Spons' Household Manual: A treasury of domestic receipts and a guide for home management
General
Spons' Household Manual: A treasury of domestic receipts and a guide for home management
Home economics
_Cheese._--When milk is curdled, it separates into two portions,
curd and whey. The former consists of the butter and casein, and
produces cheese; the latter is mainly water, with the sugar and
mineral constituents of the milk in solution. Milk for cheese-making,
which is more or less rich in cream, according to the kind of cheese,
is placed in vats at a temperature varying from about 70° to 85°
F., with the due amounts of rennet and colouring matter, for 1-1½
hour under cover. The rennet must be prepared from perfectly fresh
(untainted) calves’ veils soaked in soft water--the halves of 1½
veils steeped in ½ gal. water will suffice for 250 lb. of cheese. The
best colour is liquid arnatto, ½ fl. oz. to 25 lb. cheese.
As soon as the curd has set, say 1-1½ hour, the curd is “cut” by a
special implement and broken up by the hand, a process demanding much
skill and care. This completed, the curd is subjected to pressure,
with the object of expressing the whey, which latter is drained off.
The pressure is increased and judiciously regulated as the curd
hardens, so as to remove all the whey without losing any butter.
Various appliances are in use for this purpose. When the curd has
been thoroughly freed from whey, it is broken up, salted in due
proportion, and again submitted to repeated and increasing pressings.
Finally it goes into the curing room to ripen.
Rennet.--Rennet is easily made at home, and costs less than half
what the same quantity is charged when bought ready-made. Home-made
rennet is also much stronger than the bought preparation and is
useful in making summer delicacies. Get a calf’s maw from a butcher.
They always keep them on hand, and charge about 1_s._ each. Tie the
skin tightly at one end, with a double loop of twine, and leave it
in a dairy or cool larder. When you want rennet, cut a piece about 1
in. square, and soak it in a teacupful warm water all night. Next
day, take out the bit of maw, and to 1 pint cream or milk, use 1
large tablespoonful of the liquid. As a rule, the Gloucestershire
cheese-makers do not manufacture their own rennet but buy it ready
prepared. The kind generally employed is Hansen’s Patent Rennet
Extract, which is used in the proportion of 1 teaspoonful extract to
6 gal. milk.
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