1847.] Butter Churning. 173 



ally removed from the stomach by a gentle washing, because they 

 are believed tu impart a strong taste to the cheese. In some parts 

 ol' Cheshire this evil is avoided by taking out the curd and salting 

 it separately; while the Ayrshire practice of giving the calf a 

 large draught of milk before it is killed, dilutes the strong flavor- 

 ing quality, and thus by a dilferent means biings about the same 

 result. 



While, therefore, reason and judgment are displayed in all 

 these methods, economy is clearly on the side of those who pre- 

 serve the curd, and more clearly still of those who increase its 

 quantity by giving a copious feed of milk to the young calf, as is 

 done in the diary districts of Ayshire and Limburg. 



Several practical suggestions aiise from the above brief discus- 

 sion, of which I may mention the following: 



1. May curd alone not be salted and cured, as the calf's sto- 

 mach is, for after-use in the preparation of rennet? 



2. May some varieties of agreeable old cheese not be employed 

 as a substitute for the dried stomach, without any further prepa- 

 ration? May not the use of such cheese even prove a means of 

 imparting to the new matle cheese a portion of the desirable fla- 

 vor of the old? 



3. The natural fluids of the stomach cannot be necessary to the 

 production of rennet, since adiied stomach, which has been steep- 

 ed for the manufacture of rennet, may be salted and dried over 

 again with advaniage. A piece of diied pig's bladder, also, may 

 be substituted for the dried stomach. May not lean meat, there- 

 fore, or other similar animal substances, where it is more conve- 

 nient, be also substituted for it? Is the brine of long salted meat 

 and such things as long-kept Bologna sausages, yield, on steeping 

 a serviceable rennet? 



4. The first extract of malt, exposed to the air at a moderate 

 temperature till it begins to decompose and emit an unpleasant 

 smell, possesses the property of changing milk sugar into lactic 

 acid. May a useful rennet not be prepared in this way from malt 

 or from the extract of peas or beans, or even from oatmeal or In- 

 dian corn, without the necessity of employing any animal sub- 

 stance at all? 



5. Sour leaven contains altered gluten, and owes its sourness to 

 the change of a portion of the starch of the flour into lactic acid. 

 This change is produced by the action of the partially decompos- 

 ed gluten upon the starch. May it not produce this change more 

 rapidly upon the sugar of milk? In other words, may not old 

 leaven, upon occasions, supply the place of rennet? 



Such suggestions as these, however small their value may ap- 

 pear in the eyes of some, especially in long-cultivated countries, 

 or districts where everything of which old custom has sanctioned 



