Page:Husbandman and Housewife 1820.djvu/110

 turning the milk. It is said that one inch will serve for the milk of five cows.

In the Bath papers, Mr. Hazard gives the following receipt for making rennet: "when the raw skin is well prepared and fit for the purpose, three pints of soft water, clean and sweet, should be mixed with salt, wherein should be put sweet brier, rose leaves and flowers, cinnamon, mace, cloves, and almost every sort of spice; and if these are put into two quarts of water, they must boil gently, till the liquor is reduced to three pints, and care should be taken that this liquor is not smoked. It should be strained clear from the spices, &c. and when found to be not warmer than milk from the cow, it should be poured upon the caul or maw; a lemon may be sliced into it, when it may remain a day or two; after which it should be strained again, and put into a bottle, where if well corked it will keep good for twelve months. It will smell like a perfume; and a small quantity of it will turn the milk, and give the cheese a pleasing flavour. He adds, "If the maw be salted and dried for a week or two near the fire, it will do for the purpose again almost as well as before." Another receipt is as follows; after the maw has been well cleaned and salted, and dried upon sticks or splints, take boiled water two quarts, made into a brine that will bear an egg. Let it be blood warm, put in the maw either cut or whole; let it steep twenty four hours, and it will be fit for use. About a tea cup full will turn the milk of ten cows. It should be kept in glass bottles, well corked.

Whatever kind of rennet the dairy woman chooses to prepare she should keep it in mind, that this animal acid is extremely apt to turn rancid and putrify, and take care to apply a sufficient quantity of salt to preserve it in its best state. It should be as much salted