A Cheese-Making Berry.

Feilding Star, Volume IV, Issue 34, 23 August 1883, Page 3

A Cheese-Making Berry.

•Nature. has, it appears, provided a substitute" for re/met in the manufacture of cheese, the article being- the berry <>f the plant known to botanists 'as Withnnia coajruhins. Thi^ shrub, says the London Glo'oh, thrives iv the Piinjuuband trans- Indu- territory .'and has lonir been used by the Belloochees and Afghans to curdle milk. But its complete efficacy was not demonstrated until lately, when _the borry was officially experimented with' at aj'arm belonging to Sir Jamos Ferguson, the present Governor of Bombay. Tbe report published hy the Government says that a complete success was achieved,, perfect curd being produced and the cheese turning out excellent in every respect. The method of preparing the punera— so is the berry called from the Persian name of cheese — is to put some ounces into a email .quantity o I cold water, and to allow this to simmer by the side of a fire tor twelve hours. At the end of that time about half a pint of the decoction will suffice to curdle fitty-five gallons of milk, the quantity of berries employed being' two ounces. With a view to the more extended cultivation of the shrub, an experimental planta tion is about to be established at the Government Botanical Gardens at Saharanpore.