Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-02-16
The Hotel Dinner.

give their milk for about four cents a
quart to the factories. 1t brought them
the equivalent of five cents under the old
method, but then they had the trouble of
making the cheese and curing it. and the
expense of going to the market. OF bad
sales and the dinner at the hotei. inc
Norman peasant is thrifty. He does not
care to keep his Camembert up to the nigh
est standard, in View of the temptations
which the factory offers him.
The Cannenlbert is not one of the Oldest
of the Norman cheeses. 1t was invented
during the French revolution by brave
farmers wife, whose grandchildren are
still connected with it's making. This was
Madame iIarel who attended to the dairy
en- her husbands farm here in the valley.
Her first improvement was to leave all the
cream in the milk. except in the months
from May to August when what are
called lean" cheeSes are made. The good
Camembert must still be bought from the
product of the winter season.
The milk just rs 1t comes from the
cows, who have been feeding on the lush
eras5 of the same pasture. is stirred gem
tly after the rennet to curdle 1t has been
poured in, and is then left to stand In the
great buckets. closed by wooden cover.
The curdling has lasted long enough when
the finger applied to the surface no longer
receives stain of milk. The mass is at
once poured into the little forms. winch
have openings ct each end, through which
the whey can drip out. These forms are
hung up in nets, made of PUSHES. until
the dripping is over. Then the cheeses
ere carefully sailed ana lett TO cry from
twenty TO twenty-five days. Madame
Harel turned over this part OF the work
to the market dealers, carrying the cheeses
to be sold when they were quite new. But
this is nowadays done in a drying room
of the factory. BY the third day num-
bers of little brown points begin to APP
pear on the surface OF the cheeses. After
a week fine white vegetation already COW
ers ther-the mold. which is the true
sign OF The royal Camembert. When the
cheeseS begin to sweat and no longer
stick to the fingers, they are taken to
cellar, where they are left piled on boards,
under careful inspection day by day. When
the expert declares them done, each one
is wrapped in paper, six are bound to-
Eether In straw sheaves tied with cord.
and these are packed away in wicker bas-
kets or wooden crates, to be sent to the
distant markets.
The Money In 1t.
An average Camembert cheese weighs
three-ifths of pound, and to make it
nearly two quarts of milk are required.
A dozen OF these cheeses bring to the
farmer something Ike two dollars, and
good COW through the season will be
" orth to him hundred dollars in cheese
alone. not to speak of the butter from the
summers slimming. The whole produc-
ton in this little valley amounts to nearly
ore million dollars each year. Two things
are in the farmers mind as necessary to
the true Camembert. The cheese must
not be large in size, for it would become
tasteless. And the cows must be kept out
in the open fields all the winter long. for
il brought to the stable their milk would
lose the precious quality which it derives
from the SGyoGy grass of the valley. There
is also the superstition, or perhaps the true
belief derived from experience, that. just
as in the wine countries. certain slopes of
the hillside. more exposed to the sum- give
a finer favor to the cheese made from the
milk of cows pastured there. But this
sCTuple is dying away, and you cannot
easily have now your Canlembert cheese
identified with a particular cote dor"
But Camemhert is only enc of the many
Norman cheeses. and each valley for
miles around has its own special product
1t must be said. however, that the fame
of the Camenibert is gradually bringing
all the farmers of this entire region to
turn over their milk to great factories
where the imitation Camenlbert is made
with a Centrifugal machine" which
speedily beats all the least particles of
cream from the milk. The peasants say,
with bated breath, that when the machine
is done with it the milk is good for moth
ing but to be fed to their pigs. But their
love of money IS greater than their love
for art and the world is likely to be filed
with the false cheeses.
STERLING HEILIG.