Home › The Principles of Cookery › Rennet

Rennet

Rennet is the name given to the prepared inner membrane of a calf, pig, hare, fowl, or turkey's stomach, which is used for turning milk. It may frequently be bought ready dried of the butcher, and then may be kept a long time, if hung in a cool place, and covered to preserve it from dust. When wanted for use, a little piece about two inches square should be soaked in a quarter of a pint of hot water for four hours, and the liquor thus obtained should be stirred into lukewarm milk. Rennet varies so much in strength that it is not easy to say how much will be required. Ordinarily, a table-spoonful of the liquor in which the dried rennet has been soaked will turn two quarts of milk. For people living in towns the easiest way of procuring rennet is to buy a bottle of the essence, which is sold by almost all chemists ready for use. Rennet, however, may be prepared at home, as follows. Take the stomachs of two or more freshly-killed calves. Cleanse them thoroughly from all impurities, and rub them inside and out with salt. Pack them closely in a stone jar, strew salt between and over them, and cover them up. A month or more before they are to be used let them drain a few hours, and dry them by stretching them on sticks.