Cheese
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Cheese. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a dairy product prepared from curd or coagulated milk. Cheese is less concentrated than butter. It can be kept wholesome for a greater length of time and it saves a larger percentage of the strength of the milk. Homemade cheese is still an important article of produce. When milk is brought to the right temperature, about 84deg., liquid rennet is added in sufficient quantities to produce coagulation. Under proper conditions milk separates in from twenty to thirty minutes, into a white curd and a watery whey. The latter is drained off, and, though it contains less food than buttermilk, it is richer than water, and is sent to the swill barrel. The curd is then removed to a chopping bowl and cut into fine pieces, to permit the escape of whey that may be inclosed in airspaces. This operation is performed with a sharp knife of two or more parallel blades like that used in chopping hash. The fine curd is then salted to taste, placed in a cloth, and deposited in a cheesehoop or strong wooden cylinder surrounded with iron hoops, having much the appearance of a half-bushel measure, but without top or bottom. The hoop with its contents is placed on a flat surface in a cheese press. A circular board, fitting like a piston, is placed in the upper end of the hoop, and pressure is applied for a day or two until what little whey remains has been forced out, and the curd has been pressed into a firm cheese. The cheese is then removed from the hoop and covered with three pieces of cotton cloth, one piece running like a band around the circumference, with a circular piece for each end and all neatly sewed together. It is then anointed with butter and placed on a shelf to cure. Curing cheeses are turned every few days and reanointed. The cloth and ointment are designed not only to keep the cheese in shape and to protect it from becoming soiled, but to exclude the eggs of flies and other insects. A sort of bacterial fermentation takes place in the cheese, when it is said to be ripe and ready for market. Some prefer a cheese three months old; others want it to ripen for two or three years. About the middle of the last century, cheese factories sprang up in America. It has been found not only that they save housewives labor, but that factory cheese can be produced more economically and with greater uniformity of quality. According to the latest statistics nearly nineteen-twentieths of the cheese made in the United States and Canada is produced by factories. A number of interesting items may be stated. About 4,000 cheese factories receive milk from about 1,200,000 cows, and produce 281,972,324 pounds of cheese annually. New York has 1,314 cheese factories; Wisconsin, 1,286; Ohio, 320; Pennsylvania, 140; Michigan, 136; Illinois, 123; Iowa, 89; Vermont, 71; and Minnesota, 53. About 17,000,000 pounds of homemade cheese are produced, bringing up the total annual product to very nearly 300,000,000 pounds. It is worth at wholesale, that is to say, to the producer, from 11 to 17 cents per pound. In addition to domestic cheese, America imports about 32,000,000 pounds including 6,000,000 pounds of the celebrated Swiss cheese. We export 10,000,000 pounds. Roquefort cheese is made from the milk of sheep. Limburger cheese from Germany and Brie cheese from France are characterized by a strong odor. The milk of goats makes a very rich cheese. It is not possible to say how much cheese is made in the world. The chief cheese exporting countries and the number of pounds exported by each were in 1908: Country Pounds. Bulgaria 5,674,170 Canada 189,381,875 France 30,511,968 Germany 2,891,803 Italy 46,607,032 Netherlands 113,648,000 New Zealand 26,525,296 Russia 1,300,061 Switzerland 62,213,331 United States 10,341,335 Other countries 8,114,222 Total . . . . . 497,209,093 The cheese buying countries with the number of pounds bought by each in the same year were: Country Pounds. Argentina 7,265,746 Australia 299,711 Austria-Hungary 9,114,789 Belgium 32,278,995 Brazil 3,631,012 Cape of Good Hope 4,761,140 Cuba 5,232,416 Denmark 1,784,642 Egypt 8,650,855 France 46,087,182 Germany 44,760,881 Italy 10,294,042 Russia 3,358,490 Spain 4,396,636 Switzerland 7,048,617 United Kingdom 259,833,392 United States 34,238,459 Other countries 21,296,477 Total . . . . . 504,333,482 See Butter ; Cattle ; Adulteration
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the curd or caseine of milk, with variable quantities of butter and common salt, pressed into molds and ripened by keeping. The various kinds of cheese differ chiefly in the mode of manufacture, the amount of fat which they contain, and in the flavor, which is due partly to the food, and partly to the breed of the animal. In this country, and in England, cheese is made from the milk of the cow, but on the continent of Europe it is made from goat's milk and ewe's milk, while in Arabia it is prepared from the milk of the camel and the mare. There are three kinds of cheese, viz., whole-milk, skim-milk, and cream-cheese. Whole-milk cheese is made from unskimmed milk and contains from 20 to 40 per cent. of fat or cream, and 30 to 50 per CHECKERS or CHEQUERS, (also cent. of caseine. Skim-milk cheese is poor in fat, containing from 1 to 4 per cent. Cream-cheese contains from 60 to 70 per cent. Authorities differ as to the dietetic value of cheese, some affirming that it is very indigestible, while others assert that it assists digestion. Its digestibility, however, varies with its age, its texture, and its composition, and it is possible that it may produce different effects on different persons. Cream-cheese is more digestible than any other kind of cheese, owing to its containing less caseine. Cheese is rarely adulterated. To suit the public taste it is frequently colored with annatto, or some other vegetable color, and so long as the coloring matter is not injurious, it cannot be considered an adulteration. There were in the United States in 1919 about 2,100 cheese factories. The production was 26,256,549 pounds of cheese, made from whole milk; 276,674 pounds made from part skimmed milk; and 528,067 pounds made from full skimmed milk. The production of special cheese included 2,629,450 pounds of Swiss cheese; 2,462,945 pounds of Buck and Münster cheese; 748,086 pounds of Limburger cheese; 1,895,083 pounds of coter's cheese; 376,972 tage, pot, and baker's pounds of cream and Neuchâtel Neuchâtel cheese; and 279,230 pounds of Italian cheese.