This section is from the "The Ideal Cook Book" book, by Annie R. Gregory. Also see Amazon: The Ideal Cook Book.
THERE are but few housewives who consider a dinner complete to-day without cheese of some kind in some form.
Many kinds, however, are considered a luxury even by the well-to-do, owing to the fact that they are made across the water and duty on them is high. Americans have tried to imitate the making of native European cheese and in some instances have succeeded, but in others have failed.
The monopoly of the trade on the Roquefort cheese, is still retained by France. This cheese comes from the town of the same name, southwest of Paris. It is made from cow's milk and the little green specks in it are merely coarse crumbled bread which the peasants throw in when making the cheese. After the cheese is made it is carried to cellars regularly prepared where it is left to cure.
Brie cheese originally came from the town of Brie, north of Paris. It, too, is made of cow's milk. Unlike the Roquefort, however, it has been successfully imitated in America. At the present time very little is imported from France. The Limburger cheese which was once manufactured abroad is to-day made very successfully in this country. The Edan cheese is still brought to this country in large quantities. So far, Americans have never been able to imitate the Hollanders in making it. The Parmesan cheese, so much desired by French chefs, is made only in Italy. Sago cheese, made from the milk of goats, is manufactured in Switzerland. The cheese mostly made in America is that known as English cheese. Americans have quite solved the method of making it to perfection. To-day more of our cheese is exported to England than has ever been imported from that country to America.
Cheese dries very fast and soon becomes too hard for the table. Anything that excludes the air will prevent its drying. Keeping it under glass is a good method, but an easier and surer one is to take cheese-cloth, dip it in white wine, squeeze it nearly dry and wrap the cheese in it. It does not impair its flavor in the least. When cheese becomes very hard, it is fine for macaroni, as it can be grated easier.
Moisten eight or ten ounces of good cheese, broken into small bits, with one-half of a pint of thick cream. Rub it smooth in a mortar and add two eggs, with the white of one, both beaten together, and a pinch of cayenne. Bake in a moderate oven for fifteen minutes. A. C. M.
Grate one-half of a pound of good creamery cheese, add five eggs and one-half of this quantity of butter, and stir all together over a moderate fire, till the eggs are set. Slice bread and toast it brown, Eat with the cheese, which must be served very hot. Mrs. Ida Gregg.
One cupful of cheese, chopped fine, two well-beaten eggs, one cupful of. milk, one cupful of cracker crumbs, one-half of a salt-spoonful of salt. Stir well together, turn into a buttered dish and bake in a quick oven.
Marion Miller.
Put five quarts of the last milking of a cow, called strippiugs, in a granite pan with two tablespoonsful of rennet. When the curd comes strike it down with the skimmer to break it. Let it stand two hours; spread a cheese cloth on a sieve and drain upon it; salt and break the curd a little with the hand; put it into a press with a two-pound weight upon it. After standing twelve hours, bind a linen cheese-cloth round. Turn every day till dry; rubbing the outside with butter and let gradually ripen.
Domestic Cheese Maker.
When the milk which has been left over sours so as to be clabbered, place it in a tin pan and set it over a pan of hot water. Heat it very slowly, so that the whey may become separated from the curd. If it boils, the curd will be tough. Strain it through a cloth, and press out the whey. Stir in a little butter, cream and salt till it is moist enough. Work it well with a spoon till it is smooth, then make it into little pats for the table.
E. S. A.
Melt one-half of a pint of grated cheese very gradually in a gill of sweet cream over the fire and as soon as it is hot remove, and stir in the yolk of one egg with a piece of butter the size of a hickory nut and a little pepper. Toast small squares of bread and butter them. Lay the slices on a platter over a dish of hot water, spread the cheese over the toast, and serve soon, or the cheese will grow tough.
Mrs. Mariette Purvie.
Have one Neufchatel cheese, one teacupful of sugar, grate a lemon rind and use with it one-half of the juice, one-half of a teacupful each of rolled cracker crumbs and currants, four eggs, one tablespoonful of melted butter, one-half of a teacupful of cream or rich milk, one-half of a nutmeg grated and one salt-spoonful of salt. Mix the cracker crumbs dry with the cheese, first removing the wrapper and taking off the thin skin on the outside of the cheese; crumble the cheese and cracker crumbs well together, beat eggs well with the sugar and add, following with the butter and cream. If the cream is very rich the butter may be omitted. Put in lemon, nutmeg and currants. Mix all well together and put into well-buttered patty pans lined with puff paste. Bake twenty minutes in a quick oven. They will puff up, but must not be permitted to get too brown.
 
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