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- Dec 4, 2011
This Pounded Cheese recipe is from Mrs. N. K. M. Lee.
CHEESE, POUNDED. Cut a pound of good mellow cheese into thin bits; add to it two, and if the cheese is dry, three ounces of fresh butter; pound, and rub them well together in a mortar till it is quite smooth. When cheese is dry, and for those whose digestion is feeble, this is the best way of eating it; and spread on bread, it makes an excellent luncheon or supper. The piquance of this is sometimes increased by pounding with it curry powder, ground spice, black pepper, Cayenne, and a little made mustard; and some moisten it with a glass of Sherry. If pressed down hard in a jar, and covered with clarified butter, it will keep for several days in cool weather.
This was a way of using cheese that had become too dry, in the days before there were plastic bags for everything, and it really does work best with cheese that's dried out a little. I definitely like it better with the spices.
What kind of cheese? There was a standard cheese recipe endless printed in the period, but I've not found an exact modern name for it. Seems there's always one step that sets it apart, like cheddering. Of course there were cheddar cheeses and all kinds of cheeses that we'd recognize today in the period, but none seemed to be as common in the US as what was just called cheese.
Here's an example of cheesemaking directions from Mrs. E. F. Haskell, 1861: https://books.google.com/books?id=oz4EAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA364 It's too long to reprint here, but if anyone can recognize the process, I'm curious what this would be sold as today.
CHEESE, POUNDED. Cut a pound of good mellow cheese into thin bits; add to it two, and if the cheese is dry, three ounces of fresh butter; pound, and rub them well together in a mortar till it is quite smooth. When cheese is dry, and for those whose digestion is feeble, this is the best way of eating it; and spread on bread, it makes an excellent luncheon or supper. The piquance of this is sometimes increased by pounding with it curry powder, ground spice, black pepper, Cayenne, and a little made mustard; and some moisten it with a glass of Sherry. If pressed down hard in a jar, and covered with clarified butter, it will keep for several days in cool weather.
This was a way of using cheese that had become too dry, in the days before there were plastic bags for everything, and it really does work best with cheese that's dried out a little. I definitely like it better with the spices.
What kind of cheese? There was a standard cheese recipe endless printed in the period, but I've not found an exact modern name for it. Seems there's always one step that sets it apart, like cheddering. Of course there were cheddar cheeses and all kinds of cheeses that we'd recognize today in the period, but none seemed to be as common in the US as what was just called cheese.
Here's an example of cheesemaking directions from Mrs. E. F. Haskell, 1861: https://books.google.com/books?id=oz4EAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA364 It's too long to reprint here, but if anyone can recognize the process, I'm curious what this would be sold as today.
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