The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1895-04-10
Old Fashioned Cheese.

Among the very modern appliances
for dairying, like cream separators,
butter-accumulators and butter-workers,
which work | don't know how many
hundred pounds of butter minute, it
seems rather absurd for me to talk to
you of old-fashioned cheese-making;
but that is the only kind l know of,
since | was taught by my mother, who
is now ninety-two years old, and she
was taught by her mother. Our farm
is butter farm, but make cheese four
or five weeks in a year, because, no
matter how closely we may calculate,
our cows will give more milk in June
than they will in any other summer
month, and all butter not wanted by
customers drops away down; so we
make very little butter beyond what is
engaged, but make our surplus June
milk into cheese. We sell our cheese
for twenty or twenty-five cents pound,
and we think that is better than butter
at the same price per pound, because
the milk which will make pound of
butter will make much more cheese.
Cheese is wholesome food; the Scotch
have proverb that cheese will digest
anything but itself, and little mustard
will digest that. There are compare
lively few people who do not eat cheese
of some of the various kinds, and of
the kinds of cheese their names are
legion. AS for my own cheese, it is
old-fashioned. | take as much as | can
spare of the morning milk and warm it
to eighty five degrees Fahrenheit. Then
l add to it suffi ,ient extract of rennet
to curdle it in half an hour; it is then
cut With long, wooden knife and al
lowed to stand till the curd settles
somewhat. When it has settled, dip
the curd into cheesecloth strainer, and
let ii stand for fifteen or twenty min
utes, in order that it may tougher, as
the curd if handled much at this point
will run off with the whey. When the
curd has stood for about twenty min
utes, cut it into small pieces-about
the size of mouthful, and the mouth
fuls are often taken by those who like
cheese-curds. After it is cut l hang
the curd to drain. When the bits of
curd have all joined together, cut it
again. l repeat this until the whey
drains from it in drops; then hang it
in cool place. The next day l make
another curd just like the first, and
then l take both curds and cut them
into cubes of one-half inch. l salt in
proportion to one pound of salt to forty
pounds of well drained curd, mixing
thoroughly. After sailing let it stand
twenty minutes, and then put it into
the hoop and then into the press.
keep ii in the press till the next day,
then turn it and keep it in the press
another day, when l take it out and
bandage it tightly with cheesecloth
band and oil 1t all over with nice,
sweet, hot drippings. Some cheese
makers oil with whey butter, but pre-
fer all my cream to 90 into my cheese.
The next day turn the cheese and rub
it, and the next day also, and the next
day likewise, and 80 on till the cheese
is about four months old; after that, not
80 often as every day, but yet it has to
be looked after until it is year old. 1t
may seem long task, but what good
thing comes without painsp Your
dozens and dozens of canned fruit, done
in the hot summer days, is hard job
but when it is done it is very good; and
so it is with cheese; when it is cut you
forget ali about the many turnings.-
Mrs. s. A. Gridley, in Ne,D York
Tribune.