676 QUALITY AND QUANTITY OF TF « RENNET. 



4°. The quality of the rennet is of much importance not only in regEird 

 to tlie certainty ot" the coagulation, but also to the flavour of the cheese. 

 In some parts of Cheshire, as we have seen, it is usual to take a piece 

 of the dried membrane and steep it overnight with a little salt for the 

 ensuing morning's milk. It is thus sure to be fresh and sweet if the 

 dried maiu 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 preserved in a sweet and wholesome 

 state. In some parts of Scotland the rennet is said to be frequently kept 

 in bottles till it is almost putrid, and in this state is still put into the milk. 

 Such rennet may not orjy impart a bad taste to the cheese, but is likely 

 also to render it more difficult to cure and to bring on putrefaction after- 

 wards and a premature decay. 



5°. The qu0ntiti/ of rennet added ought to be regulated as carefully 

 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 afifect the kind and rapidity of the changes it 

 afterwards 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 

 flavour which the cheese acquires by keeping. Thus it may be that the 

 agreeable or unpleasant taste of the cheeses of certain districts or dairies 

 may be less due to the quality of the pastures or of the milk itself, than 

 to the quantity of rennet with which it has there been customary to co- 

 agulate the milk. 



6°. The way in which the rennet is made, no less than its state of pre- 

 servation and the quantity employed, may also influence the flavour or 

 other qualities of the cheese. For instance, ia the manufacture of a 

 celebrated French cheese — that of Epoisse — the rennet is prepared as fol- 

 lows : — Four fresh calf-skins, with the curd they contain, are well 

 washed in water, chopped into small pieces, and digested in a mixture 

 of 5 quarts of brandy with 15 of water, adtling at the same time 21 lbs. 

 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 renriet. For making rich cheeses, the 

 rennet should always be filtered clear. [II latte e i suoi prodotti, p. 274.] 



Again, on Mont Dor, the rennet is made with white wine and vinegar. 

 An ounce of common salt is dissolved in a mixture of half a pint of 

 vinegar with 2j pints of white wine, and in this solution a prepared 

 goat's stomach or a piece 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. 



Rennets prepared in the above ways must affect the flavour of the 

 cheese differently from such as are obtained by the several more or less 

 careful methods usually adopted in this country. 



7°. Wlien acids are used alone — as vinegar, tartaric acid, and muria- 

 tic acid sometimes arc — for coagulating tlie milk, the flavour of the 



