Churn and lid. Long shape, wider at the bottom, growing narrower towards the top. Unadorned. Provided with a lid which can be removed when the cheese or curd is placed inside. Made out of fir staves, held together by hoops. (Fir staves, iron hoops). Height 315mm, diameter at top 135mm.
A vat from the village of Salva in Romania, likely used in the making of cheese from ewes’ milk. Salva lies in the District of Cluj in Transylvania. The many cheese making objects from Romania in the Horniman collection were part of a 1956 Horniman exhibition assembled by then curator Otto Samson and colleagues at what is now the Museum of the Romanian Peasant. These objects were subsequently given to the Horniman. Vats like this one may still be used in the making of ewes’ milk cheese today, but the continued use of wood—which actually harbours micro-flora indigenous to milk and contributes to the acidification that is fundamental to cheese making—are in jeopardy of disappearing in the wake of Romania’s accession to the European Union and the resultant enforcement of EU food safety standards favouring the use of non-porous surfaces such as stainless steel in food manufacture and preparation.
