Not named from the rush in which many of our cheeses are made, but from the rush mats and nets some fresh cream cheeses are wrapped and sewed up in to ripen.  According to an old English recipe the curds are collected with an ordinary fish-slice and placed in a rush shape, covered with a cloth when filled.  Lay a half-pound weight in a saucer and set this on top of the strained curd for a few hours, and then increase the weight by about a half pound.  Change the cloths daily until the cheese looks mellow, then put into the rush shape with the fish slice.  The formula in use in France, where willow heart-shape baskets are sold for making this cheese, is as follows:  Add one cup new warm milk to two cups freshly-skimmed cream.  Dissolve in this one teaspoon of fine sugar and one tablespoon common rennet or thirty drops of Hauser’s extract of rennet.  Let it remain in a warm place until curd sets.  Rush and straw mats are easily made by cutting the straw into lengths and stringing them with a needle and thread.  The mats or baskets should not be used a second time.

S

Saaland Pfarr, or Prestost
Sweden

Firm; sharp; biting; unique of its kind because it is made with whiskey as an ingredient and the finished product is also washed with whiskey.

Saanen
Switzerland

Semihard and as mellow as all good Swiss cheese.  This is the finest cheese in the greatest cheese land; an Emmentaler also known as Hartkaese, Reibkaese and Walliskaese, it came to fame in the sixteenth century and has always fetched an extra price for its quality and age.  It is cooked much dryer in the making, so it takes longer to ripen and then keeps longer than any other.  It weighs only ten to twenty pounds and the eyes are small and scarce.  The average period needed for ripening is six years, but some take nine.

Sage, or Green cheese
England

This is more of a cream cheese, than a Cheddar, as Sage is in the U.S.A.  It is made by adding sage leaves and a greening to milk by the method described in Chapter 4.

Saint-Affrique
Guyenne, France

This gourmetic center, hard by the celebrated town of Roquefort, lives up to its reputation by turning out a toothsome goat cheese of local renown.

We will not attempt to describe it further, since like most of the host of cheeses honored with the names of Saints, it is seldom shipped abroad.

Saint-Agathon
Brittany, France

Season, October to July.

Saint-Amand-Montrond
Berry, France

Made from goat’s milk.

Saint-Benoit
Loiret, France

Soft Olivet type distinguished by charcoal being added to the salt rubbed on the outside of the finished cheese.  It ripens in twelve to fifteen days in summer, and eighteen to twenty in winter.  It is about six inches in diameter.