AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



be in good preservation. But where it is customary to steep 

 several skins at a time, and to bottle the rennet for after-use, 

 it is very necessary to saturate the solution completely with 

 salt, and to season it with spices, in order that it may be pre- 

 served in a sweet and wholesome state. 



The quantity of rennet added ought to be regulated as care- 

 fully as the temperature of the milk. Too much renders the 

 curd tough ; too little causes the loss of much time, and may 

 permit a larger portion of the butter to separate itself from the 

 curd. It is to be expected also that when rennet is used in 

 great excess, a portion of it will remain in the curd, and will 

 naturally affect the kind and rapidity of the changes it after- 

 wards undergoes. Thus it is said to cause the cheese to 

 heave or swell out from fermentation. It is probable also that 

 it will affect the flavor which the cheese acquires by keeping. 

 Thus it may be that the agreeable or unpleasant taste of the 

 cheeses of certain districts or daries may be less due to the 

 quality of the pastures or of the milk itself, than to the quan- 

 tity of rennet with which it has there been customary to coa- 

 gulate the milk. 



The way in which tJie rennet is made, no less than its state 

 of preservation and the quantity employed, may also influ- 

 ence the flavor or other qualities of the cheese. For 

 instance, in the manufacture of a celebrated French cheese, 

 that of Epoisse, the rennet is prepared as follows : Four 

 fresh calf-skins, with the curd they contain, are well washed 

 in water, chopped into small pieces, and digested in a mix- 

 ture of 5 quarts of brandy with 15 of water, adding at the 

 same time *2i Ibs. of salt, half an ounce of black pepper, and 

 a quarter of an ounce each of cloves and fennel seeds. At 

 the end of six weeks the liquor is filtered and preserved in 

 well corked bottles, while the membrane is put into salt- 

 water to form a new portion of rennet. For making rich 

 cheeses, the rennet should always be filtered clear. Again, 

 on Mont Dor, the rennet is made with white wine and vine- 

 gar. An ounce of common salt is dissolved in a mixture of 

 half a pint of vinegar with 2 pints of white wine, and iii 

 ill is solution a prepared goat's stomach or apiece of dried 

 pig's bladder is steeped for a length of time. A single 

 spoonful of this rennet is said to be sufficient for 45 or 50 

 quarts of milk. No doubt the acid of the vinegar and of the 

 wine aid the coagulating power derived from the membrane. 



The way in which the curd is treated. It is usual in our 

 best cheese districts carefully and slowly to separate the curd 



