Page 17 - Mary Ann Beaton Makes Country Cheese
ISSUE : Issue 9
Published by Ronald Caplan on 1974/10/1
(Mrs. Beaton has her cheese press set up at the side of an outbuilding. It consists of a level stone on which she places a bucket or pot with the bottom removed. This is the mold. She put a flour-bag cloth into the mold with the bottom spread flat and the cloth coming up and over the sides. Into the cloth she poured the fine, salted curds, pressing the curds down evenly with her knuckles. Then she gathered the edges of the cloth up over the top of the curds. She had a wood top cut small enough to fit down into the mold, and she placed this on top. Then she added two bricks and another piece of wood so that the whole thing came up almost to the height of the sill of the building. Then she slipped a long board under the sill and down on the mold, the board sitting there pretty much level with the sill. Then she placed two heavy stones on the far end of the board. The pressure drives down on the curds, forming them into a cake of cheese and squeezing out the rest of the whey, which runs out the bottom of the mold. J4r. Beaton told us this is far better than a screw press, which is only as tight as you screw it down. The sort of press the Beatons use gives the same amount of pressure even as the whey goes out and the curds get more and more compact. After twenty-four hours they will put the cake of cheese in a cool place. If there are no flies around, it is just as well to leave it bare. It can be eaten right away but the longer you wait the better. The older the cheese gets the more the sour taste will wear off and it gets a better flavour. Mr. Beaton said that cheese can spoil if it's kept too warm. But he added that "After a while it will turn green. Perhaps in one or two months. Sometimes it never turns green. And sometimes you'll think it's spoiled when it's green but that's when it's really getti.ng good." Mr?? and Mrs, Donald H. Beaton and their familytthe baby Bemie| Alexander. Annabell. Sarabell. John. John Archie. Ronald. Linda. Francis. Leslie. Diane. Finley. Wayne. Michael. Sandy. Karen. Traditional Foods Ltd |write' por priceljj l588Barrington St.,HaIifax. N.S.(902)423-86301 J. W Stephens Limited ??uiiDERs supplies HARDWARi AND PAINTS WOODWORKERS AND Mill WORK Phone the Lumber Ntunber 564-5554 Sydrvey, fXova' Scotie' A member of the BOLD organization Cape Breton's Magazine/lT
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