The Lady's Country Companion; Or, How to Enjoy a Country Life RationallyLoudon, Mrs. (Jane)
General
The Lady's Country Companion; Or, How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally
Loudon, Mrs. (Jane)
Cooking; Country life; Home economics
_Cheese_ is made by coagulating milk with rennet, and then separating
the whey or watery part from the curd, which, when salted, pressed, and
dried, becomes cheese. Rennet is the stomach of a calf washed, cleaned,
and salted thoroughly inside and out, being left in an earthen jar,
with a thick coating of salt on it, for three or four days. It is then
taken out of the pickle and hung up to dry, and in many places it is
kept in this state till wanted; but in others, after it has become dry,
it is resalted and placed again in the jar, which has a bladder or a
piece of thick paper pierced with pinholes tied over it, the rennet
being kept twelve months in this state before it is used. In London,
calves' stomachs and those of lambs, prepared for rennet, are kept in
large casks and sold in the oilmen's shops. In whatever way the rennet
has been pickled and preserved, it is always soaked in brine made of
salt and water or salt and whey, before it is used, and a bunch of
sweet herbs is generally put into the brine in which the rennet is
soaked, in order to give an agreeable flavour to the cheese. The whole,
however, must be strained off clear before it is put to the milk.
Whenever cheese is to be made, the milk must be warmed to about 90°
of Fahrenheit, or the rennet will not act. As soon as the curd has
set, it is separated from the whey in several different ways, and on
the manner in which this is done the kind of cheese produced will
principally depend. When a _Stilton_, or any other kind of rich buttery
cheese, is to be made, a very strong brine is prepared of salt and
cold water, in which is steeped a bundle of sweet herbs, consisting of
thyme, hyssop, marjoram, and savory, with a branch of sweet-briar, and
a few peppercorns. This is suffered to remain three or four days, after
which it is strained off, and the rennet having been put into it and
soaked four or five days, is then ready for use. When all is prepared,
the morning's new milk, together with the cream from the last night's
milking, is put into a narrow, but deep, circular pan, and the liquid
rennet put to it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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