The Complete Book of Cheese Part 19

I had rather live With cheese and garlic in a windmill, far, Than feed on cates and have him talk to me In any summer-house in Christendom.

Some people can take a mere _soupcon_ of the stuff, while others can down it by the soup spoon, so we feel it necessary in reprinting our recipe to point to the warning of another early English writer: "Garlic is very dangerous to young children, fine women and hot young men."

Blintzes

This snow white member of the crepes suzette sorority is the most popular deb in New York's fancy cheese dishes set. Almost unknown here a decade or two ago, it has joined blinis, kreplach and cheeseburgers as a quick and sustaining lunch for office workers.

2 eggs 1 cup water 1 cup sifted flour Salt Cooking oil 1/2 pound cottage cheese 2 tablespoons b.u.t.ter 2 cups sour cream

Beat 1 egg light and make a batter with the water, flour and salt to taste. Heat a well-greased small frying pan and make little pancakes with 2 tablespoons of batter each. Cook the cakes over low heat and on one side only. Slide each cake off on a white cloth, with the cooked side down. While these are cooling make the blintz-filling by beating together the second egg, cottage cheese and b.u.t.ter. Spread each pancake thickly with the mixture and roll or make into little pockets or envelopes with the end tucked in to hold the filling. Cook in foil till golden-brown and serve at once with sufficient sour cream to smother them.

Vatroushki

Russia seems to have been the cradle of all sorts of blinis and blintzes, and perhaps the first, of them to be made was vatroushki, a variant of the blintzes above. The chief difference is that rounds of puff paste dough are used instead of the hot cakes, 1 teaspoon of sugar is added to the cottage cheese filling, and the sour cream, 1/2 cup, is mixed into this instead of being served with it. Little cups filled with this mix are made by pinching the edges of the dough together. The tops are brushed with egg yolk and baked in a brisk oven.

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

1 cup prepared pancake 4 tablespoons top milk or light cream 1 teaspoon salt 4 eggs, well beaten 1 tablespoon sugar 2 cups cottage cheese, put through ricer

Mix batter and stir in cheese last until smooth.

Cheese Waffles

2 cups prepared waffle flour 3 egg yolks, lightly beaten 1/4 cup melted b.u.t.ter 3/4 cup grated sharp Cheddar 3 egg whites, beaten stiff

Stir up a smooth waffle batter of the first 4 ingredients and fold in egg whites last.

Today you can get imported canned Holland cheese waffles to heat quickly and serve.

Napkin Dumpling

1 pound cottage cheese 1/8 pound b.u.t.ter, softened 3 eggs, beaten 3/4 cup Farina 1/2 teaspoon salt Cinnamon and brown sugar

Mix together all ingredients (except the cinnamon and sugar) to form a ball. Moisten a linen napkin with cold water and tie the ball of dough in it. Simmer 40 to 50 minutes in salted boiling water, remove from napkin, sprinkle well with cinnamon and brown sugar, and serve. This is on the style of Hungarian potato and other succulent dumplings and may be served with goulash or as a meal in itself.

b.u.t.tER AND CHEESE

Where fish is scant And fruit of trees, Supply that want With b.u.t.ter and cheese.

Thomas Tusser in _The Last Remedy_

b.u.t.ter and cheese are mixed together in equal parts for cheese b.u.t.ter.

Serbia has a cheese called b.u.t.ter that more or less matches Turkey's Durak, of which b.u.t.ter is an indispensable ingredient, and French Cancoillote is based on sour milk simmered with b.u.t.ter.

The English have a cheese called Margarine, made with the b.u.t.ter subst.i.tute. In Westphalia there are no two schools of thought about whether 'tis better to eat b.u.t.ter with cheese or not, for in Westphalia sour-milk cheese, b.u.t.ter is mixed in as part of the process of making. The Arabs press curds and b.u.t.ter together to store in vats, and the Scots have Crowdie or Cruddy b.u.t.ter.

b.u.t.tERMILK CHEESE

The value of b.u.t.termilk is stressed in an extravagant old Hindu proverb: "A man may live without bread, but without b.u.t.termilk he dies."

Cheese was made before b.u.t.ter, being the earliest form of dairy manufacturing, so b.u.t.termilk cheese came well after plain milk cheese, even after whey cheese. It is very tasty, and a natural with potato salad. The curd is salted after draining and sold in small parchment packages.

German "leather" cheese has b.u.t.termilk mixed with the plain. The Danes make their Appet.i.tost with sour b.u.t.termilk. Ricotta Romano, for a novelty, is made of sheep b.u.t.termilk.

COTTAGE CHEESE

In America cottage cheese is also called pot, Dutch and smearcase. It is the easiest and quickest to make of all cheeses, by simply letting milk sour, or adding b.u.t.termilk to curdle it, then stand a while on the back of the kitchen stove, since it is homemade as a rule. It is drained in a bag of cheesecloth and may be eaten the same day, usually salted.

The Pilgrims brought along the following two tried and true recipes from olde England, and both are still in use and good repute:

_Cottage Cheese No. 1_

Let milk sour until clotted. Pour boiling water over and it will immediately curd. Stir well and pour into a colander. Pour a little cold water on the curd, salt it and break it up attractively for serving.

_Cottage Cheese No. 2_

A very rich and tasty variety is made of equal parts whole milk and b.u.t.termilk heated together to just under the boiling point. Pour into a linen bag and let drain until next day. Then remove, salt to taste and add a bit of b.u.t.ter or cream to make a smooth, creamy consistency, and pat into b.a.l.l.s the size of a Seville orange.

CREAM CHEESE

In England there are three distinct manners of making cream cheese:

1. Fresh milk strained and lightly drained.

2. Scalded cream dried and drained dry, like Devonshire.

3. Rennet curd ripened, with thin, edible rind, or none, packaged in small blocks or miniature bricks by dairy companies, as in the U.S. Philadelphia Cream cheese.

American cream cheeses follow the English pattern, being named from then: region or established brands owned by Breakstone, Borden, Kraft, Shefford, etc.

Cream cheese such as the first listed above is easier to make than cottage cheese or any other. Technically, in fact, it is not a cheese but the dried curd of milk and is often called virginal. Fresh milk is simply strained through muslin in a perforated box through which the whey and extra moisture drains away for three or four days, leaving a residue as firm as fresh b.u.t.ter.

In America, where we mix cream cheese with everything, a popular a.s.sortment of twelve sold in New York bears these ingredients and names: Chives, Cherry, Garden, Caviar, Lachs, Pimiento, Olive and Pimiento, Pineapple, Relish, Scallion, Strawberry, and Triple Decker of Relish, Pimiento and Cream in layers.

In Italy there is Stracchino Cream, in Sweden Chantilly. Finally, to come to France, la Foncee or Fromage de Pau, a cream also known around the world as Creme d'Isigny, Double Creme, Fromage a la Creme de Gien, Pots de Creme St. Gervais, etc. etc.