GORGONZOLA CHEESE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 799, 22 November 1882, Page 2

GORGONZOLA CHEESE.

Professor Sheldon thus describes the manufacture of the above-named famous cheese in a late issue of Daity Farmer-.— “ This cheese is made in loaves in the proportions of Cheddar, and of aolb to 4olb in weight. The milk is coagulated warm and fresh directly after milking, so that it is thick in ten to twenty minutes. Now the curd is slightly broken up and left alone until it has sunk to the bottom, when it is still more cut up with a wooden instrument, always drawn in one direction. After this it remains untouched for an hour, and is then cut in squares. When the whey has collected pretty clear over the curd it is drained off, and the curd is left to hang in a cloth until all the whey has run off; after this it is filled in the wooden forms, which can be made smaller. The filling is done in the following way : —Curd which has been made the day before is crumbled and put in alternate layers with the fresh curd, which is also crumbled, with the provision that the first and last layers are from the fresh curd. The former are then covered up and left standing for six hours, when the top of the cheese is loosened three or four inches deep, covered with a cloth, and the loaf turned upside down. After twelve hours the cheese is again turned, and after twenty-four hours the cloths are taken away, fresh forms substituted, and the cheese taken to a room whose temperature is about 65 deg. to 70 deg. Fahr., where it is placed on a table thinly covered with straw. For the next three or four days the loaves are turned several times a day, then the forms are taken away and the cheese placed for twenty-four hours on a table strewn with salt, where it is turned several times. For the next twenty-four hours it is put back into the forms. This alternate treatment is repeated from ten to twenty times. Afterwards the cheese u kept six to eight weeks in a cellar, where it is turned, wiped, and salted repeatedly. These cheeses are very highly prized, and vary delicious food : when they are ripe blue mould permeates them throughout, and they resemble, alike in flavour, appearance, and consistency, a fine specimen of a rich and ripe old Stilton.”