The Separation of the Whey

Is a part of the process, upon which the quality of the cheese in a considerable degree depends. In Cheshire, more time and attention is devoted to the perfect extraction of the whey than in almost any other district. Indeed, when it is considered that the whey contains sugar and lactic acid, which may undergo decomposition, and a quant.i.ty of rennet which may bring on fermentation, by both of which processes the flavor of the cheeses must be considerably affected, it will appear of great importance that the whey should be as completely removed from the curd as it can possibly be. To aid in effecting this, a curd-mill, for chopping it fine after the whey is _strained_ off, is in use in many of the large English dairies, and a very ingenious and effectual pneumatic cheese-press for sucking out the whey, was lately invented.

But the way in which the whey is separated is not a matter of indifference, and has much influence upon the quality of the cheese.

Thus, in Norfolk, according to Marshall, when the curd is fairly set, the dairy-maid bares her arm, plunges it into the curd, and with the help of her wooden ladle, breaks up minutely, and intimately mixes the curd with the whey. This she does for ten or fifteen minutes, after which the curd is allowed to subside, and the whey is drawn off. By this agitation, the whey must carry off more of the b.u.t.ter and the cheese must be poorer.

In Cheshire and Ayrshire, the curd is cut with a knife, but is gently used and slowly pressed till it is dry enough to be chopped fine, and thus more of the oily matter is retained. On the same principle, in making the Stilton cheese, the curd is not cut or broken at all, but is pressed gently and with care till the whey gradually drains out. Thus the b.u.t.ter and the curd remain intermixed, and the rich cheese of Stilton is the result. Thus, while it is of importance that all the whey should be extracted from the curd, yet the quickest way may not be the best. More time and care must be bestowed in order to effect this object, the richer the cheese we wish to obtain.

The quality of the milk or of the pastures, may often be blamed for the deficiencies in the richness or other qualities of cheese, which are in reality due to slight but material differences in the mode of manufacturing it.

_The kind of salt_ used, is considered by many to have some effect upon the taste of the cheese. Thus the cheese of Gerome, in the Vosges, is supposed to derive a peculiar taste from the Lorena salt with which it is cured. In Holland, the efficacy of one kind of salt over another for the curing of cheese is generally acknowledged.

The Mode in which the Salt is applied.

In making the large Cheshire cheeses, the dried curd, for a single cheese of sixty pounds, is broken down fine and divided into three equal portions. One of these is mingled with double the quant.i.ty of salt added to the others, and this is so put into the cheese-vat as to form the central part of the cheese. By this precaution, the after-salting on the surface is sure to penetrate deep enough to cure effectually the less salted parts.

In the counties of Gloucester and Somerset the curd is pressed without salt, and the cheese, when formed, is made to absorb the whole of the salt afterwards through its surface. This is found to answer well with the small and thin cheeses made in those counties, but were it adopted for the large cheeses of Cheshire and Dunlop, or even for the pine-apple cheeses of Wiltshire, there can be no doubt that their quality would frequently be injured. It may not be impossible to cause salt to penetrate into the very heart of a large cheese, but it cannot be easy in this way to salt the whole cheese equally, while the care and attention required must be greatly increased.

Addition of Cream or b.u.t.ter to the Curd.

Another mode of improving the quality of cheese, is by the addition of cream or b.u.t.ter to the dried and crumbled curd. Much diligence, however, is required fully to incorporate these, so that the cheese may be uniform throughout. Still this practice gives a peculiar character to the cheeses of certain districts. In Italy, they make a cheese _after the manner of the English_, into which a considerable quant.i.ty of b.u.t.ter is worked; and the _Reckem_ cheese of Belgium is made by adding half an ounce of b.u.t.ter and the yolk of an _egg_, to every pound of pressed curd.

Size of the Cheese.

From the same milk, it is obvious that cheeses of different sizes, if treated in the same way, will, at the end of a given number of months, possess qualities in a considerable degree different. Hence, without supposing any inferiority, either in the milk or in the general mode of treatment, the size usually adopted for the cheeses of a particular district or dairy, may be the cause of a recognised inferiority in some quality, which it is desirable that they should possess in a high degree.

The Method of Curing.

This has very much influence upon the quality of the cheese. The care with which they are salted, the warmth of the place in which they are kept during the first two or three weeks, the temperature and closeness of the cheese-room in which they are afterwards preserved, the frequency of turning, of cleaning from mould, and rubbing with b.u.t.ter; all these circ.u.mstances exercise a remarkable influence upon the after-qualities of the cheese. Indeed, in very many instances, the high reputation of a particular dairy district or dairy farm, is derived from some special attention to some or to all of these apparently minor points.

In Tuscany, the cheeses, after being hung up for some time at a proper distance from the fire, are put to ripen in an underground, cool, and damp cellar; and the celebrated French cheeses of Roquefort, are supposed to owe much of the peculiar estimation in which they are held, to the cool and uniform temperature of the subterranean caverns in which the inhabitants of the village have long been accustomed to preserve them.

Ammoniacal Cheese.

The influence of the mode of curing, is shown very strikingly in the small ammoniacal cheeses of Brie, which are very much esteemed in Paris.

They are soft unpressed cheeses, which are allowed to ripen in a room, the temperature of which is kept between 60 and 70 Fahrenheit, till they begin to undergo the putrefactive fermentation, and emit an ammoniacal odor. They are generally unctuous, and sometimes so small as not to weigh more than an ounce.

Inoculating Cheese.

It is said that a cheese, possessed of no very striking taste of its own, may be inoculated with any flavor we approve, by putting into it with a scoop a small portion of the cheese which we are desirous that it should be made to resemble. Of course, this can apply only to cheeses otherwise of equal richness, for we could scarcely expect to give a Gloucester the flavor of a Stilton, by merely patting into it a small portion of a rich and esteemed Stilton cheese. [_Johnston and various other authorities._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 19.

Cheese-Press.]

Fig. 19 is a _self-acting cheese-press_, light yet strong. The cheese itself gives a pressure of twelve times its own weight; and if this is insufficient, additional weight may be added as required.

The following statements were made by those receiving premiums from the New York State Agricultural Society:

"Number of cows kept, eleven. Cheese made from two milkings, in the English manner; no addition made of cream. For a cheese of twenty pounds, a piece of rennet about two inches square is soaked about twelve hours in one pint of water. As rennets differ much in quality, enough should be used to coagulate the milk _sufficiently_ in about forty minutes. No salt is put _into_ the cheese, nor any on the outside during the first six or eight hours it is pressed; but a thin coat of fine Liverpool salt is kept on the outside during the remainder of the time it remains in press. The cheeses are pressed forty-eight hours, under a weight of seven or eight cwt. Nothing more is required but to turn the cheeses once a day on the shelves."

"The milk is strained in large tubs over night; the cream stirred in milk, and in the morning strained in same tub; milk heated to natural heat; add color and rennet; curd broke fine and whey off, and broke fine in hoop with fast bottom, and put in strainer; pressed twelve hours; then taken from hoop, and salt rubbed on the surface; then put in hoop, without strainer, and pressed forty-eight hours; then put on tables, and salt rubbed on surface, and remain in salt six days, for cheese weighing thirty pounds. The hoops to have holes in the bottom; the crushings are saved, and set, and churned, to grease the cheese. The above method is for making one cheese per day. As in b.u.t.ter-making, the utmost cleanliness is required in every part of the cheese-making premises."

CHAPTER IV.

SHEEP

With the exception of the dog, there is no one of the brute creation which exhibits the diversity of size, color, form, covering, and general appearance, which characterizes the sheep, and none which occupies a wider range of climate, or subsists on a greater variety of food. In every lat.i.tude between the equator and the arctic, he ranges over the sterile mountains, and through the fertile valleys. He feeds on almost every species of edible forage, the cultivated gra.s.ses, clovers, cereals and roots; he browses on aromatic and bitter herbs; he crops the leaves and bark from the stunted forest shrubs, and the pungent, resinous evergreens. In some parts of Norway and Sweden, when other resources fail, he subsists on fish or flesh during their long and rigorous winters, and if reduced to necessity, he eats his own wool.

He is diminutive like the Orkney, or ma.s.sive like the Teeswater. He is policerate or many horned; he has two large or small spiral horns like the Merino, or is polled or hornless like the mutton sheep. He has a long tail like our own breeds; a broad tail, like many of the eastern; or a mere b.u.t.ton of a tail, like the fat-rumps, discernible only by the touch. His coat is sometimes long and coa.r.s.e, like the Lincolnshire; short and hairy, like those of Madagascar; soft and furry, like the Angola; or fine and spiral, like the silken Saxon. His color, either pure or fancifully mixed, varies from the white or black of our own country, to every shade of brown, dun, buff, blue, and gray, like the spotted flocks of the Cape of Good Hope and other parts of Africa and Asia. This wide diversity is the result of long domestication, under almost every conceivable variety of condition.

Uses.

Among the antediluvians, sheep were immolated for sacrificial offerings, and their fleeces probably furnished them with clothing. Since the deluge, their flesh has with all nations been used as a favorite food for man. By many of the rude, roving nations of the East, they are employed in carrying burdens.

Their milk is generally used by the uncivilized, and to some extent by the refined nations of Europe, not only as a beverage, but for making into cheese, b.u.t.ter, and curds. Job refers to its use, as do Isaiah and other of the Old Testament writers. Most of the Greek and Roman authors describe its general use and manufacture. The ewe's milk scarcely differs in appearance from that of the cow, but is generally thicker, and yields a pale, yellowish b.u.t.ter, that is always soft and soon becomes rancid. Culley remarks, "the cheese from their milk is exceedingly pungent, and for that reason is preferred by many to that from the cow." In Wales, the milk is mixed with that of the dairy, and makes a tart, palatable cheese. We have never seen it appropriated for dairy purposes in the United States, except by a few Welsh and Highland emigrants. The sheep is frequently employed in the dairy regions of this country, at the tread-mill or horizontal wheel, to pump the water, churn the milk, or perform other light domestic work.

The dignity and importance of the shepherd's vocation have ever been conspicuous. Abel, the supposed twin-brother of the first-born of the human race, was a "keeper of sheep;" and from this, it may be fairly inferred, that there is no animal which has so long been under the immediate control of man. Abraham and his descendants, as well as most of the ancient patriarchs, were shepherds. Job had 14,000 sheep. It is said of Rachel, the favored mother of the Jewish race, "she came with her father's sheep, for she kept them." The seven daughters of the priest of Midian, "came and drew water for their father's flocks."

Moses, the statesman and lawgiver, who "was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, kept the flocks of Jethro, his father-in-law;" and David, the future monarch of Israel, the hero, poet, and divine, was a keeper of sheep. It was to shepherds, while "abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night," that the birth of the Saviour was announced. The root of the Hebrew name for sheep, signifies fruitfulness, abundance, plenty; as indicating the blessings they were destined to confer on the human race. With the sacred writers, they were the chosen symbol of purity and the gentler virtues; they were the victims of propitiatory sacrifices; and finally, they became the type of redemption to fallen man. These may not be considered accidental allusions in a book, whose every feature is full of design.

Nor has the sheep been less the subject of eulogy and attention with profane writers. Among these, Homer and Hesiod, Virgil and Theocritus, introduced them with evident delight in their pastoral themes; while their heroes and demiG.o.ds, Hercules and Ulysses, aeneas and Numa, carefully perpetuated them throughout their regal domains.

In modern times, they have commanded the attention of the most enlightened nations; and their prosperity has in no instance been independent of those useful animals, wherever wool and its manufactures have been regarded as essential staples. Spain and Portugal, for more than two centuries, were the most enterprising nations of Europe, and during that period, they excelled in the production and manufacture of wool. Flanders, for a time, was before England in the perfection of the arts and the enjoyments of life, and _England then sent the little wool she raised to that country to be manufactured_. Her politic sovereigns soon found this a losing game, and offered large bounties for the importation of artists and machinery. By a systematic and thorough course of legislation, which looked to the utmost protection and augmentation of wool and woollens, she has carried their production beyond any thing the world has ever seen. The small islands of Great Britain and Ireland, in addition to the support of their 26,000,000 of people, 15,000,000 of cattle, 2,250,000 horses, 18,000,000 swine, and innumerable smaller domestic animals, maintain over 40,000,000 sheep, worth $250,000,000; and besides manufacturing nearly all their fleeces, annually import nearly an equal amount from abroad. The sumptuary law for burying the dead in woollen, still occupies its place in their statute book. And beyond all question, England is the leading power of the nineteenth century, in the combination of all those qualities which const.i.tute national greatness, civilization, and strength.

VARIETIES.

Naturalists have divided the wild sheep into four varieties. The _Musimon_, (_Ovis Musimon_,) inhabiting Corsica, Sardinia, and other islands of the Mediterranean, the mountainous parts of Spain and Greece, and some other regions bordering upon that inland sea, have been frequently domesticated and mixed with the long-cultivated breeds.

The _Argali_, (_O. Ammon_,) ranges over the steppes, or elevated plains of Central Asia, northward and eastward to the ocean. They are larger, more hardy, and more untameable than the Musimon.

The _Rocky Mountain Sheep_, (_O. Montana_,) frequently called the _Big-horn_ by our western hunters, is found on the prairies west of the Mississippi, and throughout the wild mountainous regions, extending through California and Oregon to the Pacific. They are larger, but in other respects resemble the Argali, of which they are probably descendants, as they could easily cross upon the ice at Behring's Straits, from the northeastern coast of Asia. Like the Argali, when caught young they are easily tamed; but we are not aware that they have ever been bred with the domestic sheep. Before the country was overrun by the white man, they probably inhabited the region bordering on the Mississippi. Father Hennepin, a French Jesuit, who wrote nearly two hundred years ago, often speaks of meeting with goats in his travels through what is now the territory embraced by Illinois and Wisconsin.

The wild, clambering propensities of these animals, occupying the giddy heights far beyond the reach of the traveller, and the outer coating of hair (supplied underneath, however, with a thick coating of soft wool) gives to them much of the appearance of that animal. In summer they are generally found single; but when they descend from their isolated, rocky heights in winter, they are gregarious, marching in flocks under the guidance of leaders.

The _Bearded Sheep of Africa_ (_O. Tragelaphus_) inhabit the mountains of Barbary and Egypt. They are covered with a soft, reddish hair, and have a mane hanging below the neck, and large locks of hair at the ankle.