Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1895-04-04
FARM MISCELLANY.
OId-Fnshinnad ch..s..


Among the ! cry modern appliances
for dairying, like cheese separators.
butter accumulators, and butter work.
ers, which work I don't know how
many hundred pounds of butter a min
ute, it seems rather absurd for me to
talk to you of old-fashioned cheese
making, but that is the only kind I
know of since | was taught by my
mother, who is now 80 years old, and
she was taught by her mother.
Our farm is a butter farm, but /
make cheese four or five weeks in the
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 20 or 25 cents
a 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 a wholesome food. The
Scotch have proverb that cheese will
digest anything but itself, and a little
mustard will digest that. There are
comparatively 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-fash
Toned. | take as much as l can spare
of the morning milk and warm it to So
degrees Fair. Then / add to it suffi-
cient extract of rennet to curdle 1t in
half an hour; it is then cut with a
long wooden knife and allowed to
stand till the curd settles somewhat
When it has settled l dip the curd into
a cheesecloth strainer and let it stand
for fifteen or twenty minutes 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 minutes / cut it into small
pieces-about the size of a mouthful,
and the mouthfuls are often taken by
those who like cheese curds. After it
is cut l hang the eurd to drain. When
the bits of the curd have all joined to-
gether, cut ]. again. / repeat this until
the whey drains from it in drops; then
| hang it in a cool place
The next day | make another curd
just like the first, and then take both
curds and cut them into cubes of one
half inch. / salt in Proportion of one
pound of salt to forty pounds of we'll
drained curd, mixing thoroughly.
After sailing 1 let it stand twenty
minutes. and then put it into the hoop
and then into the press. I keep it 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 it all over with nice, sweet, hot
drippings. Some cheese makers oil with
whey butter, but prefer all my cream
to go into my cheese.
The next day I turn the cheese and
rub it and the next day also, and the
next day likewise, and so on till the
cheese is about four months old; after
that, not so often as every day, but yet
it has TO be looked after until it is a
year old, and then l sell some to our
worthy president and he asks me to
come here and tell you what l know
about cheese-making.
Your dozens and dozens of canned
fruit, done in the hot summer days, is
a hard job-but when it is done it is
very pond: and SO it is with cheese:
when it is cut you forget all about the
many turnings.-Mrs. S. A. Gridley
before the Connecticut Dairymen's
Association.