VOUNg’s TRAVELS IN FRANCE.
579
as when eaten in the field; yet they never do it at any other feafon. Themoft fingular cir-cumftance is that of their /falling their cows to empty racks moll of the day, and all thenight; they are turned out at eight or nine in the morning for three or four hours, and allthe reft of the twenty-four they have nothing. I inquired particularly into the motivesfor this very extraordinary pra&ice, and was affured it was neceffary to make good cheefe,as without it the milk would not have the requifite richnefs. During fome feafons of theyear, and in very wet or bad times, they give them during this faff, a fmall quantity ofhay, but the pra&ice is confined to fuch times, and is an exception from the generalrule, which is decidedly that the cows muft not eat grafs at pleafure. It is fo very fin-gular a practice, as certainly to deferve experiment in England. The French prafliceof milking thrice a day, is quite unknown.
The method of making the cheefe known in England by the name of Parmefan, be-caufe the city of Parma was once the entrepot * for it, was an object I wilhed to under-ftand as well as poffible. The idea is, that all depends on foil, climate, and irrigation ;and the boafted account that the Kings of Spain and Naples, in order to make fimilarcheefe in their territories, at leaft for their own tables, had procured men of fkill fromthe Milanefe for this purpofe,—contribute to give a readinefs every where in anfweringqueftions, as they are all very well perfuaded, that fuch cheefe can be made no whereelfe.
In order that I might view the procefs to the beft advantage, the Abbat-e Amoretti•conducted me to the dairy in queftion, belonging to the houfe of Leti. It is, in the firfbplace, neceffary to obferve, that the cheefes are made entirely of fkimmed milk ; that ofthe preceding evening mixed with the morning’s milk ; the former had flood fixteen orfeventeen hours, the latter about fix hours. The rennet is formed into balls, and dif-folved in the hand in the milk ; the preparation is made a fecret of, but it is generallyknown that the ftomach of the calf is drefled with fpices and fait. The rennet was putto the milk at twelve o'clock, not in a tub, but in the cauldron or boiler, turned fromoff the fire-place at ten o’clock ; the heat 22 degrees of Reaumur’s thermometer, andcommon to 24 degrees (811 Fahrenheit’s), the atmofphere being at the fame time 16^(jo Fahrenheit’s;. In fummer, the whole operation is finifhed by eight in the morn-ing, as the heat fours the milk if in the middle of the day. At one o’clock the cazaroexamined the coagulation, and finding it complete, he ordered his fotto cazaro to workit, which he did, with a flick armed with crofs wires, as defcribed in Annals of Agricul-ture ; this operation is, inftead of cutting and breaking the curd, in the manner it isdone in England, free from the whey. When he has reduced it to fuch a firmnefs of^rain as fatisfies the cazaro, it is left to fubfide, till the curd being quite funk, the wheyis nearly clear on the furface ; then the cauldron which contains it, is turned back againover the fire-hearth, and a quick fire made, to give it the fcald rapidly ; a fmall quantityof finely pou'dered faffron added, the fotto cazaro ftirring it all the time with a wiredmachine, to keep it from burning ; the cazaro examined it from time to time, betweenhis fingers and thumb, to mark the moment when the right degree of folidity and firm-nefs of grain is attained, The heat was 41 degrees (124I Fahrenheit), but it is often44 (131 1 Fahrenheit). When the cazafo finds it well granulated by the fcalding, heorders his deputy to turn it off the fire, and as foon as a certain degree of fubfidencehas taken place, empties about three-fourths of the whey, in order the better to com-mand the curd. He then pours three or four gallons of cold water around the bottom
* This is the general opinion, but a late writer has {hewn that it is an error, and that Parma and Pia-cenza were ORce the country in which the belt was made.
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