PRACTICAL STATEMENT. RENNET. 247 



the whey. The whole is then immediately laded into a tub 

 with the morning's milk, and set for the cheese, with 

 rennet sufficient to form the curd in about thirty min- 

 utes ; and here much care is thought to be necessary in 

 cutting and crossing the curd, and much moderation in 

 dipping and draining the whey from it, that the white 

 whey (so called) may not exude from it. 



"When sufficiently drained, it is taken and cut with a 

 sharp knife to about the size and form of dice, when it 

 is salted with about one pound of fine salt to twenty- 

 five of curd. It is then subjected to a moderate press- 

 ure at first, gradually increasing it for two days, in the 

 mean time turning it twice a day, and substituting dry 

 cloths. It is then taken from the press and dressed all 

 over with hot melted butter, and covered with thin cot- 

 ton cloth, and this saturated with the melted butter. 

 It is then placed upon the shelf, and turned and rubbed 

 daily with the dressing until ripe for use." 



One of the most important processes in the manufac- 

 ture of good cheese is the preparation of the rennet. 

 This is made of the inner lining or mucous membrane 

 of the stomach of the young sucking calf, sometimes 

 called the bag or maw; and the use of it was undoubt- 

 edly suggested, originally, by observing the complete 

 and rapid coagulation or curdling of milk in the stom- 

 ach of a calf newly killed. "Coagulation is the first pro- 

 cess of digestion in the fourth stomach of the calf. There 

 are numerous glands scattered in and about the stomach 

 that secrete a fluid which readily and almost immedi- 

 ately accomplishes this coagulation. They are always 

 full of it ; even after the animal is dead they remain 

 filled with it ; and if the stomach is preserved from 

 putrefaction, this fluid retains its coagulating quality 

 for a considerable period; therefore dairy-women usually 

 take care o c the maw or stomach of the calf, and pre- 



