entucky.

This is a soft cheese, creamy and of superb flavor. You can't go wrong
if you look for the monastery name stamped on, such as Harze in
Belgium, Mont-des-Cats in Flanders, Sainte Anne d'Auray in Brittany,
and so forth.

Last but not least, a commercial Port-Salut entirely without benefit
of clergy or monastery is made in Milwaukee under the Lion Brand. It
is one of the finest American cheeses in which we have ever sunk a
fang.

[Illustration]

_Chapter Four_

Native Americans

American Cheddars

The first American Cheddar was made soon after 1620 around Plymouth by
Pilgrim fathers who brought along not only cheese from the homeland
but a live cow to continue the supply. Proof of our ability to
manufacture Cheddar of our own lies in the fact that by 1790 we were
exporting it back to England.

It was called Cheddar after the English original named for the village
of Cheddar near Bristol. More than a century ago it made a new name
for itself, Herkimer County cheese, from the section of New York State
where it was first made best. Herkimer still equals its several
distinguished competitors, Coon, Colorado Blackie, California Jack,
Pineapple, Sage, Vermont Colby and Wisconsin Longhorn.

The English called our imitation Yankee, or American, Cheddar, while
here at home it was popularly known as yellow or store cheese from its
prominent position in every country store; also apple-pie cheese
because of its affinity for the all-American dessert.

The first Cheddar factory was founded by Jesse Williams in Rome, New
York, just over a century ago and, with Herkimer County Cheddar
already widely known, this established "New York" as the preferred
"store-boughten" cheese.

An account of New York's cheese business in the pioneer Wooden Nutmeg
Era is found in Ernest Elmo Calkins' interesting book, _They Broke the
Prairies_. A Yankee named Silvanus Ferris, "the most successful
dairyman of Herkimer County," in the first decades of the 1800's
teamed up with Robert Nesbit, "the old Quaker Cheese Buyer." They
bought from farmers in the region and sold in New York City. And
"according to the business ethics of the times," Nesbit went ahead to
cheapen the cheese offered by deprecating its quality, hinting at a
bad market and departing without buying. Later when Ferris arrived in
a more optimistic mood, offering a slightly better price, the seller,
unaware they were partners, and ignorant of the market price, sn