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the fabrication of cheese is continued throughout the entire 

 year. The prevailing opinion that good cheese cannot be made 

 in winter, is erroneous. The cows should be well fed, and 

 every possible degree of attention devoted to the making of 

 the cheese these, with a perfect knowledge of the business, 

 we conceive to be all the requisites to ensure good cheese in 

 the winter season. Milk, it is said, abounds most in caseous 

 matter during the spring, and with the butyraceous in summer 

 and autumn. Cheese may be made from the curd which has 

 been formed by the coagulation of the milk when it turns sour; 

 but, when thus obtained, it is hard and ill-flavoured means 

 have therefore been found to curdle it with "rennet." 



The. preparation of the. rennet, as it is denominated, is a 

 most important part of the process of cheese-making. What 

 is termed rennet is nothing more than the stomach of an ani- 

 mal, in which the gastric juices are preserved by salt the best 

 is the stomach of a sucking calf. This juice rapidly coagulates 

 the milk as the calf sucks; and the only difficulty is in collect- 

 ing and keeping it from putrefaction, which begins from the 

 instant the stomach is taken from the calf. The following may 

 be considered the simplest, and perhaps the best, method of pre- 

 servation. 



As soon as a sucking calf is killed, the stomach should be taken out, and if 

 the calf has sucked lately, it is all the better. The outer skin should be well 

 scraped, and all fat and useless membranes removed. It is only the inner coat 

 which must be preserved. The coagulated milk should be taken out and ex- 

 amined, and any substance beside curd found in it should be carefully re- 

 moved. The serum left in it should be pressed out with a cloth. It should 

 then be replaced in the stomach with a large quantity of the best salt. Some 

 add a little alum and sal prunella others, various herbs and spices, with a 

 view of giving the cheese a peculiar flavour, but the plain simple salting is 

 sufficient. The skins or veils, as they are called, are then put into a pan and 

 covered with a saturated solution of salt, in which they are soaked for some 

 hours but there must be no more liquor than will moisten the veils. They 

 are afterwards hung up to dry, a piece of light flat wood being put crosswise 

 into each to stretch them out. They should be perfectly dried and look like 

 parchment. In this state they may be kept for any length of time, and are at 

 all times ready for use. In some places, at the time of making cheese, a piece 

 of a veil is cut off and soaked for some hours in water or whey, and the whole 

 is added to the warm milk. In other places, pieces of veil are put into a linen, 

 bag and soaked in warm water, until the water has acquired sufficient strength, 

 which is proved by trying a portion of it in warm milk. 



There are a variety of modes for preparing and using the 

 rennet. Professor Low says, that when prepared for use, it is 

 to be cut into small pieces and put into ajar, with a handful or 

 two of salt. Water, which had been previously boiled and 

 cooled again, is then poured upon it, and allowed to remain for 

 two or three days. It is then drawn off, and a second in- 

 fusion made, but with a smaller quantity of water. This, 

 also, remains a few days, and being withdrawn, the two liquors 

 are mixed together, strained through a cloth, and put into bottles 

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