Motherly talks with young housekeepers: embracing eighty-seven brief articles on topics of home interest, and about five hundred choice receipts for cooking, etc.Beecher, H. W., Mrs.
General
Motherly talks with young housekeepers: embracing eighty-seven brief articles on topics of home interest, and about five hundred choice receipts for cooking, etc.
Beecher, H. W., Mrs.
Cooking; Home economics
FIRST, a dry, airy, thoroughly ventilated room must be provided, of
even and moderate temperature. It should be used for a cheese-room
only, and access denied, if possible, to all but the operator. It is
useless to attempt the work if flies cannot be excluded; and, when open
to all, that is impossible. The windows should be kept open in fair
weather, but blinds always closed, to avoid currents of air, except to
admit what light is needed while the work is being done. Frames covered
with wire or mosquito net can be fitted into the windows, and a door of
the same material hung inside, shutting closely to exclude the flies,
yet giving admittance to as much air and light as are needed. If wind
and sun have too free access to a cheese-room, the cheese cannot ripen
properly.
Cheese-tubs, cheese-knives (a long wooden knife for cutting the curd),
cheese-ladder, hoops, cheese-boards, or _followers_, cheese-basket,
bowl, and cheese-cloths made of strong linen, but woven very loosely,
and the cheese-press,--these are the necessary utensils.
The months from May to September are good cheese months; some keep up
the work through October; but the cheese is more difficult to cure, and
will not be as good.
If night and morning milk is to be used, strain the night’s milk into
pans, and set in a cool place. In the morning take off all the cream;
heat the skimmed milk to 95° or 100°, pour it into the cheese-tub with
the morning’s milk, and stir in the cream; add the rennet, and mix all
well together with the long wooden cheese-knife or a wooden spoon;
cover the tub with a close-fitting cover, and spread over that a thick
cheese-blanket, to keep in the heat while the curd is forming. The
milk, when drawn from the cows, is from 85° to 90°, and until the curd
is well set, it should not lose more than from five to seven degrees
of its natural heat. See that the cows are driven to and from their
pasture gently; for, if they get overheated, the milk will rise above
the natural heat, and must be cooled off before the rennet is stirred
in; as, if the milk, either from this cause or any other, is over 90°
when it is set, the cheese will be spongy and of very poor flavor, or
no flavor at all. If the milk is too cold the curd will be so tender it
will never become firm, but will bulge out at the side, and will not
keep. Be sure and ascertain the temperature of the milk always, before
adding rennet. If the milk is too _cold_, heat some milk and stir in,
until the whole rises to the proper temperature; if too _warm_, wait
till it cools sufficiently before adding the rennet. The quantity
of rennet to be used depends so much on the quality of the article,
that experience only can teach the exact amount to use. If good and
strong, two ounces is quite enough for sixty quarts of milk. The curd
will have set firmly in an hour or an hour and a half, when it must be
cut gently, first round the sides of the tub, then across in lines,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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