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A Basic Monastic Hard Cheese Fig.1 Cheese; from the Theatrum Sanitatis, Library Casanatense, Rome 1 . (Although the illuminations in this paper are representative of domestic cheese production they are none 1 Fig.137. Cheese; from the Theatrum Sanitatis, Library Casanatense, Rome, http://www.godecookery.com/afeast/foods/foods.html 1

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Page 1: A basic monastic hard cheese

A Basic Monastic Hard Cheese

Fig.1 Cheese; from the Theatrum Sanitatis, Library Casanatense, Rome1.

(Although the illuminations in this paper are representative of domestic cheese production they are none the less documentation of the process of making hard cheeses during the middle ages.)

1 Fig.137. Cheese; from the Theatrum Sanitatis, Library Casanatense, Rome, http://www.godecookery.com/afeast/foods/foods.html

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Fig.2. Cheese manufacture, 1390-1400, Illustration from "Tacuinum Sanitatis", illuminated medical manual based on texts translated from Arabic into Latin, in the collection of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.2

Making a Hard Cheese in Period

Some types of hard cheese were named for the area that they were being made is in, such as Gouda (in Holland); or the religious orders that made their own cheese. An example of this was documented in 1543 in the ledgers of Saint-Aman Abby of Rouen where the cheese called Neufchatel3, was mentioned in the book “A Proper newe Booke of Cokerye.”4 Another example would be a variety of cheeses called Trappist after the order of Trappist monks who made them. Perhaps one of the most famous cheeses was one

2 Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, http://images.imagestate.com/Watermark/1276116.jpg3 Norman Cheeses, www.formages.org/fnd/fdn_neufcatel_en 4 A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye, 16th Century, 1545, http://www.uni-giessen.de/gloning/tx/bookecok.htm

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made in Germany since 1371 by Benedictine monks called Munster. Munster takes its name from the Latin word for monastery, monasterium.5

“It has been estimated that there were as many as 1000 monastic houses (251 were Cistercian abbeys and 412 were Benedictine abbeys) alone in France during the middle ages.”6 Each monastic house would serve both fresh & hard cheeses adapted from the milk available in the area where it was located. These cheeses would each have a unique flavor. The flavor of the milk used in making the cheese would be effected by the grass or plants the animals ate, the type and breed of animal being milked, the time of the year the milk was collected and even the time of day (how rich was the milk), what type of milks were being combined (some cheeses combine Cow & Goat/Sheep milk to make cheese), how & were the cheese was aged. In wine making the flavor the land gives to wine is called terroir and the same is true for cheeses.

Other cheeses of monastic origins are: 7

Abondance Abbey (Savoy): Abondance has been made since the fourteenth century and is a semi-hard cheese. This type of cheese has a smooth surface rind, showing the marks of the cloth with an amber color. This cheese is made in the French Mountains like my cheese this is a raw cow’s milk cheese. This cheese again like mine has a firm texture, and a distinct and complex flavor. The color of both mine and this Abby cheese ranges from ivory to pale yellow.

Maroilles Abbey (Nord): Maroilles is a moist orange-red washed rind and has a strong smell from the length of ageing, close to a Limburger in nature.

Conques Abbey (Aveyron): Roquefort (a blue cheese semi-hard) aged in the caves to encourage the growth of the blue mold that give the cheese its flavor.

Benedictine Abbey of Munster (Haut-Rhin): Munster (a semi-hard cheese) which comes from the Latin word monasterium (monastery) was made as early as 1371. The cheese's crust (rind) is washed regularly. It is matured in damp cellars for five weeks for up to 2 to 3 months. During this period, the rind is periodically washed with brine (a concentrated salt solution). The added moisture helps the development of bacteria that gives this cheese its particular taste and color, this type of cheese was also smoked.

Cistercian Monastery of Epoisses (Côte d'Or): Epoisses was recorded at the end of the sixteenth century. This is another soft to semi-hard cheese with a strong flavor and a wished rind. Washed rind cheeses are pressed cheeses.

Templar’s of Coulsdon (Seine-et-Marne): Coulommiers has a soft texture and is similar to Brie.

St Claude Abbey (Jura): Bleu de Gex has a flat wheel shape, the rind is dry, rough, and has a white-yellow color.

5 Albin, Michel, Linventaire du patrimoine culinaire de France, Lorraine, 1998, article on Munster-gerome AOC cheese, pg. 198~201, http://www.nethelper.com.au/article/Munster_%28cheese%29 6 At the Table of the Monks: Cheese, Of Course (Part   V)

http://gherkinstomatoes.com/2009/05/22/at-the-table-of-the-monks-cheese-of-course-part-v/7 Lee, Bruce, The Legacy of the Monks, http://www.oldcook.com/en/history-monks_legacy#fro

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The hard cheese I have made is similar in style to Abondance Abbey Cheese and is

8 My Monastic cheese inside after cutting (above right), (below) beautiful rind after 7 ½ months of aging.

representative of a simple hard monastic cheese that might have been produced in France through the 16th centuries. Monastic houses adapted local resources to make their communities self sufficient. Therefore with this in mind I adapted the local resources found here to create a simple type of hard cheese that might have been produced in period. My cheese reflects the flavors found in the pastures of Indiana and the environment of my home.

Below you will read about the rule of Saint Benedict who lived in the 6th Century. Many monastic orders followed these simple rules and beliefs. In particular since my persona is an 11th Century Cistercian Nun I wanted to try to recreate a cheese that my persona might have made.

8 Gourmet Food, Abondance cheese, http://www.gourmet-food.com/french-cheese/abondance-cheese-100475.aspx

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Sabina Flanagan wrote “at the monastery of Cluny, according to an eleventh-century account, the regime for summer would consist of two meals per day. At the first there would be a dish of dried beans, a course of cheese or eggs which was replaced by fish on Thursday, Sunday, and feast days….”9 St. Hildegard of Bingen, wrote as well in Physica specifically that “If one wishes to eat cheese, it should be neither cooked nor fresh, but dried….”10 Here the description of DRIED Cheese and not soft or cooked is possibly referencing hard slicing cheese or a grading style of cheese. St. Hildegard had many visions that she had recorded in some of these visions she used common everyday things as metaphors to relate information to the reader. In one vision she records the following, “….I also saw the earth with people on it. The people were carrying milk in their vessels, and they were making cheese from the milk. Some of the milk was thick, from which strong cheese was being made; some of the milk was thin, from which mild cheese was being curdled; and some of the milk was spoiling, from which bitter cheese was being produced.”11

There are currently modern examples of Cistercian communities carrying on the cheese making traditions to support themselves now just as they would have in the Middle Ages. On April 29, 1987, Mount Saint Mary's Abbey in Wrentham, Massachusetts was founded by Cistercian nuns. “They purchased a cheese farm with all of its dated cheese-making machinery still intact on the property. Trappist emphasizes self-sufficiency and manual labor. Therefore the idea of a small monastery producing and selling cheese to support itself appealed greatly to the Sisters.”12

Cistercian & Benedictine monastic houses had extensive networks of communication & trading. In German a hard cheese is called Hartkäse; a semi-hard cheese is called Schnittkäse. Chesses ranging from soft fresh cheeses to hard cheese were common fair in German monasteries. Common types of cheese found were French Brie, Dutch Edam, German Limburger, and Italian Parmesan, almond milk was also turn into a cheese called almond cheese as a substitute for milk based cheeses during Lent.13 What I want to show here is that there also existed an extensive trading net work between monasteries. The Cistercians were well known for their extensive net work of trading that extended from Wales to Germany. This would not only allow for other types of cheese to be part of their monastic diet it allowed the knowledge on how to make these cheese’s to be exchanged as well.

9 Flanagan, Sabina, Hildegard of Bingen, 1098-1179: a visionary life, Routledge, New York, 1989, Chpt. “World & Cloister”, pg.33-3610 Throop, Priscills, Hildegard von Bingen’s - Physica, Healing Arts Press, 1998, pg.15, pg.19 11 Classen, Constance, The Color of Angels: Cosmology, Gender, and the Aesthetic Imagination, Rutledge, 1998, pg.1512 Our Lady of the Angels Monastery. 2002. 24 Mar. 2009 <http://olamonastery.org13 Adamson, Melitta Weiss, Food in Medieval Times, Greenwood Press, 2004, pg46

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Fig 3: Dairymen and Cheese Sellers (Mid 13th C., San Marco, Venice)14

There are 73 chapters in the “Rules of St. Benedict”15 I used the list below from “At the Table of the Monks”, because it was the most concise list for the purpose of informing you how it applied to monastic houses, their everyday lives, and cheese making. “Cheeses of every type fit into the simple monastic life of the orders that followed the rules set forth by St. Benedict. The rules that favored the production and preservation of making cheese were these.”16  In order to be “real monks” (these rules were also adopted by orders that contained

Sisters, and Nuns), Benedictines must live from the work of their own hands. They must not eat meat: milk products and cheese must constitute the bases of their

food, as powerful bearers of the values of simplicity and humility. Finally, their community must be self-sufficient (economically speaking).17 Other

Orders that also followed these rules were the “Cistercians an order founded in France (this is the Order that my persona portrays), the Trappist, Dominicans, and the Franciscans to name a few of the major ones.”18

14 At the Table of the Monks: Cheese, Of Course (Part   V)

http://gherkinstomatoes.com/2009/05/22/at-the-table-of-the-monks-cheese-of-course-part-v/15 Rule of Saint Benedict, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_Saint_Benedict 16

At the Table of the Monks: Cheese, Of Course (Part V),http://gherkinstomatoes.com/2009/05/22/at-the-table-of-the-monks-cheese-of-course-part-v/17 “Cheese Maker Monks”, http://www.french-cheese.com/Cheesemaker-Monks18 “Cheese Maker Monks”, http://www.french-cheese.com/Cheesemaker-Monks

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The milk was collected twice a day (morning & evening) at the milking house to be processed (fig.4 & 5). In period they would have left the skimmed milk to warm over night by the fire near the hearth. A milk starter often cream (see Ref.#1) from the next mornings milking19 (a bacterial agent some times referred to as a live culture) was added that acted as an agent to help back down the proteins in the milk so that the milk solids out separate out (the curds) . One other method in period for the source of a starter was to save a small amount of milk from a previous batch of cheese before the rennet (or agent was added to cause the curd to separate from the whey). Then something was added like thistle, safflower juice, or an acid (vinegar or verjuice), ale, or rennet20 to cause the milk to clabbered (the curd to separate from the whey).21

The milk purchased for this project was Raw Whole Milk that I low temperature pasteurized for modern safety reasons (The raw whole milk that I used was low temperature pasteurized by me, then processed into the cheese see details below). The Raw milk came from free range Short Horn Milking Cows, and Belted Galloway which was breeds known in the middle ages.

Medieval Method of making cheese:

Reference 1: “My Lady of Middlesex makes excellent slipp-coat Cheese of good morning milk, putting Cream to it. A quart of Cream is the proportion she useth to as much milk, as both together make a large round Cheese of the bigness of an ordinary Tart-plate, or cheese-plate; as big as an ordinary soft cheese, that eh Market women sell for ten pence…”22

Reference 2:(making a pressed cheese)

(England, 17th century, “A True Gentlewomans Delight”, 1653)To make a slipcoat Cheese

Take five quarts of new Milk from the Cow, and one quart of Water, and one spoonful of Runnet, and stirre it together, and let it stand till it doth come, then lay your Cheese cloth into the Vate, and let the Whey soak out of it self; when you have taken it all up, lay a cloth on the top of it, and one pound weight for one hour, then lay two pound for one hour more, then turn him when he hath stood two houres, lay three pound on him for an hour more, then take him out of the Vate, and let him lie two or three houres, and then salt him on both sides, when he is salt enough, take a clean cloth and wipe him dry, then

19 Power, Eileen, The Goodman of Paris, New York, 1992, pg.16920 Arne Emil Christensen is Professor, Dr. Phil. at the University Museum of National Antiquities in Oslo, author of this article (He specializes on shipbuilding history and craftsmanship in the Iron Age and the Viking period), http://ezinearticles.com/?Dairy-Products-in-Anglo-Saxon-Times-%28Part-of-the-Anglo-Saxon-Survival-Guide%29&id=375438721 Power, Eileen, The Goodman of Paris, New York, 1992, pg.16922 The Project Gutenberg eBook “The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby”, www.gutenberg.org/files/16441, “To make Silpp-coat cheese”

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let him lie on a day or a night, then put Nettles under and upon him, and change them once a day, if you find any Mouse turd wipe it off, the Cheese will come to his eating in eight or nine dayes.23

Reference 3:

“Take a gallon of milk from the cow, and seethe it, and when it doth seethe put thereunto a quart or two of morning milk in fair cleansing pans in such place as no dust may fall therein. This is for you clotted cream. The next morning take a quart of morning milk, and seethe it, and put in a quart of cream thereunto, and when it doth seethe, take if off the fire. Put it in a fair earthen pan, and let it stand until it be somewhat blood warm. But first over night put a good quantity of ginger, rose water, and stir it together. Let it settle overnight. The next day put it into your said blood warm milk to make your cheese come. Then put the curds in a fair cloth, with a little good rose water, fine powder of ginger, and a little sugar. So lash great soft rolls together with a thread and crush out the whey with your clotted cream. Mix it with fine powder of ginger, and sugar and so sprinkle it with rose water, and put your cheese in a fair dish. And put these clots around about it. Then take a pint of raw milk or cream and put it in a pot, and all to shake it until it be gathered into a froth like snow. And ever as it cometh, take it off with a spoon and put into a colander. There put it upon your fresh cheese, and prick it with wafers, and so serve it.”24

Reference 4:

Columella on Cheese Making:(Both soft and pressed aged cheeses)

(Although an early source from 70 A.D. Columella was a contemporary of Pliny & Cato, and at this point in time this was the most complete written source of instructions I have found for making cheese both pressed & soft)

"Cheese should be made of pure milk which is as fresh as possible....It should usually be curdled with rennet obtained from a lamb or kid, though it can also be coagulated with the flower of the wild thistle or the seeds of the safflower (Carthamus tinctorius), and equally well with the liquid which flows from a Fig-tree...".  "A pail when it has been filled with milk should always be kept at some degree of heat: it should not however be brought into contact with the flames....but should be put to stand not far from the fire..."  "...when the liquid had thickened, it should immediately be transferred to wicker vessels or baskets or moulds..."

23 Gode Cookery, Matterer, James L. site owner, http://www.godecookery.com/engrec/engrec77.html 24 Dawson, Thomas, The Good Housewife’s Jewel, Southover Press, 1996, pg.17~18

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Fig.4 Women had charge of the domestic animals including milking, butter making, and cheese making production. (Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 764, fol. 44)25

"...as soon as the cheese has become somewhat more solid, they place weights on the top of it, so that the whey may be pressed out;....then they are placed into a cool, shady place, that it my not go bad....it is often placed on very clean boards, it is sprinkled with pounded salt so that it may exude the acid liquid,...when it has hardened it is pressed again....".  "...the method of making what we call "hand pressed" cheese is the best-known of all: when the milk is slightly congealed in the pail and still warm it is broken up and hot water is poured over it, and then it is either shaped by hand or else pressed into box-wood moulds." (fig. 2)"Others allow thyme which has been crushed and strained through a sieve to coagulate with the milk and curdle it in this way, similarly, you can give the cheese an flavor you like by adding any seasoning which you choose....Cheese also which is hardened in brine and then colored with the smoke of apple tree wood or stubble has a not unpleasant flavor..."26

Supplies:

Modern stainless steel was used to keep the surfaces as clean as possible, for modern health reasons.

25 Hanawalt, Barbara, A., The Ties That Bound – Peasant Families in Medieval England, Oxford Univ. Press, Chapter 8 “The Husbandman’s Year and Economic Ventures:, pg.14826 Columella II de re Rustica V-IX, Translated by E.S. Forster & E. Heffner, Book VII, pg.285~289

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2 gallons Whole Raw Milk1 pkg. Mesophilic Culture Direct Set1/2 tsp. Rennet¼ cup cool water1 Tbl. Sea Salt2 Stainless Steel Pots1 Slotted Stainless Steel Spoon1 yard of cheese cloth1 Colander1 Stainless Steel Ladle1 Thermometer 1 Cheese Press1 Cheese Mold & Follower1 timer1 large plastic cake container (Tupperware style)2 Reed Mats to place the cheese onLard enough to coat the outside of the cheese round

To Make A Basic Hard Monastic Cheese: (Method used in “Cheese making Made Easy” by Ricki & Robert Carroll)27

The flavor of this cheese tends to be a little shaper & dryer

There is an Italian proverb that says “Cheese without a rind is like a maiden without shame” 28 that certainly speaks to the fact that hard cheeses were being made (a cheese having a rind is most often used in context of a hard aged cheese). There are also a number of medieval recipes that call for sliced or graded cheese as part of the cooking preparation please reference Item #1 “To make a Tarte of Chese”. The cheese I have made is a pressed cheese having a rind, and sealed.

Modern Method:

2-gallon whole raw milk (Raw Milk or non-homogenized milk will give you a richer cheese)There is an additional step here for me since I used Raw Milk. I needed to heat the milk for 30 min. to a temperature of 145°, then place the pot immediately into a sink filled with cool water and ice if necessary to bring the temp of the milk down quickly, then after cooled place sterile clean container and proceed, with cheese making steps below.

1 package of Mesophilic Culture DS (this is used for temperatures under 105º) 1/2 tsp. of Rennet for 2 gallons of milk 1/4 cup of cool water to dilute the rennet into1 Tbl. Coarse Sea Salt 27 Carroll, Ricki & Robert, “Cheese Making Made Easy”, Storey Books, 1996, Chapter on “Hard Cheese” pages 28 After Cheese Comes Nothing, http://aftercheese.wordpress.com/2008/09/20/blessed-hildegard-and-the-profiling-of-cheese, 9/20/2008

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Step One:

Place milk into large pan (fig. 6). Warm milk until it has risen to a temperature of milk to 90 F. (Use the in-direct warming method using a large metal pan in a sink of warm water, or inside of a second larger pot).

Add the package of Mesophilic Starter DS and allow to sit for 45~60 minutes to ripen. Add Rennet (diluted to 1/4 cup of cool water) and stir for several minuets. Let milk sit covered for 1 hour or until a curd has formed and a clean break can be preformed (the curd should have what is called a clean break, which is if a clean knife is put into the curd the curd should separate cleanly).

Cut the curds into ½ inch cubes, and then let sit for 5 minutes. Bring the temperature of the curds and whey up to 100º F, raising the temperature no more than 2 degrees every 5 minutes stirring gently for 1 hour to keep the curds from matting. Then allow sitting for 5 minutes. Remove excess whey to the level of the curds which will have a shrunken appearance.

Pour the curds into a cheesecloth-lined colander (fig. 9) while still warm (fig.6, 8) and hang to drain for 60 minutes or until bag has stopped dripping.

Place the warm curds & cheese cloth into the cheese mold place the follower (fig.2) Place the cheese mold and follower into the cheese press and apply 15 pounds of pressure for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes remove weight & follower and turn the round of cheese, replace the follower and return to cheese press for additional 15 minutes. Turn every 15 minutes for the next 2 hours. After 2 hours increase weight to 30 pounds and turn every ½ hour for the next hour. Then replace into press and leave in press for 12 hours or over night.29

Remove cheese round and place on reed mat. Turn once a day for the next 2~4 days until a nice rind has developed and the surface remains dry. After 2~4 days rub the outside of the cheese all rounds with sea salt. Place in your cheese cave (fig. 7) at 55ºF degrees turning once a day for the next 3 weeks then once a week there after. After 3 weeks seal the out side of the cheese round, I choose to use lard but olive oil or wax was also used. Sealing the cheese will keep it form drying out and loosing too much moisture, and it also keeps out unwanted molds. This basic hard cheese will be ready to eat in 3 to 6 months, but the flavor will develop if left to age longer.

Observations:

29 Carroll, Ricki & Robert, Cheese making made Easy, United States: Capital City Press, 1996, page 36~37

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Day 1: (October 10, 2010) I split the cooked curds into two batches to make two smaller rounds for research purposes (see additional observations).

Cheese placed into the cheese mold and then pressed.Basic round of hard cheese is made.

Day 2-3:Cheese is air dried to start the formation of the rind (this is where I use the large

plastic Tupperware Cake cover to keep my cats away from the cheese while it is sitting on the counter).

Basic round of cheese after day two of the Air Drying Process, note that the darker area is where the rind is starting to form.

Day 4 though the end of week 3:Cheese rind gets darker and firmer.

End of Week Three:Cheese is sealed with lard and turned once a week.

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Follower

My mold, lined with cheese cloth and folded over the curds

Air drying process rind forming

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Round sealed with the Lard.

January 2011:Additional Lard was added and minor mold removed.

February 2011:Cheese turned no additional Lard was needed.

March 2011:Cheesed turned no additional Lard was needed.

April 16, 2011:Cheese cut and sampled Aged 6 months at Constellation Regional A&S.

Tasting Note: The rind was well formed and not overly thick. I found the cheese to be not overly dry with a pleasant flavor. I think that in future I may need to see how to control the ph a little better to me the cheese seems to have a tangy under flavor though not unpleasant certainly is something for me to strive to lessen if possible. I think I would prefer not to use lard again but olive oil or bee’s wax to see how it affects the flavor of the cheese. I found that as the cheese warmed to room temperature the lard was not pleasant to handle or mess with. Although it did do its job on sealing a protecting the cheese, I am also certain that in period they would have likely wiped the excess off of the exterior of the cheese before serving.

Additional Observations:

“Take harde chese and cut it in slices…”30

I wanted to see what the texture and taste of a Basic Hard Cheese would be if I did not seal it. So I made second round at the same time and this one I did not seal the outside of the cheese but I did rub the outside to prevent unwanted mold growth. I tried the cheese once a month for next 5 months.

With out sealing the cheese developed a nice tart flavor, with a dry crumbly texture. So sealing the out side of a hard cheese is necessary to prevent it from loosing too much of the remaining moisture content.

30 A Boke of Gode Cooke, To make a Tarte of Chese, http://www.godecookery.com/trscript/trsct032.html

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Air drying complete Lard has been applied to seal the cheese.

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This is how the unsealed cheese looked after 5 months; it did develop a very nice white mold which is one of the molds cheese makers want.

Conclusion:

This is a process I have been learning about for the last 4 years, I started Medieval Cheese Forum a year ago (www.medievalcheese.blogspot.com) so I could keep track of mistakes and successes, share information I have learned about cheese making also.

Some of the things I learned were if my house is too cold the curd will not set. I can warm the milk and add more Rennet, and that if using a raw milk product that is produced near the end of the cows or goat’s lactation cycle the milk does not contain enough milk fat to set a curd (you get a weak or soft curd that does not hold up during the cheese making process for hard cheese). I have also learned that time is much more critical for making hard cheeses, and the process of making hard cheeses is not nearly as forgiving as making soft cheeses.

On adding rennet I learned early on that a little goes a long way and adding two much of something in the case of making cheese can be a bad thing. Adding not enough rennet and your curd will not set, but I have found that you can add a little more if necessary. Adding to much rennet will give it a rubbery texture and a bitter under taste. This also will happen if your rennet is too old.

This last statement is important because it explains a couple of written statements I found in period sources that talked about the time of year and the quality of the cheese products produced. For example in the spring and early summer the milk is rich and contains a large of amount of protein and milk fat due to new pastures and lactation for their young, so the cheese is going to be very rich in body and flavor. If the milk is in the fall then it is not as rich due to the decline of pasture feeding and that they are no longer lactating, so the cheese produced in the fall will take more milk to produce a pound of cheese due to a lower amount of protein and fat making the milk thinner (the cream that comes to the top is not as thick as in the spring/ summer milk). What the animals eat also effect the flavor of the cheese as well.

Part of the preservation of hard cheese comes in how moisture can I get the curds to give up without taking out too much and making a very dry cheese (i.e. how much whey can I get out of the curd). This is done in several ways thru the process, by hanging, pressing, and salting. Cheeses pressed and aged in this manner can and do last years.

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Lovely white mold that helps develop the flavor of cheese.

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Another lesson that applies as much now as then is keeping things clean, “morning milk in fair cleansing pans in such place as no dust may fall therein”31. There are times when no matter what you do the milk will not set a curd and all you can do is start over and feed the previous batch to the pig.

Enjoy sampling the cheese.

Please reference Illumination in Fig. 2, look on the left hand side, and notice the wooden form that the bundle of cheese is being pressed in and the container below to catch the whey. Above are two images taken from a modern video showing traditional cheese making. The form and methods have not changed since the 14th century.

31 Dawson, Thomas, The Good Housewife’s Jewel, Southover Press, 1996, pg.17~1832 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4LNS7F_-DM&feature=related587 Gyimesközéplok Traditional cheese-making, Sajtkészítés

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33 fig. 5

Item #1:

To make a Tarte of Chese

“Take harde chese and cut it in slyces / and pare it / than laye it in fayre water or in swete milke the space of thre houres / than take it vp and breake it in a morter tyll it be small / than draw it vp thorow a strainer with the yelkes of vi egges and ceason it vp with suger and swete butter / and so bake it.”

To make a Tart of Cheese.

“Take hard cheese and cut it in slices / and pare it / then lay it in fair water or in sweet milk the space of three hours / then take it up and break it in a mortar till it be small / then draw it up through a strainer with the yolks of 6 eggs and season it up with sugar and sweet butter / and so bake it.”34

33 Norman Cheeses, www.formages.org/fnd/fdn_neufcatel_en34 A Boke of Gode Cooke, To make a Tarte of Chese, http://www.godecookery.com/trscript/trsct032.html

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35 fig. 6 Warming the milk

35 From Tacuinum Sanitatis (ÖNB Codex Vindobonensis, series nova 2644), c. 1370-1400) http://www.godecookery.com/afeast/foods/foods.html

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Warming milk

Slotted ladle & strainer

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36

Fig.7: A cheese cave as one might have seen it in the middle ages

36 Feibleman, Peter, The Cooking of Spain & Portugal, Time Life Books, 1969, pg. 130~131

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37 Fig. 8 Draining Whey

38 Fig. 9 Roman Cheese Mold in form and function very similar to those found from 600 – 1600A.D.

All other photos unless otherwise noted were taken by me

37 Take 1000 Eggs or More, pg. 45, from Schweizer Chronik, c. 154838 Roman Cheese Press, Greyware circular straight-sided bowl, used for training the Whey from cheese, c. 450 A.D., http://www.museumoflondonprints.com

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