of the wholesale cheese-mongers at a lower price than any other ”

“ If the spot is near the edge, a wedge-shaped piece may be cut out, and a piece of another cheese—there is usually one cut for patrons of a factory—can be fitted in, a second bandage drawn over, and the cheese slipped into a hoop, when a little pressing will smooth down all roughness and heal all scars.
Some put cayenne pepper in whey-butter used for greasing cheeses. But, though it may help keep flies off, it will not prevent trouble. They will work their way wherever there is a chance for them. Dryness, cleanliness and watchful care, are the only sure preventives of skippers, in hot weather. ”

“ The nicer the quality of cheese produced, the higher the price it will bring, and the more desirable will it become as an article of food. In the curing of cheese certain requisites are indispensable in order to attain the best results. Free exposure to air is one requisite for the development of flavor. Curd sealed up in an air-tight vessel and kept at the proper temperature readily breaks down into a soft, rich, ripe cheese, but it has none of the flavor so much esteemed in good cheese. Exposure to the oxygen of the air develops flavor. ”

“ Making edible skimmed cheese is an effort to supply a constituent for the product that does not exist, namely, oleaginous matter. The butter or cream in milk is what gives rich flavor and mellow body to cheese. When a part or whole of this is removed by the skimmer, the depleted fluid, if manufactured into cheese, just as that containing all of the cream would be, will make dry, tasteless stuff. Skimmed cheese must be cooked, soured and salted less than full 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." ”

“ Remember that the curd must mature, or, in other words, generate acid. Therein lies the future good quality of the cheese. Do not rely on your olfactory sense to gauge the sourness. Press a little piece of the curd against a hot iron. When it pulls out strings one-half of an inch long in spring, one inch long in midsummer, and one-half inch in fall, it is sour enough to be salted. ”