The encyclopædia of practical cookery

With the aid of a microscope the various gradations assumed on the way to maturity are exceedingly interesting, the period occupied from hatching to that stage occupying only eight days. By the illustrations given (see Fig. 437), it will be seen that the Cheese Mite is furnished with a long snout, forming strong, cutting, pointed mandibles, which the mite has the power of thrusting forward and withdrawing either one at a time or together. In this way a Cheese can be readily destroyed by them, for they crumble it into minute pieces, and emit as they proceed a liquid which causes the decay to spread rapidly. Blyth tells us that they appear to be very retentive of life, even without food. Leewenhoek confirms this, and adds further that one lived for eleven weeks gummed on its back to the point of a needle. He also observed that when kept for any length of time without food they are apt to fall upon and devour each other. A strong heat will kill them, and steeping a Cheese affected by them in whisky will have the same effect. Some persons express a fondness for Cheese Mites, and devour them by the spoonful, even preferring them to Cheese, so they are wont to say. This may be, for as a matter of fact the mites taste of the Cheese in a milder form; but however depraved such a taste may be considered, it is exceeded by those who express a penchant for Cheese Hoppers. CHEESE CAKES. — In cookery it does not follow that cakes, or any other production, should always maintain the characteristics of manufacture or ingredients from which they originally derived a name. Numerous instances of name-perversion or mal-adaptation are familiar to cooks, but surely none are more erratic than the term with which we are now dealing. Originally, it is probable that cheese did form the prime constituent of the custard contained in the pastry case ; but if so, a corrupted taste has declared in favour of sweets before savouries. Our modern Cheese Cakes are more or less guiltless of cheese, but some adventurous chefs have cleverly combined the flavour of cheese with lemon custard, and have produced some 2 i uces, k'c., referred to, see under their special heads. Cheese Cakes — continued. excellent cakes, or tartlets, to which other names have been given, and the nearest connection we have to chronicle is the Cheese Cake made with curd. In Kettner’s “ Book of the Table ” there is a very rambling account of Benreddin Hassan’s connection with Cheese Cakes ; but whether they should be strewn with grains of pomegranate and sugar, or Benreddin was beaten by his mother “for a pretended fault — that he ought to have put pepper upon them, and did not,” will not influence the flavour of those made in the present day, or the delicious richness of those sold at Richmond, near London, as “ Maids of Honour.” Several other varieties of Cheese Cakes are described under other headings, such as Almonds, Apples, Carrot, Citron, Cornflour, Lemon, Maids of Honour, Oranges, &c.