Curds and whey belongs to a more rustic mode of life, and
is now little patronized by the urban populations. In order
to separate the caseine and fat from milk for the production
of cheese, an extract by warm water from the inner stomach
of the calf {rennet) is added to the warm milk. (The name
rennet is applied both to the dried membrane of the stomach
CURDS AND WHEY
599
itself and to the active watery extract.) The extract of
three-quarters of a square inch of rennet skin will curdle
four pints of milk.
Curds and lohey may be eaten together, or the curds may
be separated from the whey by a strainer, though without
pressure, and mixed with cream, to which sugar and some
loine or liqueur have been added. Or the curds may be
strained off and pressed lightly, and placed and shaped in a
mould ; in that shape they are called (jreen cheese, a name
which the London cheesemongers, and after them the
populace, have corrupted into cream cheese. The brick-
shaped white cheeses, bedded on parallel straws, sold under
that seductive name in London (in Italy called ricotta), are
mostly made of skim milk, sometimes of fresh milk, never
of cream.
The whey strained from curds is eagerly drunk by pigs ;
it is also a wholesome diuretic and nutritive, easily-di-
gestible food for man, owing to the dissolved albuminous
substance, the sugar of milk, or lactose, and the salts, A
■whey cure in the Alys is a highly salutary proceeding in
many cases of chronic illness.
Gallina curds and whey is a classical English prepara-
tion,* for which the ferment is derived from the tough
coat that lines the inside of the proventriculus✪ Gallina Curds and Whey, or small
(fore) stomach, situated between the crop and gizzard of
turkeys and fowls. This ferment is always obtainable,
while calf’s rennet is difficult of access. Care should be taken
not to infuse it with boiling water, as some recipes ignor-
antly advise, but only with warm water at blood-heat or
lOO” Fahr. Very hot water destroys the ferment. Gallina
curds and whey, says our instructor, when sweetened
with sugar, makes a wholesome supper for persons
of delicate habits, being entirely free from the disagree-
able flavour of rennet.
IgiiotUH, ‘ Cul. i'’ain. Mud.,’ p. lO'J.
6oo
THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY
Soar milk, bonny clobber, German Schliiypcr-milch, is
formed when milk is allowed to stand in a cool place ; some
cream collects on the top, and a membrane of delicate funyi,
a so-called mycelium, forms on the surface. The milk then
assumes an acidulous taste, sometimes also is a little effer-
vescent, and curdles in the same manner, appai’ently, as by
rennet ; in reality, however, the curdling is caused by lactic
acid, developed from the sugar of milk by a living ferment,
a lovv' fungus, termed the bacillus (little rod) of sour milk.
The curdling by rennet, on the other hand, is effected by a
non-organized soluble ferment without the production of any
acid. While in the whey produced by rennet an albu-
minous substance remains in solution (lacto-gjrotein), and
can be precipitated by fermented or sour whey — that is,
whey the sugar of milk of which has been transformed into
lactic acid ; this precipitated lacto-protein is the material
from which the Alpine cheese-makers produce the small
hard cheeses called herb-cheese (Krauter-kase and Zieger) —
in sour milk this lacto-protein falls together with the caseinc,
and for this reason curds as well as cheese from sour milk
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Curds and whey belongs to a more rustic mode of life, and
is now little patronized by the urban populations. In order
to separate the caseine and fat from milk for the production
of cheese, an extract by warm water from the inner stomach
of the calf {rennet) is added to the warm milk. (The name
rennet is applied both to the dried membrane of the stomach
CURDS AND WHEY
599
itself and to the active watery extract.) The extract of
three-quarters of a square inch of rennet skin will curdle
four pints of milk.
Curds and lohey may be eaten together, or the curds may
be separated from the whey by a strainer, though without
pressure, and mixed with cream, to which sugar and some
loine or liqueur have been added. Or the curds may be
strained off and pressed lightly, and placed and shaped in a
mould ; in that shape they are called (jreen cheese, a name
which the London cheesemongers, and after them the
populace, have corrupted into cream cheese. The brick-
shaped white cheeses, bedded on parallel straws, sold under
that seductive name in London (in Italy called ricotta), are
mostly made of skim milk, sometimes of fresh milk, never
of cream.
The whey strained from curds is eagerly drunk by pigs ;
it is also a wholesome diuretic and nutritive, easily-di-
gestible food for man, owing to the dissolved albuminous
substance, the sugar of milk, or lactose, and the salts, A
■whey cure in the Alys is a highly salutary proceeding in
many cases of chronic illness.
Gallina curds and whey is a classical English prepara-
tion,* for which the ferment is derived from the tough
coat that lines the inside of the proventriculus, or small
(fore) stomach, situated between the crop and gizzard of
turkeys and fowls. This ferment is always obtainable,
while calf’s rennet is difficult of access. Care should be taken
not to infuse it with boiling water, as some recipes ignor-
antly advise, but only with warm water at blood-heat or
lOO” Fahr. Very hot water destroys the ferment. Gallina
curds and whey, says our instructor, when sweetened
with sugar, makes a wholesome supper for persons
of delicate habits, being entirely free from the disagree-
able flavour of rennet.
IgiiotUH, ‘ Cul. i'’ain. Mud.,’ p. lO'J.
6oo
THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY
Soar milk, bonny clobber, German Schliiypcr-milch, is
formed when milk is allowed to stand in a cool place ; some
cream collects on the top, and a membrane of delicate funyi,
a so-called mycelium, forms on the surface. The milk then
assumes an acidulous taste, sometimes also is a little effer-
vescent, and curdles in the same manner, appai’ently, as by
rennet ; in reality, however, the curdling is caused by lactic
acid, developed from the sugar of milk by a living ferment,
a lovv' fungus, termed the bacillus (little rod) of sour milk.
The curdling by rennet, on the other hand, is effected by a
non-organized soluble ferment without the production of any
acid. While in the whey produced by rennet an albu-
minous substance remains in solution (lacto-gjrotein), and
can be precipitated by fermented or sour whey — that is,
whey the sugar of milk of which has been transformed into
lactic acid ; this precipitated lacto-protein is the material
from which the Alpine cheese-makers produce the small
hard cheeses called herb-cheese (Krauter-kase and Zieger) —
in sour milk this lacto-protein falls together with the caseinc,
and for this reason curds as well as cheese from sour milk