The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-04-13
WNCEkNIhu CHEESE.
. sVS MANUFACTURE AS OLD, AT LEAST,
AS THE TIME OF JOB.
Erseks Made 1t Of Sleeps Milk. jews
Msmed . Valley For It-Memories Call
- Up by Neufchatel, Gouda and Camem-
Aert-The Poets Tribute to Cheese.

sert-The Poets Tribute to Cheese.
Next TO the staff of life" itself. cheese
holds the highest place in universal esteem
NJ an article of food To recall the old
cheshire Chestnut" we all like cheese
osr brothers I'll like cheese, and we may
De fairly certain that if we had a number
OF additional brothers they would all like
cheese too.
Cur remote ancestors seem to hayc
Mixed cheese" as well as we do, for It's
manufacture il one of the oldest in ire
werld.
Roquefort 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 cows
milk was not used for the purpose by tho
d snoient Greeks at all events, as it means
literally OK cheese.
fley seemed to have made their cheese
ss the Cyclops Polyphemus made his, of
siseop's milk only
n is he true that only sleeps milk was
nsed for cheesemaking in primitive times
then it Is easy To explain why we do not
fnd 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"
Cheesemaking must at one time have
been very important industry among the
IsYaelites, as one Of the principal valleys
In Jerusalem, that between Mounts Zion
and horiah, was known in the time OF
.Iosephus as the Tyropeon, or Choesemak
ers' valley.
Nowadays cheese is almost entirely
usaAe from the milk of cows about 100,-
40 being employed in Cheshire alone The
Roqucfort docs not owe its great excellence
10 iss-oyine origin, but to the splendid and
natural cellarage-a labyrinth of dry
sueuptain caverns, wherein IL is matured
Their ventilation Ia SO perfect that no
deleterious "rold' or must" can lodge
there. rI
At Mont dor, in France, a very good
cheese is made of goats milk.
r5 Neufchatel calls up memories of the lake
beneath the pine clad Jura, with the profile
of Mont Blanc lying far away on the south
srn horizon, like dream Of ethereal sculp-
tnre. Pnrmesan speaks Of farther wander
ings past that horizon into the land of song
and azure skies. Gruyere takes us up
snneng tho glories Of the high Alps to the
border of the ice and snow, where wo listen
10 tho tinkle ot the cowbells, tho everlasting
soDg Of the cicadas, and the occasional echo
music Of the native horn (c'quante c'timc,
si'v'plait, IN 'sieu' !--bahl one wants TO go
home again).
Perhaps the strong odor of cheese may
have, according to well known physiolog-
ical principles, great deal To do with its
power as memory refresher. can well
,nxncmber my first introduction to that
durian of Gaseous deiicacies, the "petit
Cameinbcrt." 1t brings no romantic as
sociations beyond the pretty face of the
damsel who served me, but the sm--, the
ST, we'll, the perfume, now always sets
bcfore me every stick Of furniture in the
somewhat squalid room wherein the intro
duction took place
So do 1 remember my first tasting OF
Gruycre, more than so years ago, at tho
Schweizerhof in Basic. But didn't like
it, and to this day don't.
Gouda cheese recalls little of the pictur-
esque, save TO those who can find IL I'm
green flats dotted with magnifled penny
box toys, and cows envcloped i'm Brob-
dingnagian flannel waistcoats. But for
- ne it brings TO mind drive i'm our own
lake country, through the sleet of wild
wintey night, and nt the end welcome and
warmth and soft lights, and my genial
host--a very realization of Father Christ
mas, with flowing snow white beard and
locks, and Jolly, rubicund face, and all u
retired "bagmansh knowledge of good
cheer, and, oh, such an ambrosia of
round of spiccd beef, with-ye gods-such
horscradisb sauce made with such cream.
and such nectnr of whisky punch to wash
II down with! 1t was 10 the Dutch cheese,
which l then first ate, what the Swiss but
ter and honey We're 10 my first Gruyere.
To go back for little to the antiquities
of cbccse--onc thinks of the venerable old
jokes connected Herewith, Of good King
Arthur's serving men, "all of whom were
thieves, and how
The Scotchman was burned in his usquebaug,
Tho Englishman drowned in his ale,
And the Welshman,
who "made his mouth like n mousctrap"
(perhaps he meant it for rabbit" bur
row.,
was nearly choked by n mouse,
But he pullcd-pulled-pulled il out by tho tail.
And this draws on the conundrum by
the author of where was Adam when
-" etc, What comes after swcets?'
Answer, Cheese land what comes aft
or checses" Answer, Mouse"
so we step back into genuinely classical
times and think OF the pseudo Homeric
'Batrachomyomachia'' c'Battlc Of the
Frogs and Mice'), I'm which that valiant
hero, Tyrophagus, bears I'D distinguished
part.
Tyrophsgus means literally "cheese cat
er," and Is the name given in the calendar
~ the fifth Sunday in Lent by the eastern
church, probably 10 mark some degree In
the severity Of the 1enten fast which Is
more stringcntly observed there than In
the west
An abbrcviation Of the same word
namely, "tyro, 10 familiar TO us, mean.
ing "a beginner" one who should no,
venture on strong meat" or attempt
anything relatively To perfect achieve
ncnt) more difilcult than the mastication
" cheese
And this brings us TO another venerable
'sest, which disintcr from the rood old
Elegant Extracts:'
Jack. eating rotten cbeese did say
Like Samson. my thousands slsy
II vow. quoth Roger, "that YOU do
And with the seifsame weapon too"
Thinking OF the myriad attractions of q
YisSc Sfiltnn- xxnnI.,..