Why it works: Lemon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,150 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Preparing Rennet
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the stomach
Clean the calf's stomach and salt it thoroughly inside and out.
Place it in an earthen jar for 3-4 days to form a pickle.
Hang it up for 2-3 days to drain, then re-salt it.
Cover it tightly in a jar with a paper pierced by a pin and let it sit until needed.
Make the brine
Boil the sweet briar, dog-rose, and bramble leaves in 1 gallon of water with 3-4 handfuls of salt for 15 minutes.
Strain the liquid and let it cool, then add the prepared stomach and a lemon studded with cloves.
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
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,150 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Rose + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,174 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Rose + clovetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together410 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Calf's stomach
- Supplies the rennet enzymes that cause milk to curdle and set.
- Salt
- Draws out moisture and preserves the stomach during pickling and drying.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity that contributes to the sharp, preserved flavour of the liquid.
- Cloves
- Add aroma to the liquid.
The step that matters
Salting and draining the stomach. Enough salt must penetrate the whole stomach so it pickles rather than spoils. Draining between salting rounds removes excess liquid, and a tightly covered jar limits air and contamination while it matures.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rose, lemon):
- Marjoramfits better
- Rosemaryfits better
- Thymefits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rose, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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