DAIRY FARMING.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 1, Issue 21, 11 October 1849, Page 1

DAIRY FARMING.

[Continued from our last.] CHEESE MAKING. It is well known that any kind of aeid will curdle milk; but the substance commonly employed for that purpose, in the manufacture of cheese, is the maw or stomach of a young calf that has been fed on milk, and killed before the digestion has been performed:—this, when duly prepared is termed rennet ;• as 110 good cheese eau be made without it the greatest nicety is requisite when the maws are, in the first instance, obtained from the butcher; tl'ey should therefore be carefully examined in the light; if in any degree tainted or discoloured with spots, in any part of the skin they are unsound and unfit for use. After purchasing the maws, it is usual to take out the curd, which,- after being separately washed in cold water, together with the bag that contained it, is again replaced, with a considerable addition of salt. Both are then packed in a jar and a very strong brine of tepid salt and water poured upon them, in the proportion of about two quarts to each skin after some time, the maw ia taken out, an additional quantity of salt applied to it, then stretched upoii a bow to dry, and in this state remains for use, Rennet, having been thus prepared, is used in the following maimer : —the night before the cheese is made, one or two inches of the maw is tut off and

* The maw of a house lamb, it is said, will, alto* answer thesjrae purpose—but notlbatof ft lamb fed upon grass. 'flie gizzards of fowl*, we bav€ ourselves u»eJ with flucccfls, ou a am jH scale.

steeped in a few spoonluls of worm water ; and the following morning the liquor is strained off and applied to the milk : one inch is generally allowed to coagulate the milk of five pows. In some dairies it is the practice to put rose-leaves 'and spices of different kinds into the rennet at the time of preparing, in order to give it a fine taste and impart a fine flavour to the cheese. Mr. Hazard, in an interesting communication to the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society, lias given the following receipt for making rennet. " When the veal maw or rennet-bag is fit for use, three pints or two quarts of pure water that is soft and sweet is to be mixed with salt, in which should be put rose-leaves and flowers, cinnamon, mace, cloves, and in short, almost every sort of spice and aromatic that can be procured; these if put into two quarts of water, must boil gently till the liquor is reduced to three pints, and care should bo taken that it should not be smoked ; the spices are now to be strained off and the liquor poured into the rennet-bag milk-warm ; a lemon is then to be sliced into it, and, after standing a day or two, again strained and bottled for use. If well corked it will retain its goodness for a year or longer, and a small quantity be sufficient to coagulate the milk and impart an agreeable flavour to the cheese which may be made with it." Mr. Hazard further states, " That if the rennet-bag be salted, and dried for a week or two, near the fire, it may be employed again for the same purpose." The following approved method of preparing rennet lias been communicated by Mr. Marshall in his "Rural Economy of Norfolk."

liaving taken out the curd contained therein, wash it clean and saltit thoroughly inside and out, leaving a white coat of salt over every part of it} put it into an earthen jar or other vessel and let it stand three or foutfdays, in which time it will form the salt and its natural juice into a pickle; take it out of the jar and hang it up for two or threo days, to let the picicle i drain from it; re-salt it, place it again in a jar, cover it tight down with a paper pierced with a large pin, and in this state let it remain till wanted for use : in this state it ought to be kept for twelve months; it may, however, in cases of necessity, be used a few days after it has received the second salting, but will not be so strong as if kept a longer time. 1 ' In order to prepare this rennet for use, Mr. Marshall gives the following direc. tions : —"Take a handful of the leaves of aweet-briar, the same quantity of the leaves of dog-rose, and the like quantity of bramble leaves, boil them in a gallon of water, with three or four handfuls of salt, for. about a quarter of an hour; : strain off the liquor, and, having let it stand till perfectly cold, put it into an earthen vessel grid add to it the maw, prepared as .above; to this is added a good strong lemon, stuck round with about a quarter of an ounce of cloves, ; which give the rennet an agreeable fla-' vonr." The strength of the rennet thus prepared will increase in proportion to ' the length of time the bag remains in the j liquor. The quantity necessary for coa- , gulatlng milk can therefore be ascer- ; tained only by daily use. In general it | may be stated that an average of some- t what less than half a pint will suffice for \ fifty gallons of milk. In Gloucestershire i the practice is to use about one third of ■ a pint. i

Mr. Parkinson has communicated the following method of preparing rennet, which, lie states, is not in general use; —the simplicity of this preparation, however, is such, that it deserves to be made generally known. He directs the maw of a calf, six weekes old, to be opened, the curd only is then to be poured into a clean vessel, picked clean from dirt, and washed in several waters until it becomes perfectly white; when thoroughly cleaned it is to belaid on a cloth to drain,then put into a clean vessel and a handful of salt rubbed in ; the maw or bag itself is also to be repeatedly washed, and when jperfcctly cleansed, to be salted both insde and out; it is now-fit to receive the curd, which being put into it, the whole is to be put inte a pot or pan, over which a piece of bladder must be tied to exclude the air, and if thus kept for twelve

months before it is used, will improve the quality of tlie cheese, which is liablo to become heavy, and sometimes hollow, if the milk be coagulated with new rennet, When the rennet is fit for use, Mr. Parkinson directs the bng or maw to be opened, the curd turned into a wooden mortar or bowl and beaten with a peatle or rolling pin; the yolks of two or three egs and half a pint of sweet cream are now to be added, together with a small quantity of safron well dried and .reduced to a powder, a few cloves, and a little mace; the whole being perfectly incorporated by stirring, is then to bereturne<l into the bag: further, a strong brine is to be made, by boi'ing salt and water with & handful of sassafrass, which, when cold, is to be strained into a clean earthen vessel ; four spoonfuls of the curd are then to be mixed with the brine, and, being quick and sharp, this quantity will be sufficient to coagulate twelve gallons of milk : the rennet is to be kept a fortnight before it is used. In cases of necessity, or when no good rennet can be procured, recourse inay be had to artificial means for coagulating milk: in this case, a small quantity of the muriatic or marine acid (spirit of sea salt) may be used by dairy-men, as is practised in Holland ; it is the use of thi.<s article which gives to the Dutch cheese that pungent relish which induces many persons to prefer it. Milk may also be coagulated by putting in a certain quantity (which can only be ascertained by experience) of a decoction of the yellow flowers of the cheese-rennet or yellow ladie's bed straw.' With this decoction, it is snid, the Jews coagulate the milk for their cheie.se, the Mosaic law prohibiting them from mingling meat with milk, which term they apply to the making of cheese with rennet.

In the County of Derby, another wellknown indigenous plant, called speargrass, or the lesser spear-wort, has been employed to - increase the strength of rennet; it grows in bogs, lioggy meadows, and by the sides of rivers, and its yellow flowers appear (in England) from July to September. A decoction of this plant is prepared in the following manner : —take the spear-grass and as much cold water as will cover it, boil it over a slow

fire for an hour, anil add salt in the proportion of half a peck to sic gallons of liquor; it is tlieu to be covered up until cold, and then strained ; three maw skins are to be added to each gallon ; after the whole lias stood for nine or ten days, it may bo bottled for Use. The proportion to be employed is a table spoonful for a cheese of fifteen or sixteen pounds. ' Throughout the whole process of preparing and preserving rennet, too much attention cannot be given to its cleanliness and sweetness; for if it be kept too long, so as to become foul or tainted, the cheese will be invariab'y affected by it, and there« by become unsaleable. (To be cuntinued.)