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1131. Put three or four pints of milk into a pan a little warm, and then add rennet or gallino. When the curd is come, lade it with a saucer into an earthen shape perforated, of any form you please. Fill it up as the whey drains off, without breaking or pressing the curd. If turned only two hours before wanted, it is very light; but those who like it harder may have it so, by making it earlier, and squeezing it. Cream, milk, or a whip of cream, sugar, wine, and lemon, to be put in the dish, or into a glass bowl, to serve with the curd. Another Way. To four quarts of new milk warmed put from a pint to a quart of buttermilk strained, according to its sourness; keep the pan covered until the curd is of firmness to cut three or four times across with a saucer; as the whey leaves it, put it into a shape, and fill up until it is solid enough to take the form. Serve with plain cream, or mixed with sugar, wine, and lemon.
This is a fresh, unpressed curd cheese eaten as a dessert, given in two versions: one set with rennet, one soured with buttermilk. Both depend on leaving the curd whole rather than stirring or crushing it.
- Don't break the curdThe whole point of the dish is a curd lifted in intact slices so it stays light and slightly open in texture. Ladle it in flat sheets with a saucer or wide skimmer and let gravity drain it; stirring or pressing gives a dense, grainy result.
- Milk to useWhole pasteurised milk works, but ultra-pasteurised or UHT milk will not set into a clean curd with rennet and should be avoided. Non-homogenised milk gives a richer curd if you can find it.
- "A little warm"For a rennet set this presumably means somewhere around blood heat, roughly 90-100F. Much hotter and the rennet is damaged and the set toughens; much cooler and it will be slow or may not set at all.
- Rennet quantityNone is given in the original. Modern liquid rennet is usually about a quarter teaspoon, diluted in a few tablespoons of cool unchlorinated water, for four pints of milk; follow the strength on the bottle rather than guessing.
- "Gallino"An obscure term, given here as an alternative setting agent to animal rennet. Its exact identity is not clear from the text, and there is no reliable modern equivalent to substitute; use rennet.
- The mouldThe "earthen shape perforated" is a drainer mould, of the same general kind as the pierced coeur a la creme dish. A small colander or a sieve lined with damp muslin, set over a bowl, does the same job.
- The buttermilk versionThis is an acid set rather than an enzyme set, and it needs cultured buttermilk with live cultures, not the sweet or powdered kind. Warm the milk to about 100F, hold it covered and undisturbed, and expect a softer, more yoghurt-like curd.
- The accompanimentThe "whip of cream, sugar, wine, and lemon" is a whipped syllabub-like froth; a sweet fortified wine such as sherry or madeira suits it. The recipe puts it in the dish or a separate glass bowl, to be served alongside the curd.
- Yield and keepingThree to four pints of milk should give something in the region of a pound of drained curd, depending how far it is drained; enough for about four. It is a same-day dish; keep it refrigerated and eat it within a day, as unripened fresh curd sours quickly.