Why it works: Whey and whisky work together. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the rennet
Remove any impurities from the calf's stomach.
Place a handful of salt inside the stomach and roll it up.
Put it in a jar and cover with another handful of salt.
Let it sit covered for 8 to 10 days.
Afterward, hang it near a fire to dry for up to a year.
Make the rennet liquid
When ready to use, cut the bag into small pieces and place in a jar with salt.
Add new whey or cooled boiled water to the jar.
Let it infuse for 1 to 3 days, then draw off the liquid.
Add another pint of whey or water, let it sit for 1 to 2 days, then strain and bottle.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Whey + whiskytop 30% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5 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 (rennet)
- Contains the enzymes that cause milk to curdle and set into cheese.
- Coarse sea salt
- Preserves the stomach during curing and draws out liquid as it infuses.
- New whey or boiled water
- Acts as the liquid that extracts the rennet enzymes from the stomach tissue.
The step that matters
Remove any impurities from the calf's stomach. Dirt or residue left on the stomach can spoil during the long salt cure and contaminate the rennet, so it must be cleaned before salting.
“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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