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A
Dairy-House ought to be well aired, free from damp, and situated so that a
proper temperature may be observed, - from 50° to 55° Fahrenheit. A milk
dairy requires two apartments; one for milk, the other for scalding and
cleaning the different utensils. To secure a proper degree of heat for
common purposes, a vacuity of eight or ten inches, left betwixt the wall
and the lath and plaster, will be sufficient. The roof should be of
thatch, three feet thick at the least, and should project completely over
the walls on each side. To afford shade and a beneficial degree of
coolness to the whole building, the outer doors may be made to open under
a penthouse, or lean-to shed. It would be advantageous to have an icehouse
attached to the dairy, as a small quantity of ice, placed when necessary
in the milk-room, would soon lower the temperature to any degree that
might be wanted. If the cold in winter should become too great, a barrel
of hot water, close stopped, or a few hot bricks, placed on the floor or
table of the milk-room, would readily counteract its effects; a
chafing-dish with burning coals should never be used. The utensils
required for a dairy of twenty cows, may, in most cases, be provided for
£20 or £30. Wood has in general been employed in their construction, and
is, upon the whole, the most eligible material; lead, brass, and copper,
are altogether inadmissible; the least objectionable of all the metallic
milk-dishes are probably those which have been lately invented by Mr.
Baird, of the Shotts iron-works in Linlithgowshire.
A proper
choice of cows is of the greatest importance. Of the black cattle of the
island, the short-horned, or Dutch, and the long-horned, or Lancashire,
are in general preferred; the first yields the greatest quantity of milk;
that of the second is not so abundant, but richer; the polled, or Galloway
cows, are excellent milkers, and the Suffolk duns are much esteemed, as
are also the Ayrshire cows. For the management of cows, it is of the
greatest consequence to keep them easy, clean, and well aired; when they
are turned out to pasture, they must not be over-driven, or have so far to
travel as to induce fatigue. Their food in winter may be of two kinds,
either dry or green; of dry food, hay and straw are almost the only kinds
used; the most profitable kinds of green food are parsnips, carrots,
cabbages, and turnips; from one to two hundred pounds a day of cabbages or
turnips will be consumed by a middle-sized cow. By means of stall-feeding,
with green crops, a cow can be kept in milk not only for a month longer in
autumn than by the common modes, but even through the whole winter season.
When green succulent food cannot be procured, it will be judicious to give
water. It is found to be beneficial to them to vary their food from time
to time, and for a few weeks before calving, they should have every night
a little hay, or a somewhat greater allowance of green food.
On the
day of calving, they should be kept in; and immediately after, it is
useful to give them a handful or two of meal, mixed with luke-warm water.
For a fortnight after calving, they should have, with their green food, a
little hay, or chopped straw, with some ground or crushed oats. This food
ought to be put into their stalls in small quantities at a time, and a
little salt given with it improves the quality, and increases the quantity
of milk. The land necessary to maintain a cow, may, at an average, be
stated from two to three English acres, if there be taken into account,
the corn, hay, straw, and every thing else the animal consumes.
One
dairy-maid may manage a dozen or fifteen cows, having assistance in the
milking of them. Cows should be milked in the house rather than in the
field; three times a day, at least, in summer: early in the morning, at
noon, and just before nightfall. It is of the utmost consequence, that the
whole milk secreted be at each milking drawn away. It may be laid down as
a pretty general rule, that eighteen pounds of milk will yield one pound
of butter, and that this is the produce of a single cow per day; some,
however, will furnish twice or even thrice this quantity. The best age for
a milk cow is betwixt four and ten. When old, she will give more milk, but
of an inferior quality.
OF THE
PREVENTION AND CURE OF DISEASES INCIDENT OF BLACK CATTLE.
Regular
watering, as well as sound food, prevents many diseases; and cattle ought
to be carefully kept from smelling carrion, or chewing bones.
The
diseases of cattle may be divided into three classes. The first proceeds
from feeding too greedily on clover or common grass, particularly in the
fall of the year. The remedy usually employed is the probing, a flexible
instrument, which being passed into the stomach, the confined air rushes
out; when this is not at hand, three small canes, each six feet long, are
bound together with waxed packthread, and a smooth ball of wood, about the
size of a pigeon’s egg, fixed at the end; in order to pass it down the
throat, an assistant must lay hold of the nostrils, and keep out the head
as nearly as possible in a line with a throat. The food that is in
consequence thrown up, must be removed from the mouth; after which, the
animal should be turned out into bare pasture, or get twice a day, for
three days, half a pint of mild ale, with one race of ginger grated into
it. But in the first stage of the complaint, a table-spoonful of
hartshorn, mixed with a pint of train-oil, will generally effect a cure.
The
diseases of the second class proceed from derangement of the digestive
system, and occur chiefly late in winter or in spring. They are moor-ill,
yellows, red-water, flatulent colic, scouring, tail-rot, joint-fallen,
&c., for which the following opening medicine is administered: - Mix, for
one drench, of common salt four ounces, Barbadoes aloes half an ounce,
ginger one drachm, water one quart, and anodyne carminative tincture two
ounces, or a glass of gin.
Having
administered in the morning the opening medicine for scouring or for
tail-rot, the following cordial may be given in the evening: - Take of
powdered catechu two drachms, fresh powdered allspice two drachms,
fresh-powdered caraways half an ounce, good strong beer or ale half a
pint, table-beer or water half a pint; let the ingredients be simmered for
a few minutes in the table-beer or water, and let the strong beer be added
at the time the drench is given.
The third
class depends on repletion of the blood-vessels, and prevails most in
summer; the symptoms of fever are, quick breathing, hot horns and ears,
&c. The remedies to be employed are copious bleeding, that is, till the
animal becomes faint (a young and healthy cow will generally bear the loss
of two gallons of blood), opening medicine, and putting the animal on
short or bare pasture.
The only
application necessary for swollen udder, or swollen joints, is neat’s feet
oil, or olive oil; when the swelling is considerable, fomentation, with
hot water having a little grease in it, may be of use. The best remedy for
sore teats is rubbing them with hog’s lard.
When a
cow chokes upon a turnip, pour down its throat salt and water; if that
will not do, use a hornful of salt and melted grease, such as hog’s lard,
or any kind of common grease; warm oil and salt would probably have the
same effect.
When a
calf seems indisposed and loose in the bowels, a little powdered chalk may
be added to its milk; or boil a large table-spoonful of potato flour in
each meal of milk, to bring it to the consistence of middling cream. When
costive, the following laxative may be given; and when it scours, the
following cordial will be found effectual: -
LAXATIVE.
Of common
salt, from half an ounce to one ounce, aloes one drachm, soda one drachm,
ginger half a drachm, water half a pint, and gin a table-spoonful, well
mixed together.
CORDIAL.
Caraway
seeds, recently powdered, half an ounce, ginger half a drachm, carbonate
of soda one drachm, water eight ounces, and brandy or gin one ounce, mixed
well.
CALVES.
Should be
taken from the cow immediately, and whether to be reared or fatted, are
best fed entirely on milk; but if it be scarce, they may get
milk-porridge, or turnips boiled to a mash, and mixed with two pints of
milk at each meal, which should be given three times a day the first
month, twice the second, and once the third. When the calf is to be fed
for the table, it should have as much milk, warm from the cow (the
last-drawn, to have extremely fine veal), as it will take three times a
day. When it is five weeks old, it should be bled, and again a week after;
in a few days more, it may be killed. Some persons consider bleeding
unnecessary.
BUTTER.
In the
production of good butter, more depends on management than on the quality
of the cow, or the richness of its food. When dairying is conducted on a
great scale, the horizontal, commonly called the barrel-churn, is the
best; and on a small scale, the patent box-churn will be found most
eligible; the vertical, or pump-churn, is well adapted to the operation of
making butter from the produce of a few cows only. Milk is not at the best
till about four months after the cow has calved; and the degree of heat
most favourable to the production of cream from milk, is from 50° to 55°
Fahrenheit. In summer, the milk should be allowed to stand half an hour
before it be put into the pans, which should not exceed two inches in
depth. In winter, it should be set as soon as possible. From the
last-drawn half of the milk, if allowed to stand till it tastes
perceptibly sourish, cream of a superior quality will be obtained, and its
quantity not considerably less than if the whole were set apart for the
production of cream. Sweet cream requires four times as much churning as
that which has become sour by standing. From twelve to twenty hours in
summer, and about twice as long in winter, should be permitted to elapse
before the milk is skimmed – after it is put into the pans, during the hot
summer months, this should always be done in the morning before the dairy
becomes warm. The cream should then be deposited in a jar, placed in the
coolest part of the dairy, stirred often, and shifted every morning, into
a clean and well-scalded jar, or other vessel. In hot weather, churning
should be performed, if possible, every other day, and never less
frequently than twice a week. The operation ought to moderate, equable,
and uninterrupted. In summer, the churn ought to be chilled with cold
water before the cream be put into it; and during the process of churning,
it should be immersed in cold water, to the depth of a foot or so,
provided a pump-churn be used; to a barrel-churn, wet cloths may be
applied. In winter, heat must be cautiously employed. It is better to
steep the churn for some time in warm water, than to pour water into it
before churning; it may be placed in the warmest part of the house, but
not close to the fire.
The cows
should not be fed with turnips till after they are milked, otherwise the
milk and butter will have an unpleasant taste; late in the season, when
the turnips are not so good, this precaution may be sufficient. To
counteract the effects of the turnip, or nay other green food, boil two
ounces of saltpetre, or the same quantity of cream of tartar, in a quart
of water; and, when cold, add a table-spoonful, or more, if necessary, of
the liquid, every other day, to the collected cream.
METHOD
OF MAKING UP BUTTER.
When the
butter is sufficiently gathered in the churn, which is known by the
largeness of the lumps and the cleanness of the dashers, it is taken out,
kneaded in a bowl, or other shallow vessel, to let out the buttermilk,
spread thin over the inside of the bowl, and clean cold water poured over
it; kneaded, broken, and respread in the water; the water poured off; the
butter beaten in large lumps, or handfuls, of three or four pounds,
against the sides of the bowl, respread, salted, the salt worked in,
rewashed, and rebeaten until the water comes off unsullied, which it will
do after two or three washings. It is then broken into pound lumps,
rebeaten against the bowl, and printed, or otherwise made up.
There is
a finishing operation which is sometimes given in the neighbourhood of
London. It is thus preformed: - The bowl or tray being wetted, to prevent
the butter from sticking to it, and a cheese-cloth, strainer, or other
cloth being washed in clean cold water, and wrung as dry as possible, a
pound lump of butter is placed in the bowl, and with a stroke of the hand,
proportioned to the stiffness of the butter, is beaten with the cloth; as
the pat of butter becomes flat and thin, it is rolled up with the cloth,
by a kind of dexterity which can only be acquired by practice, and again
beaten flat; the dairy-woman, every three or four strokes, rolling up
either one side or the other of the pat, and moving it about in the bowl,
to prevent its sticking. As soon as the cloth fills with moisture, which
it extracts from the butter, and imbibes in the manner of a spunge, it is
wrung, and rewashed in clean cold water. Each pound of butter requires, in
cool weather, four or five minutes to be beaten thoroughly, but two
minutes are at any time of essential service. Before the dairy-woman
begins to take the butter out of the churn, she first scalds, and then
plunges immediately into cold water, every vessel and thing which she is
about to make use of, in order to prevent the butter from sticking to
them. In summer, when the butter is very soft, it is sometimes necessary
to rub them, after scalding, with salt, which greatly assists the wood in
retaining the moisture. She also puts her own hands into the hottest water
she can bear them in, rubs them with salt, and immediately plunges them
into cold water. This she repeats as often as she finds the butter stick
to them.
The
practice of washing butter in cold water is so general, that is seems
unnecessary to describe it; but those who can divest themselves of
prejudice, will find, on trial, that the butter may be made better, and
perfectly free from milk, by beating and kneading, without pouring any
water on it. When formed into pats, it may be put into a dish, and that
floated in water till required; or it may be salted in the usual manner.
The best
season for curing butter is from the beginning of August until the end of
September; but if the pasture be rank, whether through soil, manure, or
herbage, it is generally injudicious to put down butter from it.
Care must
be taken that the firkin be well seasoned before butter be put into it.
The readiest method is by the use of unslaked lime, or a large quantity of
salt and water well boiled, with which it should be scrubbed, and
afterwards thrown into cold water, to remain three or four days, till
wanted; and before receiving the butter, scrubbed and rubbed with salt.
TO PUT
DOWN BUTTER.
After
being worked up with salt, in the proportion of half an ounce to the pound
and half of butter, and having lain in pound lumps twenty-four hours, the
dairy-woman takes two or three of the lumps, joins them together, and
kneads them in the manner in which paste is kneaded. This brings out a
considerable quantity of watery brine, which being poured out of the bowl,
the butter is beaten with a cloth as before. The jar having been
previously boiled, or otherwise thoroughly cleaned, and having stood to be
perfectly cool and dry, the butter is thrown into it, and kneaded down, as
firm and close as possible, with the knuckles and the cloth alternately;
being careful not to have any hollow cell or vacuity for the air to lodge
in, more particularly round the outsides, between the butter and the jar;
for this purpose, she repeatedly draws her finger round the sides of the
jar, pressing the butter hard, and thereby uniting intimately the jar and
the butter. It is fortunate when the jar can be filled at one churning;
but when this cannot be done conveniently, the top is left level, and when
the next churning of butter is to be added, the surface is raised into
inequalities, and the two churnings mixed into one mass. The jar being
filled to within two or three inches of the top, it is filled up with
brine, made by boiling salt and water, in the proportion of a handful to a
pint, ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, straining it into a cooling
vessel, and when perfectly cold, putting it upon the butter, about one and
a half or two inches deep. If a wooden bung be put upon this, a bladder
laid over it, and the jar kept in a dry place, the butter thus preserved
will remain perfectly sweet for almost any length of time. The jar should
be wider at the bottom than at the top, resembling the upright churn, the
top of it being sufficiently wide to admit of its being filled
conveniently, but not wider.
ANOTHER METHOD OF PREPARING BUTTER.
Mix one
part of saltpetre, one of common salt, and two of sugar. This, thoroughly
wrought into the butter, will keep it for a very long time, and
communicates to it no salt nor disagreeable taste.
SCOTCH
METHOD OF SALTING BUTTER.
Wash the
butter thoroughly in cold water, pressing it strongly and frequently with
the hands or broad pieces of wood, and changing the water till it comes
off clear; then spread it out in thin layers, sprinkle it with salt, in
the proportion of one ounce to every three pounds of butter, and work it
well. In this manner each churning is prepared, till the quantity required
to fill the kit is obtained. Make a pickle of salt and water strong enough
to bear an egg, and boil it with two ounces of loaf sugar. Take each
making separately, press all the watery brine from it, and work it in a
little of the prepared pickle; if it should not come off clear, repeat the
washing in fresh pickle. The kit having been well scoured, rubbed with dry
salt, and rinsed out with a little of the pickle, pack into it separately
each making of butter to within two inches of the top; put some pickle on
it, and a clean linen rag; the head of the vessel is then put on, and
should always be kept close upon it.
METHOD
OF PRESERVING BUTTER WITH HONEY.
The
butter being cleaned from the milk, it is put into jars, and melted on a
stove, or in a water bath on the fire; just before it boils, it is put in
a cool place to settle, and must never be stirred. When a little stiff,
the froth is taken off the top, and the dregs removed; it is then worked
up with honey, in the proportion of an ounce to each pound of butter.
Preserved in this way, and potted, it will keep as long as salted butter;
will be found more suitable for the table when to be eaten with
sweetmeats, and, in many respects, better adapted for kitchen use.
TO
MAKE SALT BUTTER FRESH.
Put four
pounds of salt butter into a churn with four quarts of new milk, and a
little arnatto; churn them together, and in about an hour take out the
butter, and treat it exactly as fresh butter, washing it in water, and
adding the customary quantity of salt.
CHEESE.
In
cheese-making, it is of the utmost consequence to have good rennet, which
may be obtained from the stomachs of calves, is most commonly used, and
the following Scotch method of preparing it seems to be the simplest and
best: - When the stomach or bags, usually termed the yirning, in dairy
language, is taken from the calf’s body, straw, or any other impurity
found in it, ought to be removed from curdled milk, which, with the chyle,
must be carefully preserved; a handful of salt is put inside; it is them
rolled up, and put into a basin or jar, and a handful of salt strewed over
it; after standing closely covered for eight to ten days, it is taken out
and tied up in a piece of white paper, and hung up near a fire to dry,
like bacon, and will be the better for hanging a year before it is
infused. When rennet is wanted, the bag with its contents is cut small,
and put into a jar or can, with a handful or two of salt; new whey, or
boiled water, cooled to 65°, is put upon it. If the stomach is from a
newly-dropped calf, about three pints of liquor may be employed. If the
calf has been fed for four or five weeks, which will yield more rennet
than that of one twice that age, eight pints or more of liquid may be put
to the bag in mash, After the infusion has remained in the jar from one to
three days, the liquid is drawn off, and about a pint more of whey or
water put on the bag; when it has stood a day or two, it is also drawn
off, strained with the first liquid, and bottled for use as rennet. Some
people put a dram-glassful of whisky to each quart of choppin of the
rennet. Thus prepared, it may be used immediately, or kept for months. One
table-spoonful of it will coagulate, in ten or fifteen minutes, thirty
gallons, or sixty Scotch pints, of milk, which will yield more than 24
lbs. avoirdupois of cheese. In England, the curdled milk is generally
washed from the stomach, and in consequence, the rennet is so much weaker
than that made in Scotland, that double the quantity is used, and it
requires from one to sometimes three hours to form the milk into curd. The
milk ought to be set, that is, the rennet put to it, at 85° or 90° of
Fahrenheit, when the heat of the air is at 70°; but as the season gets
colder, the heat of the milk should be increased, and covered till it
coagulates.
Cheese-racks save labour in turning. The plate-rack, with four or five
tier, one above another, seems to be the best form. If the cheeses be of
different sizes, it ought to be much narrower at the top than at the
bottom; and to preserve the cheeses from vermin, it ought to stand on legs
about two feet high, with a broad base board projecting over the legs.
A
ONE-MEAL CHEESE.
When the
milk has been brought in warm from the cow, it is put into the cheese-tub,
and the rennet is added to it; the quantity must depend on its strength.
As soon as coagulation has taken place, the curd is broken and gathered. A
cheese-knife is employed to cut the curd in various directions; and this
being allowed to subside for a short time, is again cut by the knife more
freely than before, and the operation continued till the whole be reduced
to small uniform particles. This business may occupy about the space of
twenty minutes, after which the cheese-tub is again covered with a cloth,
and allowed to remain nearly the same length of time. When the particles
have subsided, the whey is laded off, the curd properly pressed by the
bottom of the skimming-dish, the hands, or a semicircular board and weight
adapted to the size of the tub. The cheese-knife is now employed, as
before, to cut the curd, thereby promoting the free separation off. The
curd is then put into two or three separate vessels, and the dairy-woman
breaks it with her hands as small as possible. During this part of the
process, salt is scattered over the curd, and intimately mixed with it;
the proportion is generally regulated by taste – a handful of salt for
every six gallons of milk, or about half an ounce to the pound, may be
allowed.
Having
made choice of a vat, commonly made of elm, with holes in the lower part
of it, proportioned to the quantity of curd, a cloth is spread over it,
and the curd is put in by little and little, breaking it all the while;
and having filled the vat, heaped up, and rounded above its top, the cloth
is folded over it, a board of an inch thick is laid on the vat, and the
whole put into the press, the power of which ought to be applied
gradually, beginning with about half a hundred-weight. When it has been an
hour or two in the press, it is taken out, the cheese placed in a vessel
of hot whey or water, to stand for an hour or two, to harden the skin. It
is then wiped dry, covered with a clean dry cloth, again placed in the
vat, which is also wiped dry, and put under the press, to remain for six
or eight hours. At this period of the process, if any of the edges happen
to project, they are pared off, and the cheese is pricked all over with a
small bodkin an inch or two deep. It is them wrapped in a clean dry cloth,
and replaced in the vat, twice a day, at least during two days, when it is
finally removed, and put into the cheese-rack, or on a dry board, and
turned every day for about a week. A small quantity of dry moss may be put
under it.
When two
meals of milk are used, unless the weather be very hot, a potion of the
creamed milk of the first meal, as a half, or third, being placed in a
brass pan, over a furnace, or in a vessel of hot water, is made scalding
hot. Half of it is then poured into the pan in which the cream of this
milk had been placed. The hot milk and cream, being now intimately mixed,
are poured into the cheese-tub, and the warm milk added, that had just
come in from the cow.
In making
cheeses of the inferior kind, as from skimmed milk, where, from its
tendency to acidity, there is a risk that it will break or curdle while
over the fire, the whole is brought to a proper temperature by the
addition of hot water.
The
cooler the milk, the more tender and delicate the curd becomes; on the
contrary, if the milk be too hot, the curd proves tough and hard. The
principal thing in skim-milk cheese operations is cleanliness, which is
indeed the life and soul of dairy management. Wooden vessels in which milk
has soured, ought to be washed with water into which some potash or lime
has been thrown, then filled with water, which should be changed every
hour in the course of a day or so, and afterwards scalded and well dried,
before milk be again put into them.
The
colouring matter, arnatto, adds nothing to the goodness of the cheese, but
is perfectly harmless. An ounce of it is sufficient to colour a
hundred-weight of cheese. When it is to be used, tie up as much of the
substance as is required, in a linen bag, and put it into half a pint of
warm water, to stand over night. The whole of this infusion is in the
morning mixed with milk in the cheese-tub, and the rag dipped in the milk
rubbed on the palm of the hand, as long as any of the colouring matter can
be made to come away.
TO
PRODUCE THE BLUE COAT, OR BLUE MOULD IN CHEESE.
As soon
as the cheese has become firm enough to be handled with safety, it may be
brushed with a hard brush, frequently dipped in whey, and when nearly dry,
rubbed over with a cloth on which fresh butter had been spread; this
operation of washing, rubbing, and turning, to be repeated once every day,
for some weeks, or till the cheese has acquired a rich golden polish, and
the blue coat begins to appear.
STILTON CHEESE.
Take
fifteen gallons of milk, warm from the cow; put twelve pints of sweet
cream in a small tub, and pour on it a kettleful of boiling water; stir it
till it be well mixed, and then put it into the cheese-tub, with the milk;
when it is at 90° Fahrenheit, add the rennet; when it has coagulated,
break the curd a little; put a thin cloth over it, and take the whey off
through it; when as much has been taken off as will come easily, put the
curd into a bag or net, and let it hang till it give over dripping, then
cut the curd in pieces, and lay it in as much cold water as will cover it;
let it lie an hour, and as the pieces are taken out, strew a little salt
upon them, and put them into the vat, first breaking the top a little, to
make it join with the next piece; then lay a small weight upon it, so as
not to occasion the whey to come off white. It must be turned every three
hours the first day, and three times a day for three days, changing the
cloth every time it is turned in the vat, and keeping it under a moderate
pressure; it is then taken out of the vat, swathed tight till it begin to
dry the bandage, which must be changed every twenty-four hours; it ought
to be rubbed with a little salt before it is bandaged, and, for a
considerable time, wiped and turned every day. The best season for making
this cheese is from July to October.
ANOTHER WAY TO MAKE STILITON CHEESE.
The
rennet being added to fifteen gallons of milk, it is allowed to stand an
hour, when the whey is taken off slowly, breaking the curd as little as
possible; this operation will occupy about the space of an hour and a
half; cold water is then poured over the curd, so as to cover it, and when
it has stood twenty minutes, the water is drained off, and the curd is
broken, and salt added; a pound of newly-churned butter, or a quart of
fresh cream, is then rubbed thoroughly into it, and it is put into the
vat, and placed under a pressure of about twenty-two ounces; the cloth is
changed every six or seven hours for some days, and in five or six days,
it may be taken out of the vat.
AUCHTERTYRE STILTON CHEESE.
To
fifteen gallons of mid-day milk, add the cream taken from the same
quantity of morning milk; put to it the rennet, and when it has
coagulated, break the curd very much, and let it stand a little, that the
whey may rise to the top; take it completely off, and work into it from
six ounces to half a pound of salt, according to its strength. Place the
vat or hoop (which should be long and narrow, made open at both ends, and
without holes in the sides – thirteen inches by twelve is a good
proportion for this quantity of milk) in a wooden milk cooler; pack the
curd into it without any cloth under it, and then put on the top a round
board made to fit closely into the vat; place a weight of four or five
pounds upon it, and next evening shake the cheese carefully from the vat;
bind a cloth round it, and change it for a dry one every day, till the
cheese become firm and dry in the skin.
BATH
CREAM CHEESE.
Three
gallons of new milk, one of hot water, and one pint of cream, are mixed
together, and a larger proportion of rennet added than for milk alone;
when the curd is come, it is broken a little, and the whey dripped from
it; a gallon of cold water is then poured over it, and it is again broken
and dripped; the same process being repeated a third time, the curd is put
into two quarts of boiling water, and the most of the whey squeezed out;
it is then drained, put into the vat, and pressed for three hours; turned,
and pressed for three hours more, which is sufficient. No salt nor
colouring is necessary.
A DAY
CHEESE.
One pint
of cream being mixed with twelve pints of noon-day milk, warm from the
cow, a little rennet is added, and when the curd is come, the whey is
pressed out gently, so as to break the curd as little as possible; it is
then laid in a cloth, and put into a small sieve; the cloth is changed
every hour during the day, and in twenty-four hours it will be fit for
use.
It may be
served on a breakfast plate, with vine leaves under it, and will keep
perfectly good only one day.
NEW
CHEESE.
To six
quarts of new milk from the cow, a little hot water and rennet to turn it,
are added; when the curd is come, it is cut twice across with a
cheese-knife or spoon; then put into a cheese-cloth, and hung up; in half
an hour it is again divided with the cheese-knife, hung up, and allowed to
remain till night, when it is put into the press; the following day it is
taken out, and each side will rubbed with a little salt. It will be fit
for use in two days. |
