Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-12-04
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MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1854.
From Dickens Household Words
How they make slhe famous Cheshire

How they make slhe famous Cheshire
Cheesess
had obtained leave to come at seven in the
morning TO see the whole process of cheese
making The maidens, of whom there are al
| ways three, and sometimes four, rise at five
| o'clock. There is the milking and the break
! FAST and by seven they are ready to begin
upon the cheese.
| The meal of milk of the evening before was
| put into tubs, except what is wanted for but
ter and domestic use. The tubs which re-
| ceiye the milk are two; and there are two
more to contain the whey of the preceding
| batch. When the evenings and mornings
meal We're poured (mixed) into two tubs
there were about fifty gallons in each, the
| yield of sixty cows, ten of the seventy COWS
on the farm being dry, or calving at the time.
There are two things to be put into this del
| uge Of milk, one for show, and the other for
use. For show, table spoonful ofannattois
| mixed in. The annatto is thick, viscid,
dark red substance, thicker than treacle, and
| quite as dark. 1t is made from the lining of
the seed-pod and from the pressed seeds of
South American and West Indian plant, of
the Bixa kind and it is used merely to color
the cheese. There cannot be too little of it
| put in, for its taste is nauseous to the last de-
| gree; and its properties are purgative. There
! Is q constant tendency among the cheese-m
ers to put in more and more, to make the
cheese rich, as they say, which means merely
high colored. Mrs. s., however, allows only
one spoonful to tub Of fifty gallons and that
can not well hurt any body
The other substance put in it is the rennet.
Irish rennet is found to be the best Some of
| the farmers in the cheese districts bargain
with the butcher, in selling their calves, to
! have the stomachs back again /; but they must,
| for the most part use them for their own
g11n q Al.
are provided with the stomachs of Irish calves
| brought by travelling agents. Mrs, S. buys
enough in the Spring for the whole year. She
keeps it in a basket ON the shelf in the cheese
house, cuts off a few small pieces of the long
dead stomach, (Which looks half way between
tripe and parchment and soaks them in
pipkin with cold water for few minutes.
Some people pour boiling water on them, and
let it stand till cold; but the cold water does
quite as well, and causes no delay.
There is some appearance of mystery in
cup full of water, in which bit of calls
stomach has been washed, turning fifty gall
Ions Of milk into curd in quarter of an hour;
and till lately it was mystery what the gas
trio juice of all stonachs was composed Of, and
how it acted. Now the chemists have ascer-
tanned what are the constituents Of this won
derful secretion, this Juice which is in all
stomachs, which has no effect on living crea-
lures, but reduces all dead substances that
| are swallowed into one uniform pulp, the best
| part OF which goes to nourish the frame. But
4 how it ucts there is no knowing, any more
| than how any OF the changes of the living
| frames are produced. There it is, in the
| stomach of the calf when killed and the
coats of the stomach are dried and, after
many months, the juice is as good as ever for
turning milk into eurd in Cheshire in the
Autumn, just as it did in the stomach of the
living calf, down in County Kerry, in the
| Spring. While the process is going on,
wooden bowl, with hot water, floats on the
surface of the milk, and some people put into
the tub pint, or SO, in summer, and more in
winter.
The maids are not idle whilet the curd is set
Ting. One stout wench draws several pals
| tul of milk from copper in one corner, for
the pigs and next she sets about Swimming
the whey of yesterday. A thick cream has
risen, and makes that great tub look exceed
| ingly rich. She skins it, and deposits the
cream in an earthen jar, ready for the churn;
| and then she empties the whey by pailsful in
| to what seems to be great copper in another
corner but, as the whey vanishes, it is clear
the copper is funnel. The whey runs off
through pipe to the piggery. She is clever
girl who does this She wears blue bib like
child's, up to her collar bones, and her gown
is short, to most sensible degree, as is that
OF the other dairy maids. They do not go
stopping and dragging about, as ladies do in
London Streets but have their dresses no low
er than the ankle, and shoes thick enough to
keep them out of the damp of the brick moist
floor. This girl wants to tilt the tub when
she gets near the bottom. She begs no help,
but HOSTS her stout apron through one of the
handles, and while she hoists it, kicks log of
wood under the tub. When emptied, the tub
is well sealded and left to hold the evenings
milk.
The head dairymaid is meantime looking to
the cheeses made on Thursdy, Wednesday and
Tuesday, to-day being Friday. In the two
rooms now under observation there are six
presses, more being in other parts of tho
premises. These presses look like any first
stone that any prince is going to lay for pub
lie building-a square mass, which aseends
and descends by screw. The two eheeses
made on Tuesday are taken out and examined
They are pressed into keelers-tubs made of
substantial oak, lessening in size to suit the
lessening bulk of the cheese as it dries. The
cheese is now turned out of its keller, and
the damp binder which bandaged it is thrown
aside 1t is put into the keller again, the
other end up, and the part which does not go
in flor the Keller holds only about two thirds
of it vet1 is bound round with broad strip Of
tin pierced with holes, and called fllet.-
This fillet is bandaged round the cheese with
a linen binder about three inches broad; then
a cloth is thrown over the top, and the whole
is pushed under the block of the press, which
is screwed down upon it. The Wednesdays
cheeses are bigger and moister and some whey
is still oozing from the holes of the tillet.-
The Thursday eheeses are very soft and yell
low, and only beginning to have rind. The
whey runs out with touch of your thumb.
The maid reaches handful of long skewers
from the shelf. She stabs the cheese through
and through in all directions, and throws aside
the cloth in which it was wrapped. and which
is wringing wet. 1t is now wrapped in dry
cloth, put, the other end up, into its keller,
bound with a fllet like others, but with the
difference that half dozen of the long skew
ers are stuck into the holes of the hllet. Then
the binder goes on, the cloth is closed over the
whole, and it is set aside-not under the press
to-day, but with a weight upon it, slate
cover, which has wooden handle with which
to lift it.
These newer cheeses are more or less wet
with whey they are scanned aud marked with
the creases of the binders and cloths, and
knobbed in a rather pretty way with buttons
answering to the holes of the fillet. These
marks are all to be ironed out. before the
cheese gets dry, with tailor's goose. The
goose stands on the stove in the middle of the
room, beside the fiat irons used to smooth the
cloths and binders. The ironing of cheeses
strikes one as curious sort of laundry BUSH
ness.
Now for to- days cheeses. In trice eve