Composition of Cheese and Practical Mistakes in Cheese-Making

By Augustus Voelcker

Making your own cheese can be incredibly satisfying and with this helpful and handy kitchen companion you can create any type of cheese and avoid the common pitfalls that befall many amateurs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: May 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9781473391253

Book preview

Contents

III.—On the Composition of Cheese, and on Practical Mistakes in Cheese-making.

STILTON AND COTHERSTONE CHEESE.

CHESHIRE AND CHEDDAR CHEESE.

DOUBLE AND SINGLE GLOUCESTER CHEESE.

LEICESTERSHIRE, WARWICKSHIRE, AND WILTSHIRE CHEESE.

SKIM-MILK CHEESE.

AMERICAN CHEESE.

I.—PRACTICAL MISTAKES MADE IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CHEESE BEFORE THE CURD IS SEPARATED.

II.—PRACTICAL FAULTS COMMITTED DURING THE MAKING OF CHEESE.

III.—PRACTICAL ERRORS MADE IN KEEPING CHEESE.

III.—On the Composition of Cheese, and on Practical Mistakes in Cheese-making. By Dr. AUGUSTUS VOELCKER.

IN the opinion of many persons English cheese is not what it used to be in the good old time, when it was far more common than now-a-days for farmers’ wives personally to preside over the dairy and conduct the making of cheese through its various stages. Some people assert positively that the English cheese of the present day is inferior in quality to that which was made centuries ago. It is of course impossible to give satisfactory proofs of this supposed inferiority; but at the same time it must be admitted that the prevailing custom of leaving the chief dairy operations almost entirely in the hands of servants furnishes strong presumptive evidence in favour of those who maintain these views. As a rule, we have found the best cheese on farms where the mistress of the house was herself dairymaid-in-chief, especially if industrious habits and scrupulous cleanliness were associated with superior intelligence. Indeed I have had recently frequent occasion to notice the intimate connection which appears to exist on the one hand between good cheese and cleanliness, order, general intelligence, and desire to excel, and on the other hand between bad cheese, slovenliness, ignorance, and practical conceit. In the best-managed dairies, however, cheese-making is practised entirely as an empiric art, which is admitted by our best practical authorities to be capable of great improvement, the importance of which is obvious when we consider the large amount of capital directly or indirectly embarked in dairy-farming. Mr. Humberstone, member for Chester, has the merit of having first directed the attention of our Society to the importance of scientific investigation into the principles of cheese-making; and the Council, on the recommendation of the Chemical Committee, made a special grant to enable me to visit the principal dairy districts of England, to carry out certain practical experiments, and obtain what practical assistance I required. The more direct laboratory experiments, which, like the whole investigation, are still in active progress, have been selected by the Chemical Committee as one of the regular subjects for investigation for the current year. During the last ten months I and two of my assistants have been almost exclusively occupied with the analytical work demanded by a thorough investigation into the principles of cheese-making. At the same time I have spent between four and five weeks at different times in visiting the dairies of Gloucestershire, Wilts, Somersetshire, Warwick, Stafford, and part of Cheshire; and I purpose paying another visit to Cheshire and Derbyshire in the ensuing summer vacation. This Paper will embody some of the practical conclusions to which I have arrived, partly from my visits, and partly from my investigations.

The first point to be observed is, that cheese is often spoiled (to use an Irishism) before it is made—that is, before it is separated from the milk: in other words, the milk is spoiled. Then the cheese is spoiled during the making, and also in the keeping. Again I have learned that richer cheese may be made on some land, even when a portion of cream has been taken from the milk, than on other land where the whole milk is used. 3rd. I concur with our best and most intelligent cheese-makers in the opinion, that good saleable, though perhaps not very fine- flavoured, cheese can be made on any description of land, provided proper care and attention are paid to the management of the milk at the beginning, to the treatment of the cheese in the tub, and to its after ripening. 4th. From all I could learn practically, and from what I have seen with my own eyes, I have come to the conclusion that bones improve the quality of the pasture and the richness of the milk, but also that more care is required to make cheese from boned-pasture than on poor land. 5th. The flavour of the different kinds of cheese, such as Cheddar, Stilton, Cheshire, and others, is much more dependent on the method in ordinary use in these different counties than on the quality of the pasture, although the latter exercises a considerable influence. The inferiority of the Boothy cheese, made from dry food, to that produced when the cows are at grass, is well known. Nevertheless, admitting that food does much affect the flavour of cheese, I still am of opinion that the various practical manipulations exercise a yet higher influence in this respect. 6th. Each system of cheese-making, whether that of Gloucestershire or Somersetshire, appears to have its peculiar excellences, but also its peculiar defects. 7th. Matters altogether indifferent are frequently insisted