Rennet Whey
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the rennet
Infuse the rennet skin in a small amount of boiling water for 1–2 hours.
Set the curd
Add 1 tablespoon of the infused liquid to 3 pints of warm (not hot) milk.
Cover with a cloth. Let it sit until the curd forms thick on top.
Finish
Press out the curd.
Use the whey.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- New milk
- Its proteins coagulate into a curd when the rennet acts on them, separating from the liquid whey.
- Rennet skin
- Contains enzymes that clot the milk protein, causing the milk to set into curd.
The step that matters
Adding the infused rennet to warm, not hot, milk. Rennet enzymes work best at moderate warmth. Very hot milk can weaken or destroy the enzyme, while cold milk slows clotting, so the curd may fail to set firmly.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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