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Show 33 milk was converted into cream and skim milk. We sold the cream to a creamery; Roy Hopkins came for it once each week, a five-gallon can of it. The morning milk was made into cheese. Mama kept a #3 tub for that purpose and made a sizeable cheese every day. It was simple. She warmed the milk on the stove, put the junket and rennet into it, and also a little coloring. The curd quickly set and she cut it into squares with a long knife, dipped the curds into a strainer lined with cheesecloth. When it was thoroughly drained she tied the bag of curd with a linen thread and put it into the cheese-press. It solidified into a wheel and she put it into the icy milk house to cure. It was so nippy from the cold nights the store keeper said she must have put lye into it. She traded her cheeses for commodities at the Joseph Co-op and the Sarah Roberts stores. Sometimes she got cash for it and it was always in demand. She was extremely clean with it, and covered each cheese with melted wax. We fed the whey to the pigs and they grew into extra fine meat. The smoked hams and salted side pork were delicious, the spare ribs, seasoned with salt, pepper and sage, a wash-day treat. Mama made head cheese out of the head of the pig, and sausage from the tenderloin and scraps. Mama could do anything. She made her own soap from lye and scraps of fat, rendered her own lard from the skin. The "cracklings" from this well-scraped skin, salted, were tender and good for snacks. We never heard of potato chips. Nothing was wasted from the animal. Some people |
