The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-17
AMERICAN CHEESE.
A Growing Industry and the Product
Equals the FOresgn Brands.


About this season of the year those who
keenly enjoy the pleasures Of the table ask
anxiously, after the salad has been
munched, if the Camembert is yet fit to
eat and thoroughly ripe-its season being al
most over-or whether the Roquefort has
still heart Of damp green mold, and, II
none of these conditions obtain, the query
is made as to whether or not the cheese
of Brie is Of foreign growth and IN soft
ened state. These are important inquiries
to the man who knows how to dine. And
yet he little dreams that nowadays he rare
ly gives an apex to his .gastronomlc feast
with curdled cream of foreign make. The
manufacture of cheese in this country rep
resentS an enormous and fast increasing in
dustry. During the five years preceding
. 1880 there were received and sold at the
port of New York ten and one-haf million
packages of cheese, valued at about fifty
millions of dollars. OF this enormous guam
tity nearly eight million packages, or about
four hundred million pounds, were sent to
England. Next to New York city, Montreal
is the greatest cheese market on the Amer
lean continent, the TRANSACTIONS at the two
places being almost equal Chicago is also
a cheese mart of no inconsiderable impor-
character handled there come from Wiscon-
sin The cheese moSt-tFaded IN, SO 1ar as
this country is concerned, IS known as
cheddar which is a new-world adaptation
of an old English product This is the plain
yellow caseine seen under the Dig glass
globes or in the wide-netted boxes on the
counters of grocery stores In its best de-
veloped form it is the. basis of the popular
Welsh rabbit American producers, now
ever, do not confine themselves enllrely 10
the manufacture of cheddar. They now pro-
duce in large quantities all OF those soft
cheeces which for centuries nave borne a
foreign birthmark On excellent authority
it is stated that at least 80 per cent OF Inc
cheeses which bear the most celeprateu
foreign names are made either IN the states
of New York or Wisconsin. 1t is almost
impossible TO tell the difference between
the imported article and the American
imitation. .
A weli-known cheese buyer, an expert in
speaking on this subject to the narrator
spoke most ENTERTAINMENT.
Il do not understand" said he, why II
is that Americans. as rule, prefer ana
will pay a higher price for table cnSSSe
when they believe it to be imported. Inc
fact is that soft cbeeseS, by Wllch Is
meant cheeses made wholly of cream, are
better for the American table than the
same cheese made in the localities from
which they derive their various names ne
reason for this is that such cheese does
not improve to any extent Win age dnu
European to American markets detTacts
from rather than adds TO It's Vstiue e, dahS
Roquefort, for instance 1t IS prepared
from ewes or goats milk, or when the
quality is Just as good in America as II Is
in France After it has attained the cur
died state it is pressed into shape by hand.
1t is then placed in cool caverns, Tor whlch
the locality OF Roquefort is famous, ana al
lowed to remain until it becomes covered
with timex coating of green Inold. ms rs rs r.
at the end of two or three months the
mold assumes a reddish hue Whlch lndl-
Gates that the cheese is ripe ana feauy lor
use. The sooner it is used after TINS con-
di.ion mas been reached the better, ana the
additional ten days or two weeks needed TO
ship 1t from Europe detracts from It's Vaiue.
Brie cheese may possibly. be considered an
exception, as It pleases some palates In It's