To Prepare Rennet to Turn the Milk
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove the stomach from a calf immediately after it is killed.
Clean the stomach inside and out with coarse sea salt.
Let it drain for a few hours.
Cure and store
Sew it up with two handfuls of coarse sea salt or stretch it on a salted stick.
Alternatively, keep it in wet salt and soak a piece for repeated use.
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
- Calf stomach
- Supplies the enzyme chymosin, which clots milk into curds.
The step that matters
Cleaning and salting the stomach thoroughly. Salt draws out moisture and slows bacterial growth, so the stomach is less likely to spoil while it cures. Incomplete salting leaves moist tissue where spoilage can start.
“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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