Cream Cheeses

Are made from new milk, milk and cream mixed in varying proportions, and even "strippings," the last of the milk drawn from the cow at each milking, and less creamy than the first; but the genuine cream cheese, made from pure cream, cannot be compared to these weaker substitutes.

Dutch Cream Cheese

Put the yolks of five eggs into a basin with three whole eggs and beat well, then mix with them one pint of buttermilk. Take three quarts of milk fresh from the cow, pour it into a saucepan, and place it over the fire until boiling, then mix in the above mixture. Boil up once, remove from the fire, cover, and let it stand until the curd has formed. Turn the curd into a fine hair-sieve, put a weight on top, and leave it thus for twenty-four hours. Serve the cheese with cream and sugar.

Gorgonzola Cheese

For one reason or another this excellent cheese was a long time in finding its way from the north of Italy to England, although, as a matter of fact, it is considered by many epicures as superior to the famous Stilton cheese. In some particulars it resembles Stilton, but not in shape, being flat and broad. When cut, it represents, if it is ripe, a yellow color, with rich green veins. Unfortunately, the large existing demand for it has led to the substitution of weak, gummy, altogether inferior makes. Gorgonzola should be firm and creamy, with the two flat surfaces as nearly level as possible; those of inferior quality sink in the center, and are of weak substance.

Gruyere Cheese

This is a very large round, flat, thick cheese, and cuts firm, with large holes, or "vesicles" as they are called, containing at times a little moisture. The odor of Gruyere is very peculiar, but the nutty flavor of a good sample is only equalled by Cheddar. The best qualities are imported from Fribourg. The process employed in making Gruyere is unique, but there are two qualities, the better being called Em-menthaler, the difference being in the quality of the milk.

Neufchatel Cheese

Of all the foreign-made salted milk cheeses that reach our shores, this favorite is the smallest. The cheese known as Bondon is a species of Neufchatel, but it is usually so exceedingly salt and dry to the taste that it is not a favorite. The ordinary Neufchatel is imported direct from the Department of Seine-et-Oise, in France, is very rich and well flavored, weighing from five to six ounces each, the best samples being blue veined.

Parmesan Cheese

As the name indicates, this cheese is a native manufacture of Parma in northern Italy. It possesses such a sweet taste that it is everywhere employed by cooks for culinary purposes, especially when grated. The milk from which this cheese is made is drawn from cows which are kept in sheds the year around and fed in summer on cut grass and in winter on fine hay. The cream skimmed from the milk is used for butter, or the making of cream cheese, so that Parmesan is not of a very buttery character, and the rennet is added to the skimmed milk at a temperature of from eighty-six to eighty-nine degrees Fahrenheit, and the whole is then placed over a slow fire and the temperature raised to about one hundred and twenty degrees, the curd separating meanwhile into small lumps. Saffron is occasionally added to the milk before heating, which gives it a yellowish green hue, and the curd is then put under pressure. These cheeses are of mammoth size, shaped in large flat hoops, the edges are then rounded, the weight being in the neighborhood of one hundred and eighty pounds. They are of a dark, almost black color on the outside, which is brought about by dressing with coloring and rubbing with linseed oil until a good surface is procured. Parmesan cheese takes about three years to ripen, and as its size requires a considerable time in its consumption, it is advisable to cover the cut-surfaces with paper steeped in sweet oil.