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Rennet Custard
1 tablespoon brandy few grains salt 1 tablespoon liquid rennet 4 tablespoons sugar Mix sugar, brandy and salt. Heat milk until lukewarm; add rennet and other ingredients; pour into serving dish and let stand until a firm curd is formed, then chill. Serve with cream and sugar. 1 calf's foot 4 cups cold water ½ cup sherry
A junket-style set custard that thickens by enzyme action rather than by heat, so temperature control is the whole recipe.
- The hinge: lukewarm, not hotRennet works best at around blood heat, 98-105F, and loses activity as the milk gets hotter, so milk much above that will not set. Warm the milk just until it feels neither warm nor cool on the inside of the wrist, then work quickly.
- Milk quantityThe amount of milk is not stated in the text as given. A tablespoon of liquid rennet, or a junket tablet, is usually reckoned to set somewhere around a quart of milk, though doses vary by product; the 4 tablespoons of sugar would suit roughly that quantity.
- Use ordinary pasteurized milkWhole pasteurized milk sets cleanly. Ultra-pasteurized or UHT milk has been heated hard enough to alter the casein and will not form a firm curd; skim milk gives a weak, weeping set.
- Liquid rennet todaySold as junket rennet tablets or as liquid animal or microbial rennet in cheesemaking shops. Liquid rennet varies in strength, so follow the bottle's dose for the volume of milk rather than the tablespoon here.
- Do not stir once pouredPour into the serving dishes immediately and leave them absolutely still. Any movement while the curd is forming breaks it and you get thin whey with soft flecks instead of a smooth set.
- Setting and chillingA firm curd forms at room temperature in 10 to 15 minutes. Chill only after it has set; refrigerating too early slows the enzyme and gives a slack custard.
- BrandyOne tablespoon flavors the whole dish and is not cooked off. Vanilla or a little strong coffee substitutes if the alcohol is unwanted.
- YieldFour or so small cups if a quart of milk is used, and it is best eaten the day it is made; the curd tends to shed whey by the second day.
Rennet, the calf-stomach enzyme that curdles milk for cheese, was sold to nineteenth-century households in bottles and later as Junket tablets, and it gave cooks a milk pudding that needed no eggs, no starch, and almost no fire. Such rennet custards were long considered invalid or nursery food, the curd being reckoned easy on the digestion, though a spoonful of brandy of the sort called for here suggests this version was aimed at grown-up guests. Lowney's, a Boston chocolate firm, published its cook book to put its cocoa in domestic kitchens, and rounded out the volume with general recipes like this one.