Cheese

(A.S. cese). This word occurs three times in the Authorized Version as the translation of three different Hebrew words: (1.) 1 Sam. 17:18, “ten cheeses;” i.e., ten sections of curd. (2.) 2 Sam. 17:29, “cheese of kine” = perhaps curdled milk of kine. The Vulgate version reads “fat calves.” (3.) Job 10:10, curdled milk is meant by the word.

is mentioned only three times in the Bible, and on each occasion under a different name in the Hebrew. (1 Samuel 17:18; 2 Samuel 17:29; Job 10:10) It is difficult to decide how far these terms correspond with our notion of cheese, for they simply express various degrees of coagulation. Cheese is not at the present day common among the Bedouin Arabs, butter being decidedly preferred; but there is a substance closely corresponding to those mentioned in 1Sam 17, 2Sam 17, consisting of coagulated buttermilk, which is dried until it become quite hard, and is then ground; the Arabs eat it mixed with butter.

CHEESE was a common article of food among the Hebrews. The word occurs but three times in the Bible, and in each case the original word is different. 1 Sam 17:18; 2 Sam 17:29; Job 10:10. It is difficult to decide how far these terms correspond with our notion of cheese. In the original the first word means "a cutting," "ten sections of curds," soft cheese; the root of the second word means "to scrape," implying that the cheese was grated; while the third word means "curdled milk." The modern Bedouins use a kind of coagulated butter-milk, which is ground when dried hard, and eaten mixed with butter.

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. The curd of milk, coagulated usually with rennet, separated from the whey, and pressed into a solid mass in a hoop or mold.

2. A mass of pomace, or ground apples, pressed togehter in the form of a cheese.

3. The flat, circuliar, mucilaginous fruit of the dwarf mallow (Malva rotundifolia). [Colloq.]

4. A low courtesy; -- so called on account of the cheese form assumed by a woman's dress when she stoops after extending the skirts by a rapid gyration. De Quincey. Thackeray. Cheese cake, a cake made of or filled with, a composition of soft curds, sugar, and butter. Prior. -- Cheese fly (Zoöl.), a black dipterous insect (Piophila casei) of which the larvæ or maggots, called ckippers or hoppers, live in cheese. -- Cheese mite (Zoöl.), a minute mite (Tryoglyhus siro) in cheese and other articles of food. -- Cheese press, a press used in making cheese, to separate the whey from the curd, and to press the curd into a mold. -- Cheese rennet (Bot.), a plant of the Madder family (Golium verum, or yellow bedstraw), sometimes used to coagulate milk. The roots are used as a substitute for madder. -- Cheese vat, a vat or tub in which the curd is formed and cut or broken, in cheese making.