Cheesecloth

“ To assist further in holding the fish together while it is cooking, a piece of gauze or cheesecloth may be wrapped around the fish before it is put into the pan.
36. When a fish is to be boiled, clean it and, if desired, remove the head. Pour sufficient boiling water to cover the fish well into the vessel in which it is to be cooked, and add salt in the proportion of 1 teaspoonful to each quart of water. Tie the fish in a strip of cheesecloth or gauze if necessary, and lower it into the vessel of slowly boiling water. Allow the fish to boil until it may be easily pierced with a fork ”

“ Depending on whether or not you like the edible rind of Camembert and Liederkranz, you can leave it on, scrape any thick part off, or remove it all. Mash the soft creams together with the Roquefort, butter and flour, using a silver fork. Put the mix into an enameled pan, for anything with a metal surface will turn the cheese black in cooking.
Stir in the cream and keep stirring until you have a smooth, creamy sauce. Strain through sieve or cheesecloth, and mix in the olives and pimiento thoroughly. Sprinkle well with cayenne and put into a pot to mellow for a few days, or much longer. ”

“ To Prevent Roasted Meat from Drying Out—To prevent roasted meat, which is to be served cold, from drying out and losing its flavor, wrap it in cheesecloth while it is still hot.
When Food is Too Salty—When you have put too much salt into cooking food, stretch a clean cloth tightly over the kettle and sprinkle a table-spoonful of flour over the cloth. Then allow the contents of the kettle to steam and in a few moments the flour will absorb the surplus salt. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is greatly esteemed for eating with radish and salad. This cheese is easily made in any family when sufficient cream can be spared. Stir in a table-spoonful of rennet to a quart of warm cream; when the curd is “set,” spread a cloth over a sieve and lay the curd into it to stand for twenty-four hours, when it may be put into a small hoop, a wet cloth and a board laid on top, to press and drain it a little, and in a few hours it will be ready for use.
The Swiss Cheese has a peculiar flavor and richness, which can be gained only from the mountain pastures. ”

“ The basis of cheese is casein or coagulated curd, a protein substance; it therefore cannot fail to prove nutritious, provided it is properly digested. Cheese-curd, carefully freed from water and milk by expression, and the addition of salt, is a mixture of casein and butter. It contains all the phosphate of lime and part of the phosphate of soda of the milk. (Liebig.) When taken as a condiment, especially when rich and old, it powerfully promotes the secretion of the saliva and gastric juice, and thereby aids the stomach in performing its proper functions. Rotten cheese is very unwholesome. ”

“ One of the most essential points in determining the quality of a cheese is the amount of moisture it contains. A proper retention of moisture by the product in a cured state depends primarily on the rennet that separated it from the watery serum of milk, and secondly on the amount of heat applied in cooking, and the quantity of salt afterwards added. To adjust all these little niceties to a minimum of fine, even quality of which moisture is an adjunct, requires experience and long familiarity with the handling and treatment of milk. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The materials for making face and dish cloths are: cheese cloth cut bias, darning or knitting cotton, or candle-wicking. Those made from cheese cloth resemble the Turkish rags. Cut and splice the cheese cloth according to directions on page 83. The face cloth in the illustration is made from white cheese cloth, cut bias. String the warp 3/16 inch with white twine. It being desirable to have face and dish cloths as soft as possible, do not push the woof threads too closely together. When the cloth is removed from the loom, conceal the ends of the warp strings as previously [Pg 100] directed. ”

“ At the end of that time knead them again, put the paste into wicker moulds, and leave the cheeses to drain until they are quite dry. 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. ”

“ When the curd has sufficiently come, and has all been thoroughly broken, the dairy-woman puts a four-cornered linen cloth, called the cheese-cloth, which is used only for this purpose, and is only loosely woven, upon a small strong ladder laid [334] over the edges of a low tub, and puts upon the cloth the proper quantity of curd, then ties up the four corners of the cloth, and presses with her whole strength, that the milk may drain off. This work is also done by men who can apply great strength, Fig. ”

“ Yellow cheese cloth perfectly plain on both sides, with two ruffles of the same and a fullness of lace between, makes a dainty and inexpensive pillow; the under ruffle being six inches, lace ruffle five inches, and the top ruffle of cheese cloth three inches in width.
For the woman whose tastes run to the elegant, a pillow of silk-faced velvet and satin ribbon is grateful. A novel pillow is the clover pillow, but to carry out the idea as originally designed one must await the coming of the season when clover is at its fullest and sweetest blossom. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ Among the more important foreign types of cheese that are characterized by the development of mold is Roquefort, so named from the district in France in which it is made. This cheese is made from sheep's milk, in much the same manner as cheddar. The characteristic process in its preparation is the inoculation of the curd, at the time it is put to press, with the spores of a particular kind of mold, a type closely related to the ordinary green mold of bread and cheese. The mold for inoculation is grown on bread, the whole mass being dried so that it can be powdered ”

“ When a whole cheese is bought, and it is necessary to preserve some portion of it for a considerable time, it will be found a good plan to keep the cut surfaces of the cheese covered with well-buttered paper. The rind of the cheese should be left exposed to the air, and it should be turned frequently and its surface well rubbed first with a dry cloth and afterwards with melted fat or oil. To keep moist a piece of cheese that is in daily use, when it comes from the table wrap it at once in a damp cloth, preferably damped with beer, and keep it in a nearly airtight tin or other receptacle. ”

“ It is not a mere accident that the three favorite French cheeses are those that have the most piquant and stimulating Flavor. This Flavor is due chiefly to molds, which are specially cultivated with great skill and patience. In Camembert and Brie the mold is on the rind and gradually works its way in, till the whole is permeated by it. In Roquefort the rind is clean of mold, which is started and developed in the inside. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Qualities.—A good Cheddar cheese should be mellow, yet solid, without holes, and of an agreeable taste, neither sharp nor bitter. Cheese can be made of skim milk, but it is hardly palatable. In the fall of the year, when the average milk is rich in butter-fat, 1% or 2% butter-fat may be taken from the milk and the resulting partly-skimmed milk will still make a fairly good cheese, hardly distinguishable from full cream cheese. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ But that the cheese is green seems to be in some degree actually contradicted by the senses and the reason; first because if the moon were made of green cheese it would be inhabited; and second because if it were made of green cheese it would be green. A blue moon is said to be an unusual sight; but I cannot think that a green one is much more common. In fact, I think I have seen the moon looking like every other sort of cheese except a green cheese. ”

“ Windows must not be opened to admit dry wind or moist air. If too dry the cheese will crack and if too moist it will be covered with deleterious yellowish red fungi. The cheese is turned daily the first month, later every other day or twice a week. When 24 to 30 days old the cheese is soaked for one hour in water of 68 to 77°, washed with a brush, dried for 20 to 40 minutes in the sun and returned to the shelf. ”