Care of Cheese.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 79, 30 September 1896, Page 3

Care of Cheese.

.— ♦ The following is from the American j Year Book of the Department of Agri- j culture for 1895 : "If buyers would j take a little trouble to properly care for j the cheese they purchase, it would keep better, there would be little loss, and housekeepers would be encouraged to nse more. Eetail merchants woald de ■well to distribute directions to this end. Nearly all kinds of cheese while waiting use in the household should be kept in a special vessel, from which the air is i excluded. A stone jar with a tight- j fitting cover is a suitable receptable. >. This should be placed in a storeroom or ! dry cellar, where the temperature is ; constant at 50 to 60 degrees F. The air | mast not be so free from moisture as to dry out and harden the cheese, nor so damp as to promote tbe growth of mould. Trial will easily determiue a suitable j place to keep the jar, which should be thoroughly scalded and well aired after bemg emptied of one lot of cheese before another is put in. This should never be forgotten. There are some moulds or germs of ferment and decomposition, susceptible of growth in such ▼essels, if too loDg neglected, which might prove dangerous. In case a large cheese is bought for family use, instead of cutting off a little at a time, constantly leaving considerable surface to dry, enough should be removed to last two or three days, and the entire surface of the remainder should be tubbed with Borne heavy oil. A mixture of beeswax and salad oil, worked to the consistency of soft butter, has been recommended for this purpose, Epicures advise cutting cheese like the Stilton and Young America, across one end of the cylinder and keeping them With the cut surface downward in a soup plate filled with old ale. An Edam may be similarly cut and preserved. Cheeses of the shapes last mentioned may be cut directly in two, and then used from the cut surfaces, leaving these smooth, so they will fit closely together ; the air may thus be largely excluded and rapid dryine prevented. If cheese in large pieces or fragments becomes dry and bard it should not be rejected, but used for oooking purposes, either grated or melted.