Average Composition Of Cheese

Water Per Cent.

Protein Per Cent.

Fat Per Cent.

Carbohydrates Per Cent.

Ash Per Cent.

Fuel val. per lb. Calories

Cheese, American, pale

31.6

28.8

35.9

.3

3.4

2.055

Cheese, Cottage

72.0

20.9

1.0

4.3

1.8

.510

Cheese, Neufchatel average

50.0

18.7

27.4

1.5

2.4

1.530

Cheese, Pineapple, average

23.0

29.9

38.9

2.6

5.6

2.245

Cheese, Swiss, average

31.4

27.6

34. 9

1.3

4.8

2.010

The manufacture of cheese is one of those provident processes instinctive in all mankind, by which food, in time of plenty, is transformed into a state suitable for keeping until a time of need. The preservation of the most valuable constituents of milk becomes possible on account of the coagulating property of albumen, in this case in the form of casein. More or less of fat is also entangled in the curd during its coagulation; the larger the quantity of fat the softer and more easily broken up is the cheese during digestion.

In cheese, then, we have a compact and concentrated nitrogenous food, corresponding to eggs, meat, and fish, but unlike meat and fish, in that it is without waste matter. The food value of cheese is diminished by the very fact of its compactness, which renders it difficult of solution. The tiny bit of cheese eaten at the close of a hearty dinner, as a so-called aid to digestion, calls for strong digestive power, and the increased effort of the digestive organs put forth to take care of this, will often digest the dinner, and then fail to digest the cheese itself; this may have given rise to the old couplet:

"Oh, cheese it is a surly elf, Digesting all things but itself."

On account of its high food value cheese deserves more attention than it ordinarily receives in the cuisine. It is not adapted to children's needs, nor should it find a place, in a raw state, to any great extent in the dietary of sedentary people. Yet, finely divided, separated with other ingredients and subjected in cooking to gentle heat, it is readily digested and assimilated by many. Its proper place in the dietary is not in conjunction with meat, but with vegetables and grains. These supply the diluting and waste elements lacking in cheese, and are in turn enriched by the nitrogenous element of the cheese, in which they are deficient. In the preparation of these dishes, emphasis must be laid on the thorough cooking of the vegetable or grain before the addition of the cheese; for nothing is eaten that can exceed in indigestibility cheese cooked at a high temperature.

The making of cheese was one of the first industries attempted by the early settlers of this country. Early in the seventeenth century, Cheshire cheese, made from a recipe brought from England, was sent from Narragansett to England and the Barbadoes in large quantities. At the present time nearly all foreign makes of cheese are successfully imitated on this side of the Atlantic. Rocquefort is an exception. A place possessing the proper conditions for ripening this cheese has not yet been found in this country.

Parmesan cheese is used quite generally in cookery; being very hard it is serviceable only when grated. It may be bought in bulk, sawed from the whole cheese. In this condition it will keep in a cool place almost indefinitely. It can also be bought grated ready for use and put up in sealed bottles. Unless the entire contents of a bottle are to be used soon after opening the same, this is not an economical procedure, as the grated cheese moulds very quickly upon exposure to the air.