“When sufficiently drained, it is taken and cut with a sharp knife to about the size and form of dice, when it is salted with about one pound of fine salt to twenty-five of curd. It is then subjected to a moderate pressure at first, gradually increasing it for two days, in the mean time turning it twice a day, and substituting dry cloths. It is then taken from the press and dressed all over with hot melted butter, and covered with thin cotton cloth, and this saturated with the melted butter. It is then placed upon the shelf, and turned and rubbed daily with the dressing until ripe for use.”
One of the most important processes in the manufacture of good cheese is the preparation of the rennet. This is made of the inner lining or mucous membrane of the stomach of the young sucking calf, sometimes called the bag or maw; and the use of it was undoubtedly suggested, originally, by observing the complete and rapid coägulation or curdling of milk in the stomach of a calf newly killed. “Coägulation is the first process of digestion in the fourth stomach of the calf. There are numerous glands scattered in and about the stomach that secrete a fluid which readily and almost immediately accomplishes this coägulation. They are always full of it; even after the animal is dead they remain filled with it; and if the stomach is preserved from putrefaction, this fluid retains its coägulating quality for a considerable period; therefore dairy-women usually take care of the maw or stomach of the calf; and preserve it by salting it, and then, by steeping it, or portions of it, in warm water, they prepare what they call a rennet. After the maw has been salted a certain time, it may be taken out and dried, and then it will retain the same property for an indefinite period. A small piece of the maw thus dried is steeped over night in a few teaspoonfuls of warm water, and this water will turn the milk of three or four cows.”
It is important that rennet enough should be prepared at once for the whole season, in order to secure as great a uniformity in strength as possible. The object should be to produce a prompt, complete, and firm or compact coägulation of all the cheesy matter.
Mr. Aiton, in his admirable treatise on the Dairy Husbandry of Scotland, gives the simple method of preparing the rennet in the dairy districts, as follows: “When the stomach or bag—usually termed the yirning—is taken from the calf’s body, its contents are examined, and if any straw or other food is found among the curdled milk, such impurity is carefully removed; but all the curdled milk found in the bag is carefully preserved, and no part of the chyle is washed out. A considerable quantity of salt—at least two handfuls—is put into and outside the bag, which is then rolled up and hung near a fire to dry. It is always allowed to hang until it is well dried, and is understood to be improved by hanging a year or longer before being infused.
“When rennet is wanted, the yirning with its contents is cut small, and put into a jar with a handful or two of salt; and a quantity of soft water that has been boiled and cooled to sixty-five degrees, or of new whey taken off the curd, is poured into it. The quantity of water or whey necessary is more or less, according to the quality of the yirning: if it is that of a new-dropped calf, a Scotch chop pin, or at most three English pints, will be enough; but if the calf has been fed four or five weeks, two quarts or more may be used; the yirning of a calf four weeks old yields more rennet than that of one twice that age. When the infusion has remained in the jar from one to three days, the liquid is drawn off and strained, after which it is bottled for use; and if a dram-glass of any ardent spirit is put into each bottle, the infusion may either be used immediately, or kept as long as may be convenient.”
The mode of preparing rennet in the dairy districts of this country is various; but that adopted by Mr. Fish, of Herkimer, New York, already quoted, is simple and easy of application. He says: “Various opinions exist as to the best mode of saving rennet, and that is generally adopted which, it is supposed, will curdle the most milk. I have no objection to any mode that will preserve its strength and flavor so that it will be smelled and tasted with good relish when put into the milk. Any composition not thus kept I deem unfit for use, as the coägulator is an essential agent in cheesing the curd, and sure to impart its own flavor.
“The rennet never should be taken from the calf till the excrement shows the animal to be in perfect health. It should be emptied of its contents, salted, and dried, without any scraping or rinsing, and kept dry for one year, when it will be fit for use. It should not be allowed to gather dampness, or its strength will evaporate. To prepare it for use, into ten gallons of water, blood warm, put ten rennets; churn or rub them often for twenty-four hours; then rub and press them to get the strength; stretch, salt, and dry them, as before. They will gain strength for a second use. Make the liquor as salt as it can be made, strain and settle it, separate it from the sediment, if any, and it is fit for use. Six lemons, two ounces of cloves, two ounces of cinnamon, and two ounces of common sage, are sometimes added to the liquor, to preserve its flavor and quicken its action. If kept cool in a stone jar, it will keep sweet any length of time desired, and a uniform strength is secured while it lasts. Stir it before dipping off. To set milk, take of it enough to curdle milk firm in forty minutes; squeeze or rub through a rag annatto enough to make the curd a cream color, and stir it in with the rennet.” It will be seen that he adopts the practice of removing the contents of the stomach. This, it appears to me, is the best calculated to promote cleanliness and purity, so important in making a good-flavored cheese.
But in Cheshire, so celebrated for its superior cheese, the contents of the stomach are frequently salted by themselves, and after being a short time exposed to the air are fit for use; while the well-known and highly-esteemed Limburg cheese is mostly made with rennet prepared as in Ayrshire, the curd being left in the stomach, and both dried together. The general opinion is that rennet, as usually prepared, is not fit to use till nearly a year old.
Perhaps the plan of making a liquid rennet from new and fresh stomachs, and keeping it in bottles corked tight till wanted for use, would tend still further to secure this end.
The use of annatto to color the cheese artificially is somewhat common in this country, though probably not so much so as in many other countries. Annatto, or annotto, is made from the red pulp of the seeds of an evergreen tree of the same name, found in the West Indies and in Brazil, by bruising and obtaining a precipitate. A variety is made in Cayenne, which comes into the market in cakes of two or three pounds. It is bright yellow, rather soft to the touch, but of considerable solidity. The quantity used is rarely more than an ounce to one hundred pounds, and the effect is simply to give the high coloring so common to the Gloucester and Cheshire cheeses, and to many made in this country. This artificial coloring is continued from an idle prejudice, somewhat troublesome to the dairyman, expensive to the consumer, and adding nothing to the taste or flavor of the article. The annatto itself is so universally and so largely adulterated, often by poisonous substances, such as lead and mercury, that the practice of using it by the cheese-maker, and of requiring the high coloring by the consumer, might well be discontinued. The common mode of application is to dissolve it in hot milk, and add at the time of putting in the rennet, or to put it upon the outside, in the manner of paint.