Evening star., 1937-03-24


ful Spring and Summer dish when we
do not want the more rich and heavy
Winter foods. Europeans are great
lovers of cheese and a dinner on the
continent is not complete unless cheese
Is served in some form or other. The
Bureau of Home Economics of the
United States Department Of Agricul-
ture tells us that Americans produced
3l0,478 tons Of this dairy product,
but even so We have not yet become as
great cheese eaters as the Europeans.
"As every one knows, popular taste
on this side of the Atlantic runs to
the mild rather than to the sharp
cheeses. Production of what is called
American cheese Teally it's a ched-
dar) in 1885 amounted to three times
the total of all the other cheese types
combined.
When shopper goes into grocery
store and orders some cheese and does
not designate any special kind what
he gets is cheddar cheese-most Of
which, by the way, is made in Wis
conSin.
'If this shopper pays less than 30
cents a pound for it, he'll probably
get a green cheese, one which has not
been given much time to ripen, says
H. L. Wilson, Cheddar cheese special
tst in the Bureau of Dairy Industry.
Much of our Cheddar, Mr. Wilson
says, is put on the market when it's
only a few weeks old. It's rubbery in
texture, mild, with mo distinctive
flavor. But Cheddar-type cheese
which has ripened eight months to a
year will have nice, WaXy body and
n flavor which is still mild, but which
has real character-the true Cheddar
taste. due to the slow growth of a
particular type of bacteria present
And of course it will cost anywhere
from Is to 25 cents pound more,
because production costs have been
higher. Moreover only properly han
died cheeses made from the best milk
will emerge triumphantly from this
trying ripening process. It's the real
test of a cheeSeS mettle-if it "can
take it,
"DR. L. A. ROGERS, chief of the
Dairy Research laboratories, is
the man responsible for the new idea
Of putting this Cheddar cheese into
tin cans directly after it has been
made to cure protected from molds,
flies and dust. There's tiny one-way
valve on the top of the oan to let the
gases escape as they develop in the
fipening cheese, without letting in
any air. A Portland, Ore, firm is
already packaging its cheese thus, and
others probably will follow. Customers
like the idea, partly because there is
no rind to cut off such cheeSe-no
waste-and also because in this way
q family can have the cheese on hand
and be assured Of a product which will
keep fresh.
The second most popular cheese in
these United States, if popularity is
to be measured by production, is
Swiss cheese Most of it is made by
Swiss ss-Americans-some of them born
In sight of the Alps.
IF your shopper asks his grocer for
some SWISS cheese, the grocer will
likely query imported or domestic?"
And If the shoppers answer is "im-
ported" he will get full-favored
cheese with the characteristic heles
or "eyes" running throughout the
piece. But, according to DR.. Rogers,
1t may or may not have been made
abroad Restaurateurs especially
have come to classify Swiss cheese
into two classes: that with the eyes,
which they call imported, and that
Without-which has been processed-
as a domestic, regardless Of where 1t
has been manufactured.
Those eyes in Swiss cheese are what
determine its grade and hence its
price, for to large extent they in
dicate the quality of the flavor They
should be neither too large nor too
small, uniform in size and appearance
and evenly distributed. A succession
OF bacterial lamentations, each pro-
duced by different kind of bacteria
working at a different stage of the
ripening process-like runners in