What do you know about rennet in cheese?!
What do you know about rennet in cheese?
Most commercial cheeses contain animal rennet, which comes from the stomach of slaughtered baby male calves. It is usually just labeled "enzymes" on the list of ingredients on the cheese. Vegetarian rennet is derived from a weed. I have been making homemade cheese with vegetarian rennet, and am looking for some new ideas. Do you use vegetarian rennet for other things too?
Answers:
I buy cheeses with no animal rennet. There are actually alot of them nowadays. Google "vegetarian cheese" for a list.
aside from cheese I really do not know....but I do not eat cheese so hard to say.........
It is a bacteria after all, so I don't really know what else you could do with vegetarian rennet. And I just read as well, that "advances in genetic engineering techniques" mean that some vegetarian cheeses may now be made using chymosin produced by genetically engineered micro-organisms. The genetic material (DNA) which encodes for chymosin is introduced into a micro-organism which can then be cultured to produce commercial quantities of chymosin. This is done by extracting genetic material from calf stomach cells which acts as a template for producing the chymosin encoding DNA. This can then be introduced into the micro-organism. Once the genetic material is introduced there is no further need for calf cells. Alternatively, the chymosin encoding DNA can be bio-synthesised in the laboratory without the use of calf cells.
The chymosin produced is identical to that produced by calf stomach cells. The development of genetically engineered chymosin has been encouraged by shortages and fluctuations in cost of rennet from calves. It's manufacturers claim that genetically engineered chymosin will end the cheese making industry's reliance on the slaughter of calves.
Chymosin encoding DNA has been introduced into three different micro-organisms. These are the yeast Kluyveromyces lactis, the fungus Aspergillus niger var awamori, and a strain of the bacteria Escherichia coli. All of these have now been approved and cleared for use by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food. There is no legal requirement for manufacturers to state whether a genetically engineered rennet has been used in the cheese making process. Hm... how vegetarian is that?
Vegetable rennet is made from the juices of the Stinging Neddle plant, I did some research and in Roman times before the rennet was derived from the animal method they used the juice of the Neddle plant, it is a plant tha grow wild and it a broad leaf weed, most though to be a pest, but it is used in herbal medicine as a cut antiseptic and in cheese making to curdle the milk to drain off and make cheese.
But if your not able to go out and forage for neddles, they sell at health food stores and extract of neddles for that purpose, just ask for vegan cheese amking rennet, they will help you hopefully, or try to purchase it on-line.
Traditionally, rennet is made from the lining of a cow's stomach; it helps the cheese ferment and culture properly. Most cheese now is made with vegetable rennet, but it's very hard to tell. if you live in an area with a lot of jews, you can look for cheese that is labeled "Cholov Yisroel" which means that it was made on kosher farms by kosher jews. Since there is a huge restriction in kosher law about eating meat and dairy together, you can be sure that cholov yisroel cheese contains no animal rennet.
Although, it's always best to go with a soy cheese, which has no animal products at all. ;)