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 butter. In America, where we mix cream cheese with everything, a popular assortment 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 Foncée or Fromage de Pau, a cream also known around the world as Crême d'Isigny, Double Crême, Fromage à la Crême de Gien, Pots de Crême St. Gervais, etc. etc. The French go even farther by eating thick fresh cream with Chevretons du Beaujolais and Fromage Blanc in the style that adds _à la crême_ to their already glorified names. The English came along with Snow Cream Cheese that is more of a dessert, similar to Italian Cream Cheese. We'd like to have a cheese ice cream to contrast with too sweet ones. Attempts at this have been made, both here and in England; Scottish Caledonian cream came closest. We have frozen cheese with fruit, to be sure, but no true cheese ice cream as yet, though some cream cheeses seem especially suitable. The farmer's daughter hath soft brown hair (Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese) And I met with a ballad I can't say where, That wholly consisted of lines like these, (Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese.) In this parody by Calverly, "The Farmer's Daughter," the ingredients suggest cheese cake, dating back to 1381 In England. From that year Kettner in his _Book of the Table_ quotes this recipe: Take cream of almonds or of cow milk and beat them well together; and make small coffins (that is, cases of pastry), and do it (put it) therein; and do (put) thereto sugar and good powders. Or take good fat cheese and eggs and make them of divers colours, green, red or yellow, and bake them or serve them forth. This primitive "receipt" grew up into Richmond maids of honor that caused Kettner to wax poetic with: At Richmond we are permitted to touch with our lips a countless number of these maids--light and airy as the "airy, fairy Lilian." What more can the finest poetry achieve in quickening the things of earth into tokens and foretastes of heaven, with glimpses of higher life and ethereal worlds. CHEESECAKES _Coronation Cheese Cake_ The _Oxford Dictionary_ defines cheese cake as a "tartlet filled with sweet curds, etc." This shows that the cheese is the main thing, and the and-so-forth just a matter of taste. We are delighted to record that the Lord Mayor of London picked traditional cheese tarts, the maids of honor mentioned earlier in this section, as the Coronation dessert with which to regale the second Queen Elizabeth at the city luncheon in Guildhall This is most fitting, since these tarts were named after the maids of honor at the court of the first Queen Elizabeth. The original recipe is said to have sold for a thousand pounds. These Richmond maids of honor had the usual cheese cake ingredients: butter and eggs and pounds of cheese, but what made the subtle flavor: nutmeg, brandy, lemon, orange-flower water, or all four? More than 2,000 years before this land of Coronation cheese cake, the Greeks had a word for it--several in fact: Apician Cheese Cake, Aristoxenean, and Philoxenean among them. Then the Romans took it over and we read from an epistle of the period: Thirty times in this one year, Charinus, while you have been arranging to make your will, have I sent you cheese cakes dripping with Hyblaean Thyme. (Celestial honey, such as that of Mount Hymettus we still get from Greece.) Plato mentioned cheese cake, and a town near Thebes was named for it before Christ was born, at a time when cheese cakes were widely known as "dainty food for mortal man." Today cheese cakes come in a half dozen popular styles, of which the ones flavored with fresh pineapple are the most popular in New York. But buyers delight in every sort, including the one hundred percent American type called cheese pies. Indeed, there seems to be no dividing line between cheese cakes and cheese pies. While most of them are sweet, some are made piquant with pimientos and olives. We offer a favorite of ours made from popcorn-style pot cheese put through a sieve: Pineapple Cheese Cake 2-1/2 pounds sieved pot cheese 1-inch piece vanilla bean 1/4 pound sweet butter, melted 1/2 small box graham crackers, crushed fine 4 eggs 2 cups sugar 1 small can crushed pineapple, drained 2 cups milk 1/3 cup flour In a big bowl mix everything except the graham crackers and pineapple in the order given above. Butter a square Pyrex pan and put in the graham-cracker dust to make a crust. Cover this evenly with the pineapple and pour in the cheese-custard mixture. Bake I hour in a "quiet" oven, as the English used to say for a moderate one, and when done set aside for 12 hours before eating. Because of the time and labor involved maybe you had better buy your cheese cakes, even though some of the truly fine ones cost a dime a bite, especially the pedigreed Jewish-American ones in Manhattan. Reuben's and Lindy's are two leaders at about five dollars a cake. Some are fruited with cherries or strawberries. Cheese Custard 4 eggs, slightly beaten 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup milk A dash of pepper or paprika 3 tablespoons melted butter A few drops of onion juice, if desired 4 tablespoons grated Swiss (imported) Mix all together, set in molds in pan of hot water, and bake until brown. Open-faced Cheese Pie 3 eggs 1 cup sugar 2 pounds soft smearcase Whip everything together and fill two pie crusts. Bake without any upper crust. The Apple-pie Affinity Hot apple pie was always accompanied with cheese in New England, even as every slice of apple pie in Wisconsin has cheese for a sidekick, according to law. Pioneer hot pies were baked in brick ovens and flavored with nutmeg, cinnamon and rose geranium. The cheese was Cheddar, but today all sorts of pie and cheese combinations are common, such as banana pie and Gorgonzola, mince with Danish Blue, pumpkin with cream cheese, peach pie with Hablé, and even a green dusting of Sapsago over raisin pie. Apple pie _au gratin_, thickly grated over with Parmesan, Caciocavallo or Sapsago, is something special when served with black coffee. Cider, too, or applejack, is a natural accompaniment to any dessert of apple with its cheese. Apple Pie Adorned Apple pie is adorned with cream and cheese by pressing cream cheese through a ricer and folding in plenty of double cream beaten thick and salted a little. Put the mixture in a pastry tube and decorate top of pie in fanciful fashion. Apple Pie á la Cheese Lay a slice of melting cheese on top of apple (or any fruit or berry) pie, and melt under broiler 2 to 3 minutes. Cheese-crusty Apple Pie In making an apple pie, roll out the top crust and sprinkle with sharp Cheddar, grated, dot with butter and bake golden-brown. Flan au Fromage To make this Franche-Comté tart of crisp paste, simply mix coarsely grated Gruyère with beaten egg, fill the tart cases and bake. For any cheese pastry or fruit and custard pie crusts, work in tasty shredded sharp Cheddar in the ratio of 1 to 4 parts of flour. Christmas Cake Sandwiches A traditional Christmas carol begs for: A little bit of spice cake A little bit of cheese, A glass of cold water, A penny, if you please. For a festive handout cut the spice cake or fruit cake in slices and sandwich them with slices of tasty cheese between. To maintain traditional Christmas cheer for the elders, serve apple pie with cheese and applejack. Angelic Camembert 1 ripe Camembert, imported 1 cup Anjou dry white wine 1/2 pound sweet butter, softened 2 tablespoons finely grated toast crumbs Lightly scrape all crusty skin from the Camembert and when its creamy interior stands revealed put it in a small, round covered dish, pour in the wine, cover tightly so no bouquet or aroma can possibly escape, and let stand overnight. When ready to serve drain off and discard any wine left, dry the cheese and mash with the sweet butter into an angelic paste. Reshape in original Camembert form, dust thickly with the crumbs and there you are. Such a delicate dessert is a favorite with the ladies, since some of them find a prime Camembert a bit too strong if taken straight. Although A. W. Fulton's observation in _For Men Only_ is going out of date, it is none the less amusing: In the course of a somewhat varied career I have only met one woman who appreciated cheese. This quality in her seemed to me so deserving of reward that I did not hesitate to acquire her hand in marriage. Another writer has said that "only gourmets among women seem to like cheese, except farm women and foreigners." The association between gourmets and farm women is borne out by the following urgent plea from early Italian landowners: _Ai contadini non far sapere Quanta è buono it cacio con le pere_. Don't let the peasants know How good are cheese and pears. Having found out for ourselves, we suggest a golden slice of Taleggio, Stracchino, or pale gold Bel Paese to polish off a good dinner, with a juicy Lombardy pear or its American equivalent, a Bartlett, let us say. This celestial association of cheese and pears is further accented by the French: _Entre la poire et le fromage_ Between the pear and the cheese. This places the cheese after the fruit, as the last course, in accordance with early English usage set down by John Clarke in his _Paroemiologia_: After cheese comes nothing. But in his _Epigrams_ Ben Jonson serves them together. Digestive cheese, and fruit there sure will be. That brings us back to cheese and pippins: I will make an end of my dinner; there's pippins and cheese to come. Shakespeare's _Merry Wives of Windsor_ When should the cheese be served? In England it is served before or after the fruit, with or without the port. Following _The Book of Keruynge_ in modern spelling we note when it was published in 1431 the proper thing "after meat" was "pears, nuts, strawberries, whortleberries (American huckleberries) and hard cheese." In modern practice we serve some suitable cheese like Camembert directly on slices of apple and pears, Gorgonzola on sliced banana, Hablé spread on pineapple and a cheese dessert tray to match the Lazy Lou, with everything crunchy down to Crackerjacks. Good, too, are figs, both fresh and preserved, stuffed with cream cheese, kumquats, avocados, fruity dunking mixtures of Pineapple cheese, served in the scooped-out casque of the cheese itself, and apple or pear and Provolone creamed and put back in the rind it came in. Pots of liquored and wined cheeses, no end, those of your own making being the best. Champagned Roquefort or Gorgonzola 1/2 pound mellow Roquefort 1/4 pound sweet butter, softened A dash cayenne 3/4 cup champagne With a silver fork mix cheese and butter to a smooth paste, moistening with champagne as you go along, using a little more or less champagne according to consistency desired. Serve with the demitasse and cognac, offering, besides crackers, gilt gingerbread in the style of Holland Dutch cheese tasters, or just plain bread. After dinner cheeses suggested by Phil Alpert are: FROM FRANCE: Port-Salut, Roblochon, Coulommiers, Camembert, Brie, Roquefort, Calvados (try it with a spot of Calvados, apple brandy) FROM THE U.S.: Liederkranz, Blue, Cheddar FROM SWEDEN: Hablé Crême Chantilly FROM ITALY: Taleggio, Gorgonzola, Provolone, Bel Paese FROM HUNGARY: Kascaval FROM SWITZERLAND: Swiss Gruyère FROM GERMANY: Kümmelkäse FROM NORWAY: Gjetost, Bondost FROM HOLLAND: Edam, Gouda FROM ENGLAND: Stilton FROM POLAND: Warshawski Syr [Illustration] _Chapter Nine_ Au Gratin, Soups, Salads and Sauces He who says _au gratin_ says Parmesan. Thomas Gray, the English poet, saluted it two centuries ago with: Parma, the happy country where huge cheeses grow. On September 4, 1666, Pepys recorded the burying of his pet Parmesan, "as well as my wine and some other things," in a pit in Sir W. Batten's garden. And on the selfsame fourth of September, more than a century later, in 1784, Woodforde in his _Diary of a Country Parson_ wrote: I sent Mr. Custance about 3 doz. more of apricots, and he sent me back another large piece of fine Parmesan cheese. It was very kind of him. The second most popular cheese for _au gratin_ is Italian Romano, and, for an entirely different flavor, Swiss Sapsago. The French, who gave us this cookery term, use it in its original meaning for any dish with a browned topping, usually of bread crumbs, or crumbs and cheese. In America we think of _au gratin_ as grated cheese only, although Webster says, "with a browned covering, often mixed with butter or cheese; as, potatoes _au gratin_." So let us begin with that. Potatoes au Gratin 2 cups diced cooked potatoes 2 tablespoons grated onion 1/2 cup grated American Cheddar cheese 2 tablespoons butter 1/2 cup milk 1 egg Salt Pepper More grated cheese for covering In a buttered baking dish put a layer of diced potatoes, sprinkle with onion and bits of butter. Next, scatter on a thin layer of cheese and alternate with potatoes, onions and butter. Stir milk, egg, salt and pepper together and pour it on the mixture. Top everything with plenty of grated cheese to make it authentically American _au gratin_. Bake until firm in moderate oven, about 1/2 hour. Eggs au Gratin Make a white sauce flavored with minced onion to pour over any desired number of eggs broken into a buttered baking dish. Begin by using half of the sauce and sprinkling on a lot of grated cheese. After the eggs are in, pour on the rest of the sauce, cover it with grated cheese and bread crumbs, drop in bits of butter, and cook until brown in oven (or about 12 minutes). Tomatoes au Gratin Cover bottom of shallow baking pan with slices of tomato and sprinkle liberally with bread crumbs and grated cheese, season with salt, pepper and dots of butter, add another layer of tomato slices, season as before and continue this, alternating with cheese, until pan is full. Add a generous topping of crumbs, cheese and butter. Bake 50 minutes in moderate oven. Onion Soup au Gratin 4 or 5 onions, sliced 4 or 5 tablespoons butter 1 quart stock or canned consommé 1 quart bouillon made from dissolving 4 or 5 cubes Rounds of toasted French bread 1-1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese Sauté onions in butter in a roomy saucepan until light golden, and pour the stock over. When heated put in a larger casserole, add the bouillon, season to taste and heat to boiling point. Let simmer 15 minutes and serve in deep well-heated soup plates, the bottoms covered with rounds of toasted French bread which have been heaped with freshly grated Parmesan and browned under the broiler. More cheese is served for guests to sprinkle on as desired. At gala parties, where wine flows, a couple of glasses of champagne are often added to the bouillon. In the famed onion soup _au gratin_ at Les Halles in Paris, grated Gruyère is used in place of Parmesan. They are interchangeable in this recipe. AMERICAN CHEESE SOUPS In this era of fine canned soups a quick cheese soup is made by heating cream of tomato soup, ready made, and adding finely grated Swiss or Parmesan to taste. French bread toasted and topped with more cheese and broiled golden makes the best base to pour this over, as is done with the French onion soup above. The same cheese toasts are the basis of a simple milk-cheese soup, with heated milk poured over and a seasoning of salt, pepper, chopped chives, or a dash of nutmeg. Chicken Cheese Soup Heat together 1 cup milk, 1 cup water in which 2 chicken bouillon cubes have been dissolved, and 1 can of condensed cream of chicken soup. Stir in 1/4 cup grated American Cheddar cheese and season with salt, pepper, and plenty of paprika until cheese melts. Other popular American recipes simply add grated cheese to lima bean or split bean soup, peanut butter soup, or plain cheese soup with rice. Imported French _marmites_ are _de rigueur_ for a real onion soup _au gratin_, and an imported Parmesan grinder might be used for freshly ground cheese. In preparing, it is well to remember that they are basically only melted cheese, melted from the top down. CHEESE SALADS When a Frenchman reaches the salad he is resting and in no hurry. He eats the salad to prepare himself for the cheese. Henri Charpentier, _Life & la Henri_, Green Cheese Salad Julienne Take endive, water cress and as many different kinds of crisp lettuce as you can find and mix well with Provolone cheese cut in thin julienne strips and marinated 3 to 4 hours in French dressing. Crumble over the salad some Blue cheese and toss everything thoroughly, with plenty of French dressing. American Cheese Salad Slice a sweet ripe pineapple thin and sprinkle with shredded American Cheddar. Serve on lettuce dipped in French dressing. Cheese and Nut Salad Mix American Cheddar with an equal amount of nut meats and enough mayonnaise to make a paste. Roll these in little balls and serve with fruit salads, dusting lightly with finely grated Sapsago. Brie or Camembert Salad Fill ripe pear-or peach-halves with creamy imported Brie or Camembert, sprinkle with honey, serve on lettuce drenched with French dressing and scatter shredded almonds over. (Cream cheese will do in a pinch. If the Camembert isn't creamy enough, mash it with some sweet cream.) Three-in-One Mold 3/4 cup cream cheese 1/2 cup grated American Cheddar cheese 1/2 cup Roquefort cheese, crumbled 2 tablespoons gelatin, dissolved and stirred into 1/2 cup boiling water Juice of 1 lemon Salt Pepper 2 cups cream, beaten stiff 1/2 cup minced chives Mash the cheeses together, season gelatin liquid with lemon, salt and pepper and stir into cheese with the whipped cream. Add chives last Put in ring mold or any mold you fancy, chill well and slice at table to serve on lettuce with a little mayonnaise, or plain. Swiss Cheese Salad Dice 1/2 pound of cheese into 1/2-inch cubes. Slice one onion very thin. Mix well in a soup plate. Dash with German mustard, olive oil, wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce. Salt lightly and grind in plenty of black pepper. Then stir, preferably with a wooden spoon so you won't mash the cheese, until every hole is drenched with the dressing. Rosie's Swiss Breakfast Cheese Salad Often Emmentaler is cubed in a salad for breakfast, relished specially by males on the morning after. We quote the original recipe brought over by Rosie from the Swiss Tyrol to thrill the writers' and artists' colony of Ridgefield, New Jersey, in her brother Emil's White House Inn: First Rosie cut a thick slice of prime imported Emmentaler into half-inch cubes. Then she mixed imported French olive oil, German mustard and Swiss white wine vinegar with salt and freshly ground pepper in a deep soup plate, sprinkled on a few drops of pepper sauce scattered in the chunks of Schweizer and stirred the cubes with a light hand, using a wooden fork and spoon to prevent bruising. The salad was ready to eat only when each and every tiny, shiny cell of the Swiss from the homeland had been washed, oiled and polished with the soothing mixture. "Drink down the juice, too, when you have finished mine Breakfast Cheese Salad," Rosie advised the customers. "It is the best cure in the world for the worst hangover." Gorgonzola and Banana Salad Slice bananas lengthwise, as for a banana split. Sprinkle with lemon juice and spread with creamy Gorgonzola. Sluice with French dressing made with lemon juice in place of vinegar, to help bring out the natural banana flavor of ripe Gorgonzola. Cheese and Pea Salad Cube 1/2 pound of American Cheddar and mix with a can of peas, 1 cup of diced celery, 1 cup of mayonnaise, 1/2 cup of sour cream, and 2 tablespoons each of minced pimientos and sweet pickles. Serve in lettuce cups with a sprinkling of parsley and chopped radishes. Apple and Cheese Salad 1/2 cup cream cheese 1 cup chopped pecans Salt and pepper Apples, sliced 1/2-inch thick Lettuce leaves Creamy salad dressing Make tiny seasoned cheese balls, center on the apple slices standing on lettuce leaves, and sluice with creamy salad dressing. Roquefort Cheese Salad Dressing No cheese sauce is easier to make than the American favorite of Roquefort cheese mashed with a fork and mixed with French dressing. It is often made in a pint Mason jar and kept in the refrigerator to shake up on occasion and toss over lettuce or other salads. Unfortunately, even when the Roquefort is the French import, complete with the picture of the sheep in red, and _garanti véritable_, the dressing is often ruined by bad vinegar and cottonseed oil (of all things). When bottled to sell in stores, all sorts of extraneous spice, oils and mustard flour are used where nothing more is necessary than the manipulation of a fork, fine olive oil and good vinegar--white wine, tarragon or malt. Some ardent amateurs must have their splash of Worcestershire sauce or lemon juice with salt and pepper. This Roquefort dressing is good on all green salads, but on endive it's something special. SAUCE MORNAY Sauce Mornay has been hailed internationally as "the greatest culinary achievement in cheese." Nothing is simpler to make. All you do is prepare a white sauce (the French Sauce Béchamel) and add grated Parmesan to your liking, stirring it in until melted and the sauce is creamy. This can be snapped up with cayenne or minced parsley, and when used with fish a little of the cooking broth is added. PLAIN CHEESE SAUCE 1 part of any grated cheese to 4 parts of white sauce This is a mild sauce that is nice with creamed or hard-cooked eggs. When the cheese content is doubled, 2 parts of cheese to 4 of white sauce, it is delicious on boiled cauliflower, baked potatoes, macaroni and crackers soaked in milk. The sauce may be made richer by mixing melted butter with the flour in making the white sauce, or by beating egg yolk in with the cheese. From thin to medium to thick it serves divers purposes: _Thin_: it may be used instead of milk to make a tasty milk toast, sometimes spiced with curry. _Medium_: for baking by pouring over crackers soaked in milk. _Thick_: serves as a sort of Welsh Rabbit when poured generously over bread toasted on one side only, with the untoasted side up, to let the sauce sink in. PARSLEYED CHEESE SAUCE This makes a mild, pleasantly pungent sauce, to enliven the cabbage family--hot cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage and Brussels sprouts. Croutons help when sprinkled over. CORNUCOPIA OF CHEESE RECIPES Since this is the Complete Book of Cheese we will fill a bounteous cornucopia here with more or less essential, if not indispensable, recipes and dishes not so easy to classify, or overlooked or crowded out of the main sections devoted to the classic Fondues, Rabbits, Soufflés, etc. _Stuffed Celery, Endive, Anise and Other Suitable Stalks_ Use any soft cheese you like, or firm cheese softened by pressing through a sieve; at room temperature, of course, with any seasoning or relish. SUGGESTIONS: Cream cheese and chopped chives, pimientos, olives, or all three, with or without a touch of Worcestershire. Cottage cheese and piccalilli or chili sauce. Sharp Cheddar mixed with mayonnaise, mustard, cream, minced capers, pickles, or minced ham. Roquefort and other Blues are excellent fillings for your favorite vegetable stalk, or scooped-out dill pickle. This last is specially nice when filled with snappy cheese creamed with sweet butter. All canapé butters are ideally suited to stuffing stalks. Pineapple cheese, especially that part close to the pineapple-flavored rind, is perfect when creamed. A masterpiece in the line of filled stalks: Cut the leafy tops off an entire head of celery, endive, anise or anything similarly suitable. Wash and separate stalks, but keep them in order, to reassemble in the head after each is stuffed with a different mixture, using any of the above, or a tangy mix of your own concoction. After all stalks are filled, beginning with the baby center ones, press them together in the form of the original head, tie tight, and chill. When ready, slice in rolls about 8-inch thick and arrange as a salad on a bed of water cress or lettuce, moistened with French dressing. Cold Dunking Besides hot dunking in Swiss Fondue, cold dunking may be had by moistening plenty of cream cheese with cream or lemon in a dunking bowl. When the cheese is sufficiently liquefied, it is liberally seasoned with chopped parsley, chives, onions, pimiento and/or other relish. Then a couple of tins of anchovies are macerated and stirred in, oil and all. Cheese Charlotte Line a baking dish from bottom to top with decrusted slices of bread dipped in milk. Cream 1 tablespoon of sweet butter with 2 eggs and season before stirring in 2 cups of grated cheese. Bake until golden brown in slow oven. Straws Roll pastry dough thin and cover with grated Cheddar, fold and roll at least twice more, sprinkling with cheese each time. Chill dough in refrigerator and cut in straw-size strips. Stiffly salt a beaten egg yolk and glaze with that to give a salty taste. Bake for several minutes until crisp. Supa Shetgia[B] [Footnote B: (from _Cheese Cookery_, by Helmut Ripperger)] _This is the famous cheese soup of the Engadine and little known in this country. One of its seasonings is nutmeg and until one has used it in cheese dishes, it is hard to describe how perfectly it gives that extra something. The recipe, as given, is for each plate, but there is no reason why the old-fashioned tureen could not be used and the quantities simply increased_. Put a slice of stale French bread, toasted or not, into a soup plate and cover it with 4 tablespoons of grated or shredded Swiss cheese. Place another slice of bread on top of this and pour over it some boiling milk. Cover the plate and let it stand for several minutes. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Serve topped with browned, hot butter. Use whole nutmeg and grate it freshly. WITH A CHEESE SHAKER ON THE TABLE Italians are so dependent on cheese to enrich all their dishes, from soups to spaghetti--and indeed any vegetable--that a shaker of grated Parmesan, Romano or reasonable substitute stands ready at every table, or is served freshly grated on a side dish. Thus any Italian soup might be called a cheese soup, but we know of only one, the great minestrone, in which cheese is listed as an indispensable ingredient along with the pasta, peas, onion, tomatoes, kidney beans, celery, olive oil, garlic, oregano, potatoes, carrots, and so forth. Likewise, a chunk of melting or toasting cheese is essential in the Fritto Misto, the finest mixed grill we know, and it's served up as a separate tidbit with the meats. Italians grate on more cheese for seasoning than any other people, as the French are wont to use more wine in cooking. Pfeffernüsse and Caraway The gingery little "pepper nuts," _pfeffernüsse_, imported from Germany in barrels at Christmastime, make one of the best accompaniments to almost any kind of cheese. For contrast try a dish of caraway. Diablotins Small rounds of buttered bread or toast heaped with a mound of grated cheese and browned in the oven is a French contribution. CHEESE OMELETS Cheddar Omelet Make a plain omelet your own way. When the mixture has just begun to cook, dust over it evenly 1/2 cup grated Cheddar. (a) Use young Cheddar if you want a mild, bland omelet (b) Use sharp, aged Cheddar for a full-flavored one. (c) Sprinkle (b) with Worcestershire sauce to make what might be called a Wild Omelet. Cook as usual. Fold and serve. Parmesan Omelet (mild) Cook as above, but use 1/4 cup only of Parmesan, grated fine, in place of the 1/2 cup Cheddar. Parmesan Omelet (full flavored) As above, but use 1/2 cup Parmesan, finely grated, as follows: Sift 1/4 cup of the Parmesan into your egg mixture at the beginning and dust on the second 1/4 cup evenly, just as the omelet begins to set. A Meal-in-One Omelet Fry 1/2 dozen bacon slices crisp and keep hot while frying a cup of diced, boiled potatoes in the bacon fat, to equal crispness. Meanwhile make your omelet mixture of 3 eggs, beaten, and 1-1/2 tablespoons of shredded Emmentaler (or domestic Swiss) with 1 tablespoon of chopped chives and salt and pepper to taste. Tomato and Make plain omelet, cover with thin rounds of fresh tomato and dust well with any grated cheese you like. Put under broiler until cheese melts to a golden brown. Omelet with Cheese Sauce Make a plain French, fluffy or puffy omelet and when finished, cover with a hot, seasoned, reinforced white sauce in which 1/4 pound of shredded cheese has been melted, and mixed well with 1/2 cup cooked, diced celery and 1 tablespoon of pimiento, minced. The French use grated Gruyère for this with all sorts of sauces, such as the _Savoyar de Savoie_, with potatoes, chervil, tarragon and cream. A delicious appearance and added flavor can be had by browning with a salamander. Spanish Flan--Quesillo FOR THE CARAMEL: 1/2 cup sugar 4 tablespoons water FOR THE FLAN: 4 eggs, beaten separately 2 cups hot milk 1/2 cup sugar Salt Brown sugar and mix with water to make the caramel. Pour it into a baking mold. Make Flan by mixing together all the ingredients. Add to carameled mold and bake in pan of water in moderate oven about 3/4 hour. Italian Fritto Misto The distinctive Italian Mixed Fry, Fritto Misto, is made with whatever fish, sweetbreads, brains, kidneys, or tidbits of meat are at hand, say a half dozen different cubes of meat and giblets, with as many hearts of artichokes, _finocchi_, tomato, and different vegetables as you can find, but always with a hunk of melting cheese, to fork out in golden threads with each mouthful of the mixture. Polish Piroghs (a pocketful of cheese) Make noodle dough with 2 eggs and 2 cups of flour, roll out very thin and cut in 2-inch squares. Cream a cupful of cottage cheese with a tablespoon of melted butter, flavor with cinnamon and toss in a handful of seedless currents. Fill pastry squares with this and pinch edges tight together to make little pockets. Drop into a lot of fast-boiling water, lightly salted, and boil steadily 30 minutes, lowering the heat so the pockets won't burst open. Drain and serve on a piping hot platter with melted butter and a sprinkling of bread crumbs. This is a cross between ravioli and blintzes. Cheesed Mashed Potatoes Whip into a steaming hot dish of creamily mashed potatoes some old Cheddar with melted butter and a crumbling of crisp, cooked bacon. If there's a chafing dish handy, a first-rate nightcap can be made via a Sautéed Swiss Sandwich Tuck a slice of Swiss cheese between two pieces of thickly buttered bread, trim crusts, cut sandwich in two, surround it with one well-beaten egg, slide it into sizzling butter and fry on both sides. A chef at the New York Athletic Club once improved on this by first sandwiching the Swiss between a slice of ham and a slice of chicken breast, then beating up a brace of eggs with a jigger of heavy sweet cream and soaking his sandwich in this until it sopped up every drop. A final frying in sweet butter made strong men cry for it. [Illustration] _Chapter Ten_ Appetizers, Crackers, Sandwiches, Savories, Snacks, Spreads and Toasts In America cheese got its start in country stores in our cracker-barrel days when every man felt free to saunter in, pick up the cheese knife and cut himself a wedge from the big-bellied rattrap cheese standing under its glass bell or wire mesh hood that kept the flies off but not the free-lunchers. Cheese by itself being none too palatable, the taster would saunter over to the cracker barrel, shoo the cat off and help himself to the old-time crackers that can't be beat today. At that time Wisconsin still belonged to the Indians and Vermont was our leading cheese state, with its Sage and Cheddar and Vermont Country Store Crackers, as Vrest Orton of Weston Vermont, calls them. When Orton heard we were writing this book, he sent samples from the store his father started in 1897 which is still going strong. Together with the Vermont Good Old-fashioned Natural Cheese and the Sage came a handy handmade Cracker Basket, all wicker, ten crackers long and just one double cracker wide. A snug little casket for those puffy, old-time, two-in-one soda biscuits that have no salt to spoil the taste of the accompanying cheese. Each does double duty because it's made to split in the middle, so you can try one kind of cheese on one half and another on t'other, or sandwich them between. Some Pied Piper took the country cheese and crackers to the corner saloon and led a free-lunch procession that never faltered till Prohibition came. The same old store cheese was soon pepped up as saloon cheese with a saucer of caraway seeds, bowls of pickles, peppers, pickled peppers and rye bread with plenty of mustard, pretzels or cheese straws, smearcase and schwarzbrot. Beer and cheese forever together, as in the free-lunch ditty of that great day: I am an Irish hunter; I am, I ain't. I do not hunt for deer But beer. Oh, Otto, wring the bar rag. I do not hunt for fleas But cheese. Oh, Adolph, bring the free lunch. It was there and then that cheese came of age from coast to coast. In every bar there was a choice of Swiss, Cottage, Limburger--manly cheeses, walkie-talkie oldsters that could sit up and beg, golden yellow, tangy mellow, always cut in cubes. Cheese takes the cube form as naturally as eggs take the oval and honeycombs the hexagon. On the more elegant handout buffets, besides the shapely cubes, free Welsh Rabbit started at four every afternoon, to lead the tired businessman in by the nose; or a smear of Canadian Snappy out of a pure white porcelain pot in the classy places, on a Bent's water biscuit. SANDWICHES AND SAVORY SNACKS Next to nibbling cheese with crackers and appetizers, of which there is no end in sight, cheese sandwiches help us consume most of our country's enormous output of Brick, Cheddar and Swiss. To attempt to classify and describe all of these would be impossible, so we will content ourselves by picking a few of the cold and hot, the plain and the fancy, the familiar and the exotic. Let's use the alphabet to sum up the situation. A Alpine Club Sandwich Spread toasts with mayonnaise and fill with a thick slice of imported Emmentaler, well-mustarded and seasoned, and the usual club-sandwich toppings of thin slices of chicken or turkey, tomato, bacon and a lettuce leaf. B Boston Beany, Open-face Lightly butter a slice of Boston brown bread, cover it generously with hot baked beans and a thick layer of shredded Cheddar. Top with bacon and put under a slow broiler until cheese melts and the bacon crisps. C Cheeseburgers Pat out some small seasoned hamburgers exceedingly thin and, using them instead of slices of bread, sandwich in a nice slice of American Cheddar well covered with mustard. Crimp edges of the hamburgers all around to hold in the cheese when it melts and begins to run. Toast under a brisk boiler and serve on soft, toasted sandwich buns. D Deviled Rye Butter flat Swedish rye bread and heat quickly in hot oven. Cool until crisp again. Then spread thickly with cream cheese, bedeviled with catsup, paprika or pimiento. E Egg, Open-faced Sauté minced small onion and small green pepper in 2 tablespoons of butter and make a sauce by cooking with a cup of canned tomatoes. Season and reduce to about half. Fry 4 eggs and put one in the center of each of 4 pieces of hot toast spread with the red sauce. Sprinkle each generously with grated Cheddar, broil until melted and serve with crisp bacon. F French-fried Swiss Simply make a sandwich with a noble slice of imported Gruyère, soak it in beaten egg and milk and fry slowly till cheese melts and the sandwich is nicely browned. This is a specialty of Franche-Comté. G Grilled Chicken-Ham-Cheddar Cut crusts from 2 slices of white bread and butter them on both sides. Make a sandwich of these with 1 slice cooked chicken, 1/2 slice sharp Cheddar cheese, and a sprinkling of minced ham. Fasten tight with toothpicks, cut in half and dip thoroughly in a mixture of egg and milk. Grill golden on both sides and serve with lengthwise slices of dill pickle. H He-man Sandwich, Open-faced Butter a thick slice of dark rye bread, cover with a layer of mashed cold baked beans and a slice of ham, then one of Swiss cheese and a wheel of Bermuda onion topped with mustard and a sowing of capers. I International Sandwich Split English muffins and toast on the hard outsides, cover soft, untoasted insides with Swiss cheese, spread lightly with mustard, top that with a wheel of Bermuda onion and 1 or 2 slices of Italian-type tomato. Season with cayenne and salt, dot with butter, cover with Brazil nuts and brown under the broiler. J Jurassiennes, or Croûtes Comtoises Soak slices of stale buns in milk, cover with a mixture of onion browned in chopped lean bacon and mixed with grated Gruyère. Simmer until cheese melts, and serve. K Kümmelkäse If you like caraway flavor this is your sandwich: On well-buttered but lightly mustarded rye, lay a thickish slab of Milwaukee Kümmelkäse, which translates caraway cheese. For good measure sprinkle caraway seeds on top, or serve them in a saucer on the side. Then dash on a splash of kümmel, the caraway liqueur that's best when imported. L Limburger Onion or Limburger Catsup Marinate slices of Bermuda onion in a peppery French dressing for 1/2 hour. Then butter slices of rye, spread well with soft Limburger, top with onion and you will have something super-duper--if you like Limburger. When catsup is substituted for marinated onion the sandwich has quite another character and flavor, so true Limburger addicts make one of each and take alternate bites for the thrill of contrast. M Meringue, Open-faced (from the Browns' _10,000 Snacks_) Allow 1 egg and 4 tablespoons of grated cheese to 1 slice of bread. Toast bread on one side only, spread butter on untoasted side, put 2 tablespoons grated cheese over butter, and the yolk of an egg in the center. Beat egg white stiff with a few grains of salt and pile lightly on top. Sprinkle the other 2 tablespoons of grated cheese over that and bake in moderate oven until the egg white is firm and the cheese has melted to a golden-brown. N Neufchâtel and Honey We know no sandwich more ethereal than one made with thin, decrusted, white bread, spread with sweet butter, then with Neufchâtel topped with some fine honey--Mount Hymettus, if possible. Any creamy Petit Suisse will do as well as the Neufchâtel, but nothing will take the place of the honey to make this heavenly sandwich that must have been the original ambrosia. O Oskar's Ham-Cam Oskar Davidsen of Copenhagen, whose five-foot menu lists 186 superb sandwiches and snacks, each with a character all its own, perfected the Ham-Cam base for a flock of fancy ham sandwiches, open-faced on rye or white, soft or crisp, sweet or sour, almost any one-way slice you desire. He uses as many contrasting kinds of bread as possible, and his butter varies from salt to fresh and whipped. The Ham-Cam base involves "a juicy, tender slice of freshly boiled, mild-cured ham" with imported Camembert spread on the ham as thick as velvet. The Ham-Cam is built up with such splendors as "goose liver paste and Madeira wine jelly," "fried calves' kidney and _rémoulade_," "Bombay curry salad," "bird's liver and fried egg," "a slice of red roast beef" and more of that red Madeira jelly, with anything else you say, just so long as it does credit to Camembert on ham. P Pickled Camembert Butter a thin slice of rye or pumpernickel and spread with ripe imported Camembert, when in season (which isn't summer). Make a mixture of sweet, sour and dill pickles, finely chopped, and spread it on. Top this with a thin slice of white bread for pleasing contrast with the black. Q Queijo da Serra Sandwich On generous rounds of French "flute" or other crunchy, crusty white bread place thick portions of any good Portuguese cheese made of sheep's milk "in the mountains." This last translates back into Queijo da Serra, the fattest, finest cheese in the world--on a par with fine Greek Feta. Bead the open-faced creamy cheese lightly with imported capers, and you'll say it's scrumptious. R Roquefort Nut Butter hot toast and cover with a thickish slice of genuine Roquefort cheese. Sprinkle thickly with genuine Hungarian paprika. Put in moderate oven for about 6 minutes. Finish it off with chopped pine nuts, almonds, or a mixture thereof. S Smoky Sandwich and Sturgeon-smoked Sandwich Skin some juicy little, jolly little sprats, lay on thin rye, or a slice of miniature-loaf rye studded with caraway, spread with sweet butter and cover with a slice of smoked cheese. Hickory is preferred for most of the smoking in America. In New York the best smoked cheese, whether from Canada or nearer home, is usually cured in the same room with sturgeon. Since this king of smoked fish imparts some of its regal savor to the Cheddar, there is a natural affinity peculiarly suited to sandwiching as above. Smoked salmon, eel, whitefish or any other, is also good with cheese smoked with hickory or anything with a salubrious savor, while a sandwich of smoked turkey with smoked cheese is out of this world. We accompany it with a cup of smoky Lapsang Soochong China tea. T Tangy Sandwich On buttered rye spread cream cheese, and on this bed lay thinly sliced dried beef. In place of mustard dot the beef with horseradish and pearl onions or those reliable old chopped chives. And by the way, if you must use mustard on every cheese sandwich, try different kinds for a change: sharp English freshly mixed by your own hand out of the tin of powder, or Dijon for a French touch. U Unusual Sandwich--of Flowers, Hay and Clover On a sweet-buttered slice of French white bread lay a layer of equally sweet English Flower cheese (made with petals of rose, marigold, violet, etc.) and top that with French Fromage de foin. This French hay cheese gets its name from being ripened on hay and holds its new-mown scent. Sprinkle on a few imported capers (the smaller they are, the better), with a little of the luscious juice, and dust lightly with Sapsago. V Vegetarian Sandwich Roll your own of alternate leaves of lettuce, slices of store cheese, avocados, cream cheese sprinkled heavily with chopped chives, and anything else in the Vegetable or Caseous Kingdoms that suits your fancy. W Witch's Sandwich Butter 2 slices of sandwich bread, cover one with a thin slice of imported Emmentaler, dash with cayenne and a drop or two of tabasco. Slap on a sizzling hot slice of grilled ham and press it together with the cheese between the two bread slices, put in a hot oven and serve piping hot with a handful of "moonstones"--those outsize pearl onions. X Xochomilco Sandwich In spite of the "milco" in Xochomilco, there isn't a drop to be had that's native to the festive, floating gardens near Mexico City. For there, instead of the cow, a sort of century plant gives milky white _pulque_, the fermented juice of this cactuslike desert plant. With this goes a vegetable cheese curded by its own vegetable rennet. It's called tuna cheese, made from the milky juice of the prickly pear that grows on yet another cactuslike plant of the dry lands. This tuna cheese sometimes teams up in arid lands with the juicy thick cactus leaf sliced into a tortilla sandwich. The milky _pulque_ of Xochomilco goes as well with it as beer with a Swiss cheese sandwich. Y Yolk Picnic Sandwich Hard-cooked egg yolk worked into a yellow paste with cream cheese, mustard, olive oil, lemon juice, celery salt and a touch of tabasco, spread on thick slices of whole wheat bread. Z Zebra Take a tip from Oskar over in Copenhagen and design your own Zebra sandwich as decoratively as one of those oft-photoed skins in El Morocco. Just alternate stripes of black bread with various white cheeses in between, to follow, the black and white zebra pattern. For good measure we will toss in a couple of toasted cheese sandwiches. Toasted Cheese Sandwich Butter both sides of 2 thick slices of white bread and sandwich between them a seasoned mixture of shredded sharp cheese, egg yolk, mustard and chopped chives, together with stiffly beaten egg white folded in last to make a light filling. Fry the buttered sandwich in more butter until well melted and nicely gilded. This toasted cheeser is so good it's positively sinful. The French, who outdo us in both cooking and sin, make one of their own in the form of fried fingers of stale bread doused in an 'arf and 'arf Welsh Rabbit and Fondue melting of Gruyère, that serves as a liaison to further sandwich the two. Garlic is often used in place of chopped chives, and in contrast to this wild one there's a mild one made of Dutch cream cheese by the equally Dutch Pennsylvanians. England, of course, together with Wales, holds all-time honors with such celebrated regional "toasting cheeses" as Devonshire and Dunlop. Even British Newfoundland is known for its simple version, that's quite as pleasing as its rich Prince Edward Island Oyster Stew. Newfoundland Toasted Cheese Sandwich 1 pound grated Cheddar 1 egg, well beaten 1/2 cup milk 1 tablespoon butter Heat together and pour over well-buttered toast. [Illustration] _Chapter Eleven_ "Fit for Drink" A country without a fit drink for cheese has no cheese fit for drink. Greece was the first country to prove its epicurean fitness, according to the old saying above, for it had wine to tipple and sheep's milk cheese to nibble. The classical Greek cheese has always been Feta, and no doubt this was the kind that Circe combined most suitably with wine to make a farewell drink for her lovers. She put further sweetness and body into the stirrup cup by stirring honey and barley meal into it. Today we might whip this up in an electric mixer to toast her memory. While a land flowing with milk and honey is the ideal of many, France, Italy, Spain or Portugal, flowing with wine and honey, suit a lot of gourmets better. Indeed, in such vinous-caseous places cheese is on the house at all wine sales for prospective customers to snack upon and thus bring out the full flavor of the cellared vintages. But professional wine tasters are forbidden any cheese between sips. They may clear their palates with plain bread, but nary a crumb of Roquefort or cube of Gruyère in working hours, lest it give the wine a spurious nobility. And, speaking of Roquefort, Romanée has the closest affinity for it. Such affinities are also found in Pont l'Evêque and Beaujolais, Brie and red champagne, Coulommiers and any good _vin rosé_. Heavenly marriages are made in Burgundy between red and white wines of both Côtes, de Nuits and de Baune, and Burgundian cheeses such as Epoisses, Soumaintarin and Saint-Florentin. Pommard and Port-Salut seem to be made for each other, as do Château Margaux and Camembert. A great cheese for a great wine is the rule that brings together in the neighboring provinces such notables as Sainte Maure, Valençay, Vendôme and the Loire wines--Vouvray, Saumur and Anjou. Gruyère mates with Chablis, Camembert with St. Emilion; and any dry red wine, most commonly claret, is a fit drink for the hundreds of other fine French cheeses. Every country has such happy marriages, an Italian standard being Provolone and Chianti. Then there is a most unusual pair, French Neufchâtel cheese and Swiss Neuchâtel wine from just across the border. Switzerland also has another cheese favorite at home--Trauben (grape cheese), named from the Neuchâtel wine in which it is aged. One kind of French Neufchâtel cheese, Bondon, is also uniquely suited to the company of any good wine because it is made in the exact shape and size of a wine barrel bung. A similar relation is found in Brinzas (or Brindzas) that are packed in miniature wine barrels, strongly suggesting what should be drunk with such excellent cheeses: Hungarian Tokay. Other foreign cheeses go to market wrapped in vine leaves. The affinity has clearly been laid down in heaven. Only the English seem to have a _fortissimo_ taste in the go-with wines, according to these matches registered by André Simon in _The Art of Good Living:_ Red Cheshire with Light Tawny Port White Cheshire with Oloroso Sherry Blue Leicester with Old Vintage Port Green Roquefort with New Vintage Port To these we might add brittle chips of Greek Casere with nips of Amontillado, for an eloquent appetizer. The English also pour port into Stilton, and sundry other wines and liquors into Cheddars and such. This doctoring leads to fraudulent imitation, however, for either port or stout is put into counterfeit Cheshire cheese to make up for the richness it lacks. While some combinations of cheeses and wines may turn out palatable, we prefer taking ours straight. When something more fiery is needed we can twirl the flecks of pure gold in a chalice of Eau de Vie de Danzig and nibble on legitimate Danzig cheese unadulterated. _Goldwasser_, or Eau de Vie, was a favorite liqueur of cheese-loving Franklin Roosevelt, and we can be sure he took the two separately. Another perfect combination, if you can take it, is imported kümmel with any caraway-seeded cheese, or cream cheese with a handy saucer of caraway seeds. In the section of France devoted to gin, the juniper berries that flavor the drink also go into a local cheese, Fromage Fort. This is further fortified with brandy, white wine and pepper. One regional tipple with such brutally strong cheese is black coffee laced with gin. French la Jonchée is another potted thriller with not only coffee and rum mixed in during the making, but orange flower water, too. Then there is la Petafina, made with brandy and absinthe; Hazebrook with brandy alone; and la Cachat with white wine and brandy. In Italy white Gorgonzola is also put up in crocks with brandy. In Oporto the sharp cheese of that name is enlivened by port, Cider and the greatest of applejacks, Calvados, seem made to go the regional Calvados cheese. This is also true of our native Jersey Lightning and hard cider with their accompanying New York State cheese. In the Auge Valley of France, farmers also drink homemade cider with their own Augelot, a piquant kind of Pont l'Evêque. The English sip pear cider (perry) with almost any British cheese. Milk would seem to be redundant, but Sage cheese and buttermilk do go well together. Wine and cheese have other things in common. Some wines and some cheeses are aged in caves, and there are vintage cheeses no less than vintage wines, as is the case with Stilton. [Illustration] _Chapter Twelve_ Lazy Lou Once, so goes the sad story, there was a cheesemonger unworthy of his heritage. He exported a shipload of inferior "Swiss" made somewhere in the U.S.A. Bad to begin with, it had worsened on the voyage. Rejected by the health authorities on the other side, it was shipped back, reaching home in the unhappy condition known as "cracked." To cut his losses the rascally cheesemonger had his cargo ground up and its flavor disguised with hot peppers and chili sauce. Thus there came into being the abortion known as the "cheese spread." The cheese spread or "food" and its cousin, the processed cheese, are handy, cheap and nasty. They are available everywhere and some people even like them. So any cheese book is bound to take formal notice of their existence. I have done so--and now, an unfond farewell to them. My academic cheese education began at the University of Wisconsin in