Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1897-05-28
CONCERNING CHEESE.
IT'S MANUFACTURE AS OLD, AT LEAST,
AS THE TIME OF JOB.

Named "A valley For It-Mem ,ries Call
ed Up by Neufchatel. Gouda and Camem-
BERTHE Poets Tribute to Cheese.
Next to the staff of life" itself, cheese
holds the highest place in universal esteem
Us an article of food. To recall the old
Cheshire chestnut" we all like cheese,
our brothers all like cheese, and we may
be fairly certain that if we had number
of additional brothers they would all like
cheese too.
Our remote ancestors seem TO have
"liled cheese" as well as we do for its
manufacture is one Of the Oldest in the
world.
Roqucfort is perhaps now the only i'm
portant kind made from the milk of sheep,
but anciently it was not so. The very
word butter itself seems to show that COW 5
milk was not used for the purpose by the
ancient Greeks at all events as it means
literally OK cheese.
They seemed to have made their cheese,
as the Cyclops Pulyphemus made his, of
Sleeps milk only.
If it he true that only sleeps milk was
used for cheesemaking in primitive times,
then it is easy to explain why we do not
find it among those domestic arts of which
the ancient Egyptians have left us such
abundant pictorial records, since we know
that the Hyksos made shepherds an abom-
ination to the Egyptians"
Cheescmaking must at one time have
been a very important industry among the
lsraelites, as one of the principal valleys
in Jerusalem, that between Mounts Zion
and Moriah, was known in the time of
JOsephus as the IyrOpeJn, or ChUcsenak-
ers' valley.
Nowadays cheese is almost entirely
made from the milk of cows. about leo,
600 being employed in Cheshire alone. The
RoquotOrt docs not owe its great excellence
to its ovine origin, but to the splendid and
natural celldragc-a labyrinth of dry
mountain cavCrns, wherein it is matured.
Their ventilation is 50 perfect that no
deleterious mold" or "must" can lodge
there.
AT Mont d Or in France, "a very good
cheese is made of goats milk.
Neufchatel calls up memories of the lake
beneath the pine clad .Jura, with the profile
of Mont Blanc lying far away on the south
ern horizon, like dream Of ethereal sculp-
ture. Parmesan speaks of farther wander
ings past that horizon into the land Of song
and azure skies Gruycre takes us up
among the glories Of the high Alps to the
! border of the ice and snow, where we listen
to the tinkle of the cowbells the everlasting
/ song of the cicadas and the occasional echo
music of the native horn (c'quante c'timc,
, si'v plait, m sieu bah one wants to 90
/ home AGAIN.
Perhaps the strong odor of cheese may
| have according to well known physiolog-
ical principles a great deal to do with its
power rs "A memory refresher l can well
remember my first Introduction to that
DURAN of Gaseous delicacies, the petit
/ Camembert 1t brings no romantic as
sociations beyond the pretty face of the
damsel who served me, but the SIN, the
St, well, the perfume, now always sets
before me every stick of furniture in the
somewhat squalid room wherein the intro
duction took place.
So do l remember my first tasting of
Gruyere, more than 80 years ago, at the
Schweizerhof in Basic. But [ didnt like
it, and TO this day don't.
Gouda cheese recalls little Of the pictur-
esque, save to those who can find it in
green flats dotted with magnifed penny a
box toys, and cows enVclnped in BrOb-
dingnaginn flannel waistcoats But for
me it brings to mind drive in our own
lake country, through the sleet of a wild
warmth and soft lights, and my genial
host-a very realization of Father Christ
mas, " with flowing snow white beard and
locks, and jelly, rubicund face, and all a
retired "bagman's" knowledge of good
cheer, and, oh, such an amhrosia of a
round of spiced beef with-ye gods-such
horseradish sauce, made with such cream
and such nectar of whisky punch to wash
1t down with 1t was to the Dutch cheese
which | then first ate, what the Swiss but
ter and honey We're to my first Gruyere
To go back for little to the antiquitie.
of cheese-one thinks of the venerable OLD
jokes connected herewith, of good King
Arthur's serving men, AL of whom were
thieves" and how
The Scotchman vas burned in his usquebaug
The Englishman drowned in his ale,
And the Welshman,
who "made his mouth like mousetrap'
(perhaps he meant it for IA rabbit" bur
row.,
was nearly choked by mouse,
But he -pulled-puledi it out by the tail
And this draws on the conundrum by
the author of Where was Adam wheI
-" etc, what comes after sweetest
Answer, Cheese" "And what comes aft
er cheeses" Answer, Mouse.
So we step back into genuinely classica
times and think of the pseudo HomeriC
: Batrachomyomachia" {" Battle of thu
, Frogs and Mice'D, in which that valian
hero, Tyrophagus, bears so distinguished
part.
Tyrophagus means literally "oheese eat
err" and is the name given in the calenda
: to the fifth Sunday in Lent by the eastern
! church, probably to mark some degree IL
the severity of the Lenten fast, which i
: more stringently observed there than IL
the west
An abbreviation of the same word
t namely, "tyro," is familiar to us, mean
ing "a beginner" one who should no
venture on strong meat" or attemp
anything relatively to perfect achieve
ment) more difficult than the masticatiol
Of cheese.
And this brings us to another venerabl,
Jest, which l disinter from the good OLE
Elegant Extracts"
Jack, eating rotten cheese did say,