No. 3651 — Swiss-Style Cheese
English historical translation of Molokhovets recipe No. 3651 from the 1901 Russian cookbook, retaining original methods and measures.
Rennet preparation No. 1: take a recently obtained calf's stomach, wash it thoroughly and soak for three or four hours in strong vinegar.
Rinse in whey, rub inside and out with fine salt, stretch on two thin sticks and dry completely for storage.
Three or four hours before use, soak the dried stomach in sour or fresh whey in a warm place. The liquid is called podpushka and was used to curdle freshly drawn milk.
The author allows the same stomach to be used three times if washed, salted and dried again between uses.
Rennet preparation No. 2: clean and wash a calf's stomach, rub well with fine salt, then wash and salt it again two or three days later. Stretch on sticks and dry.
Before cheesemaking, mix 4 bottles soured milk with 4 bottles fresh milk, warm in an oven until whey separates, drain the whey and soak the dried stomach in it until the whey becomes sour. This forms a second rennet preparation.
For the cheese, use 1 vedro freshly drawn milk plus the cream skimmed from another vedro of milk from the previous day.
Warm in a clean tinned pan over coals to slightly above the temperature of newly drawn milk. Add 2 bottles of the second rennet-whey preparation.
Stir with a wooden spatula until the curds separate from whey, then remove from the heat. Drain and gently squeeze the curds without crushing them, which the author associates with forming holes in the cheese.
Line a wooden rectangular mould, about six vershoks long and four wide, with thin wet cloth; the bottom should have five drainage holes.
Pack in the curds, cover with a wooden board about a vershok thick and apply stones of increasing weight. Press until no more whey drains, at least 24 hours.
Remove the cheese carefully, salt its surface and set in a ventilated basket protected from flies. Turn twice daily and rub with salt during the first few days.
After a few weeks the author considers a two-pound cheese ready and claims it resembles Swiss cheese and can be stored two years in a slightly damp place.
She prefers cheesemaking in May or June because milk is plentiful. Winter cheeses are said to taste better but look less attractive and lack the same holes.
Larger cheeses made from double or triple the batch are preferred because small ones dry out too quickly; wrapping in cloth moistened with beer, salt water or white wine is suggested.