Not only are these investigations of interest from the scientific standpoint, as throwing light on the obscure processes of cheese-curing, but from a practical point of view they open up a new field for commercial exploitation. The inability to control the temperature in the ordinary factory curing-room results in serious losses, on account of the poor and uneven quality of the product, and the consumption of cheese has been greatly lessened thereby. These conditions may all be avoided by this low-temperature curing process, and it is not improbable that the cheese industry may undergo important changes in methods of treatment. With the introduction of cold-storage curing, and the necessity of constructing centralized plant for this purpose, the cheese industry may perhaps come to be differentiated into the manufacture of the product in factories of relatively cheap construction, and the curing or ripening of the cheese in central curing stations. In this way not only would the losses which occur under present practices be obviated, but the improvement in the quality of the cured product would be more than sufficient to cover the cost of cold-storage curing.
The characteristics of typical specimens of the different kinds of English cheese may be briefly described. Cheddar cheese possesses the aroma and flavour of a nut--the so-called "nutty" flavour. It should melt in the mouth, and taste neither sweet nor acid. It is of flaky texture, neither hard nor crumbly, and is firm to the touch. It is early-ripening and, if not too much acid is developed in the making, long-keeping. Before all others it is a cosmopolitan cheese. Some cheeses are "plain," that is, they possess the natural paleness of the curd, but many are coloured with annatto--a practice that might be dispensed with. The average weight of a Cheddar cheese is about 70 lb. Stilton cheese is popularly but erroneously supposed to be commonly made from morning's whole milk with evening's cream added, and to be a "double-cream" cheese. The texture is waxy, and a blue-green mould permeates the mass if well ripened; the flavour is suggestive of decay. The average weight of a Stilton is 15 lb. Cheshire cheese has a fairly firm and uniform texture, neither flaky on the one hand nor waxy on the other; is of somewhat sharp and piquant flavour when fully ripe; and is often--at eighteen months old, when a well-made Cheshire cheese is at its best--permeated with a blue-green mould, which, as in the case of Stilton cheese, contributes a characteristic flavour which is much appreciated. Cheshire cheese is, like Cheddar, sometimes highly-coloured, but the practice is quite unnecessary; the weight is about 55 lb. Gloucester cheese has a firm, somewhat soapy, texture and sweet flavour. Double Gloucester differs from single Gloucester only in size, the former usually weighing 26 to 30 lb., and the latter 13 to 15 lb. Leicester cheese is somewhat loose in texture, and mellow and moist when nicely ripened. Its flavour is "clean," sweet and mild, and its aroma pleasant. To those who prefer a mild flavour in cheese, a perfect Leicester is perhaps the most attractive of all the so-called "hard" cheese; the average weight of such a cheese is about 35 lb. Derby cheese in its best forms is much like Leicester, being "clean" in flavour and mellow. It is sometimes rather flaky in texture, and is slow-ripening and long-keeping if made on the old lines; the average weight is 25 lb. Lancashire cheese, when well made and ripe, is loose in texture and is mellow; it has a piquant flavour. As a rule it ripens early and does not keep long. Dorset cheese--sometimes called "blue vinny" (or veiny)--is of firm texture, blue-moulded, and rather sharp-flavoured when fully ripe; it has local popularity and the best makes are rather like Stilton. Wensleydale cheese, a local product in North Yorkshire, is of fairly firm texture and mild flavour, and may almost be spread with a knife when ripe; the finest makes are equal to the best Stilton. Cotherstone cheese, also a Yorkshire product, is very much like Stilton and commonly preferable to it. The blue-green mould develops, and the cheese is fairly mellow and moist, whereas many Stiltons are hard and dry. Wiltshire cheese, in the form of "Wilts truckles," may be described as small Cheddars, the weight being usually about 16 lb. Caerphilly cheese is a thin, flat product, having the appearance of an undersized single Gloucester and weighing about 8 lb.; it has no very marked characteristics, but enters largely into local consumption amongst the mining population of Glamorganshire and Monmouthshire. Soft cheese of various kinds is made in many localities, beyond which its reputation scarcely extends.