The Fourth Part of the Prosperity of Germany

reduce the milk to a curd by pouring in Spiritus Salis spirit of salt. Indeed, one spoonful of this spirit is sufficient for curdling ten measures of milk. Shake the milk and Spiritus Salis well with a wooden spoon and put the curd into hair sieves or clean linens, so that the whey may flow out and be separated. Bind the linens and weight them down with heavy objects to press out all the moisture. Remove the cheese from the linens, place it into wooden vessels, and break it into small fragments or crumbs. Once it is thus broken up, season it with salt and sprinkle it with that pure Spiritus Salis, mixing and stirring it well with a wooden spoon or clean hands. With these things mixed, fill your vessels or cheese pots, both large and small, and condense the material by pressing it tightly within them, just as cheese is wont to be condensed. Once exposed to warm air and dried, this yields compact and durable cheeses, not unlike those Parmesan or Parmesean cheeses, free of the eyes, foul and putrid holes, slime, and similar vices of common cheeses, and never subject to them.

The reason is that the initial coagulation or freezing of the milk is accomplished by the aid of Spiritus Salis, which preserves it from all putrefaction, and not by the aid of a foul and putrid calf's stomach, from which nothing but rot and worms must inevitably arise.

Then, the Spiritus Salis, sprinkled on after the expression of the whey and mixed with the added salt into the cheesy material,