“That’s a clever way to eat,” was Emile’s comment. “In order not to lose a moment of their time in the pasture, the sheep, goat, and ox do not stop to do their chewing there: they browse without stopping and store up a good supply. Then, lying down comfortably in the shade, they bring up again the contents of the paunch and grind it at their ease, little by little.”
“The second stomachic cavity is called the reticulum, its inner surface presenting a reticulated appearance, with an arrangement of dentate and laminate folds forming, all together, an elaborate network of meshes. This curious formation cannot fail to strike you if you look for a moment at a piece of tripe, one of our countless articles of food; for what is called tripe is nothing but the collective stomach of the ox.” [[314]]
“I remember having seen that beautiful honeycomb network,” said Jules, “and the coarse velvet lining of the paunch. They were very interesting.”
“The office of the honeycomb is to receive, in small portions, the food already somewhat softened in the paunch, and to mold it into balls, which rise one at a time to the ruminant’s mouth. That in fact is where the alimentary balls are made that we see gliding from below upward, under the skin of the neck of the ruminating ox.
“After being re-chewed to the proper fineness the food does not return to the paunch, where it would mix with material not yet similarly prepared; it goes to the third stomach, or manyplies, so named on account of its numerous and wide parallel folds, having some resemblance in arrangement to the leaves of a book.
“From the manyplies the food passes finally to a fourth and last stomach called the rennet-bag. After this come the intestines. Now guess whence we get that significant name of rennet, knowing as you do what I have especially in mind in this connection?”
“You have in mind,” answered Jules, “a certain liquid, rennet, that makes milk curdle quickly. The word rennet, or runnet, as it is also written, must be connected with the verb run, in the sense of dropping, coagulating. Can it be, then, that from this fourth stomach or rennet-bag of ruminants we get the liquid rennet that is used for curdling milk?”
“You have said it yourself,” declared Uncle Paul, [[315]]much pleased at his nephew’s clear explanation of the matter. “It is from the fourth stomach of ruminant animals that we obtain rennet, the most efficacious substance known for curdling milk.
“Preferably it is the rennet-bag of a young calf that is selected; then it is cleaned carefully, salted, and dried. Thus treated, it keeps a long time. When it is required for use, a piece as large as your two fingers is cut off and put to soak in a glass of water or whey. The next morning two or three spoonfuls of this liquid, called rennet, is added to each liter of milk. In a very short time, if kept moderately warm, the milk turns to a mass of fresh cheese.” [[316]]