Take a piece of rennet about three inches square, and wash it in
two or three cold waters to get off the salt; wipe it dry, and
fasten a string to one corner of it. Have ready in a deep dish or
pan, a quart of unskimmed milk that has been warmed but not
boiled. Put the rennet into it, leaving the string hanging out
over the side, that you may know where to find it. Cover the pan,
and set it by the fire-side or in some other warm place. When the
milk becomes a firm mass of curd, and the whey looks clear and
greenish, remove the rennet as gently as possible, pulling it out
by the string; and set the pan in ice, or in a very cold place.
Send to table with it a small pitcher of white wine, sugar and
nutmeg mixed together; or a bowl of sweetened cream, with nutmeg
grated over it.
You may keep rennet in white wine; cutting it in small pieces, and
putting it into a glass jar with wine enough to cover it well.
Either the wine or the rennet will be found good for turning milk;
but do not put in both together, or the curd will become so hard
and tough, as to be uneatable.
Rennets properly prepared and dried, are sold constantly in the
Philadelphia markets. The cost is trifling; and it is well to have
one always in the house, in case of being wanted to make whey for
sick persons. They will keep a year or more.