Rennet

Ingredients

• 1 calf stomach
• saltpetre
• salt
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 5 gills cold water
• 2 gills rose brandy

Instructions

1. Take the stomach from the calf as soon as it is killed.
2. Do not wash it, but hang it in a dry cool place for four or five days.
3. Then turn it inside out, and slip off all the curd nicely with the hand.
4. Fill it with a little saltpetre mixed with the quantity of salt necessary, and lay it in a small stone pot.
5. Pour over it a small tea-spoonful of vinegar, sprinkle a handful of salt over it, cover it closely, and keep it for use.
6. You must not wash it; that would weaken the gastric juice and injure the rennet.
7. After it has been salted six or eight weeks, cut off a piece four or five inches long.
8. Put it in a large mustard bottle, or any vessel that will hold about a pint and a half.
9. Put on it five gills of cold water and two gills of rose brandy.
10. Stop it very close, and shake it when you are going to use it.
11. A table-spoonful of this is sufficient for a quart of milk.
12. It must be prepared in very cool weather, and if well done, will keep more than a year.