60/22

This is a steel cheese sampler for obtaining a section from a large cheese to test its quality. It has a trough-shaped blade and a T-shaped handle with a claw on one end. It is stamped ‘Betly, Shrum’. It was used by the University of Reading’s Department of Dairying, when it was the Dairy Unit of the Department of Food Sciences.

1 cheese sampler: metal (steel); good condition

Object Research Project, John Masters, 17 November 2019 - 'This tool is a cheese sampler, used in cheese production. It is also known as a cheese trier or tester. Its primary purpose is to remove a small core sample from a large cheese so it can be examined to check the overall maturity and quality of the cheese. It enables the cheese to be tested without the need to cut into the cheese and hence make it unsaleable. // This is a small metal (steel) tool with dimensions 15cm by 7.5cm. It is T-shaped with a trough shaped blade. It is similar to an apple corer but substantially longer and narrower. One side of the handle is a small hammer and the other side is shaped as a claw. It is stamped “Betly, Shrum”.', MERL miscellaneous note, Greta Bertram, 25 January 2013 – Objects 60/22–60/31 were all used by the ‘Department of Dairying’ at the University of Reading. The name of the department has changed several times over the years, as has its location. It began as the British Dairy Institute in 1888, and was based in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, until 1908. It later became the Department of Dairying and was based at the Shinfield Estate in Reading, which was purchased by the University in 1921. In 1982 it became the Dairy Unit of the Department of Food Sciences on the Whiteknights Campus in Reading. See ’The University of Reading, Department of Dairying, the history of an unusual university department over its first hundred years’ by James Rothwell for full details. A memo from Margaret Fuller at MERL to Miss A. Sheppard at the Department of Dairying in 1960 asks whether the three curd breakers (60/24/1–3), a wooden skimmer (annotated by Miss Sheppard as being a ‘butter scoop’) (60/25) and a large coopered item (annotated by Miss Sheppard as being a ‘Cheshire cheese mould’) (60/23) were used in the Department. Miss Sheppard has annotated that ‘all were used in the department when at Aylesbury between 1888–1908’., MERL ‘History Artefacts’ card – 'Place Used: Dairy Unit, Dept. of Food Science'.

1888 - 1908

University of Reading, Department of Food Science (Corporate Body)