Rennet of animal origin. Are all cheeses vegetarian: about rennet
Rennet is a complex organic substance that is produced in the stomach of calves, lambs and other newborn cattle. As you know, such a substance promotes splitting, as well as the mother, who consumes the cub. It should be especially noted that this enzyme cannot be obtained artificially. In this regard, it is quite expensive, but very effective in the preparation of dairy products.
Self-extraction and drying of the enzyme
If you want to cook homemade cheese or cottage cheese using such a product, then it can be purchased at a pharmacy. As a rule, the presented ingredient is sold in the form of a light gray or white powder, which has neither odor nor color. It should also be noted that in pharmacy chains it is sold extremely rarely. Thus, in the absence of a factory-made product, rennet can be prepared at home. To do this, the extracted abomasum after slaughtering a calf or lamb should be cleaned, and the ends of the holes should be tied, inflated with air and left for several days in the shade or in a warm room (at 18-20 degrees). Further, the dried product should be wrapped in dark paper and stored until immediate use. For the preparation of cheese or cottage cheese, it is advisable to use such an enzyme after 2-4 months after drying, because mucus may appear in the solution used from a fresh ingredient.
What role does rennet play in the production of cheese and other dairy products?
Rennet is often used to make cheeses. Indeed, during the production of this product, a rapid separation of the protein components of a fresh milk drink from whey is required. As you know, such a substance of animal origin consists of two elements: pepsin and chymosin. And thanks to these components, rennet acts as a kind of catalyst in the process of making delicious and tender cheese. After all, it is his addition that quickly curdles milk by separating the protein components from
Is it beneficial for manufacturers?
Despite the fact that such a component is expensive, it is actively used by manufacturers of dairy products. After all, cheese without rennet is less tasty and tender. In addition, the process of curdling milk using this substance is much faster, which allows you to produce much more products.
It should also be noted that rennet has absolutely no effect on the organoleptic properties of the final product. In other words, cheese made using this substance does not change in color, taste and remains aromatic. By the way, by the appearance of a dairy product, it is completely impossible to understand whether it was made using an enzyme or not.
How are cheeses made?
Once rennet is added to milk, it turns into a thick curd. This separates the whey from the protein component. If at this stage production is stopped, then you will get a very tasty cottage cheese. If you want to make hard and fragrant cheese, then the grain, which has reached a certain percentage of moisture, should be placed in a mold with holes for draining the whey, and then pressed and sent for salting. The formed bars should be in the brine for about 10 days, after which they need to be laid out on the shelves for full maturation (about 3 weeks).
Rennet: is it harmful to the body?
As mentioned above, it is quite difficult to determine whether a particular cheese is made using a given substance. After all, you will never find such an enzyme in the composition of the product. This is due to the fact that rennet is not found in cheese or cottage cheese, as it is only used to curdle milk. However, it should be noted that due to the laboriousness of its extraction from the stomachs of young calves, lambs and kids, since the early 1990s, a similar enzyme (rennin) has been produced as a result of gene biotechnology. Its manufacturing principle is approximately as follows: its gene is extracted from an animal, which is copied millions of times. After that, they are placed in a bacterial environment, where they are artificially grown. At the moment, the effect on the body of products that have been obtained by way remains unclear. In this regard, it is rather difficult to say whether such an enzyme is harmful or not.
What is a substitute for rennet?
Currently, there are several substitutes for rennet, which are actively used for the preparation of various cheeses and cottage cheese. Their use is also popular among dairy producers. For example, in Italy, in addition to rennet, other enzymes are used to create aromatic cheeses, which are produced by the tonsils of lambs, kids or calves. Such substances give the product a specific piquant taste highly appreciated by gourmets.
It is also worth noting that the use of non-animal substances during the preparation of cheeses allows them to be used by adherents of vegetarianism. So, in the 1960s, scientists isolated miehei and Mucor pusilus strains that synthesized suitable enzymes, but with low activity. A little later, methods were developed for obtaining similar substances from Bacillus licheniformis, Pseudomonas mixoides, Edothea parasitica, etc. Three decades later, with the development of genetic biotechnology, rennin, which was produced by bacteria copies of the gene of a young calf, began to be actively used for cheese production. As you know, it has greater purity, stability and activity than natural abomasum. Currently, more than 60% of hard cheeses are produced using this component.
Among other things, today there are vegetable substitutes for rennet. So, fig juice or starter grass is used instead. However, such enzymes are rarely used in large-scale products.
If you decide to make cheese at home, then, of course, you already realized that in most recipes, among the required ingredients, there is rennet or rennet for cheese.
The question arises: where do they get rennet for cheese, is it possible to cook it at home or do without it at all?
Let's look at the easiest recipe for homemade cheese using rennet and figure out how to make rennet yourself so that you can boil cheese, or where to buy it.
As a rule, according to the simplest recipe, cheese is made from fresh milk with the addition of cream removed from evening milk (cream from 10 liters of milk is required for 1 liter).
To cook homemade cheese, you need to mix milk and cream and put on low heat.
When the temperature of the milk is slightly above steam, pour in the rennet and stir with a clean wooden spatula until the cheese grain begins to form and the whey begins to separate.
The curd mass must be transferred to the cheese mold. There should be holes in the sides and bottom of the form for whey to flow out.
The form with the curd mass must be placed under the load and left to mold the cheese.
After 1 day, not earlier, the cheese must be carefully turned over from the mold, rubbed with salt, put in a basket and put on the shelves for maturation.
Daily cheeses are tedious to turn 2 times a day. After a few weeks, the cheese ripens, it can be consumed. Such cheese finally ripens within a few years.
So, now you understand how to cook homemade hard cheese using rennet sourdough.
Natural rennet cheese starter can be bought or made at home from calf rennet.
You can buy rennet starter in an online store with delivery by Russian post or courier service.
Rennet sourdough for cheese at home
Rennet sourdough recipe #1. To make rennet starter, you will need the stomach of a freshly slaughtered calf.
The stomach should be washed well, dipped in strong vinegar for 3-4 hours. Then the abomasum should be washed in whey, rubbed with salt inside and out, stretched on two split torches, dried and transferred to dry jars.
As needed, you need to take a piece of abomasum to ferment milk for cheese.
Rennet Recipe #2. The veal stomach must be thoroughly washed and rubbed with salt on the outside.
After 2-3 days, rinse again and rub with salt. Then stretch it, as in the first method, and dry it.
Before you start making cheese, you need to take yogurt and an equal amount of fresh milk, mix them and put in the oven to separate the whey.
Drain it into a separate bowl, put dried abomasum or part of it there (depending on the amount of whey).
Keep in it until the serum turns sour. Get ready-made sourdough for making cheese.
Rennet sourdough recipe #3. The stomach of the calf must be washed, dried, cut like noodles and put in a container. Store in a dry place for 2-4 months before use.
10 minutes before the start of cooking rennet noodle cheese, rennet should be prepared.
To do this, take 2.5 g of "noodles" and 2.5 g of baking soda and pour 200-300 ml of warm (30-32 ° C) water.
Abomasum noodles are sometimes filled with brine. 5% salt (per 1 liter 50 g) is added to the brine to drinking water and boiled, and then cooled to 30-32 ° C.
Abomasum is soaked and infused in a clean enamel bowl in a warm place. After 2-3 days, the rennet starter will be ready.
How to calculate the amount of rennet
To find out the amount of rennet that is needed to coagulate the available amount of milk, you need to determine its strength in seconds.
To do this, take half a glass of warmed milk (31-33 ° C) and, stirring quickly, pour 1 teaspoon of rennet solution into it.
Notice on the second hand of the clock how long the clot forms.
Knowing the strength of the rennet solution in seconds, you can calculate the amount you need.
Suppose you have 40 liters of milk. The milk should curdle in 20 minutes, or 1200 seconds. The test showed a fortress of 60 s. Then you will need (40 x 60 x 0.1) / 1200 \u003d 0.2 l, or 200 mg, of a rennet solution.
In the conditions of personal and farm households, it is possible to add yogurt (3-5% of the amount of milk) when making cheese before adding rennet to milk. This is necessary for the maturation of milk, i.e., to achieve an acidity of 22–24 °T.
The calculated amount of enzyme is poured into warm milk (29–32 °C) with stirring.
After the appearance of a dense clot, it is cut with a wooden spatula into cubes, carefully kneading to a grain size of 7–8 mm, and incubated for 8–10 minutes.
Then the serum is removed through gauze. Approximately 50% of the whey is heated to a temperature of 50 ° C and poured again in a thin stream to boil the grains.
The cheese grain is transferred in bulk into a mold or a wicker round basket for self-pressing. When the cheese is pressed, it is dried in air for 30 minutes.
Then they are taken out of the brine on a shelf in a cool room, wrapped in parchment and put in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.
Cheese makers, in the manufacture of cheeses of various types, use not only natural ingredients. Unscrupulous producers can make cheese using animal rennet.
This, of course, leads to savings in the cost of acquiring raw materials for making long-term cheese. In general, any enzymes are used in the production of all types of cheese.
What is an enzyme? It is a milk curing agent. Enzymes curdle the milk for further processing.
The role of enzymes in cheese making is important, with the help of them milk proteins are broken down into separate fragments. Then, the fragments obtained in this way are combined around calcium ions, creating small milk clots. The milk clots obtained with the help of enzymes are effectively combined with each other, creating a single milk clot or directly cheese mass.
Among cheese makers, enzymes for making cheese are often referred to as rennet or pepsin. This is the same substance.
It should be noted that pepsin is an indispensable component in the preparation of hard cheeses. But it is successfully used in the manufacture of soft types of cheese, thereby it increases the productivity of the product and helps the cheese maker save time and labor costs.
The expression itself rennet extract came from derivative words: abomasum, as well as abomasum. These words had their own meaning, that is, a salted or dried fragment of the stomach of a young livestock of mammals. As a rule, rennet of animal origin is obtained from the stomachs of calves, goats and lambs.
Various enzymes are used in modern production. Milk-clotting substances are different and not only of animal origin. Enzymes for cheese can be of chemical, as well as vegetable origin.
Enzymes are complex substances and they have a unique structure. The amino acid composition of all possible enzymes is approximately the same. By the way, rennet cheese is currently called cheese that has been prepared using any milk-clotting enzymes.
Rennet of animal origin helps to curdle milk in a short time, it provides quick curdling of fresh raw materials.
When purchasing cheeses, you should pay attention to the composition and if there is an inscription rennet, this indicates that it is of animal origin. But here you still need to make sure that it is an animal, as manufacturers often mistranslate this definition.
It is especially worth paying attention to the cheese, which was brought from neighboring countries. On the label of such cheese, there may be an incorrect translation, so it is better to read the composition of the cheese in the language of the manufacturer.
Translators can simply miss half of the ingredients in the product, deliberately leaving only the words and names of substances that we know.
One of the most popular among cheese producers rennet of animal origin, taken from slaughtered domestic animals such as beef, pig and chicken stomach. In principle, these enzymes are just as effective and similar to each other.
These enzymes have a lot of advantages, which include a lower cost compared to pepsins, as well as other consumer items.
But such enzymes also have disadvantages.
Cheese that was made, in the production of which was used rennet of animal origin, has an animal component in its composition. Although it is minimal, it still significantly affects the duration of the product's shelf life. This is the negative feature of the animal enzyme.
In addition, it is necessary to take into account the fact that both the manufacturer and the consumer note a certain strange taste of such cheese. Cheese made with an animal enzyme tastes slightly bitter, which is not good for eating.
Also, a negative feature of this type of cheese is capriciousness to storage conditions. Such cheeses must be stored strictly at a certain temperature and humidity. Accordingly, this is a shorter shelf life of cheese. When it is made using chemical enzymes or vegetable enzymes, it has a longer shelf life and shelf life.
Rennet of animal origin- this is not the stomach of the animal itself, but the gland of the stomach, to be specific, it is the gland of the fourth section of the stomach. To obtain this enzyme, chemists use saline to extract it from the dry stomachs of ruminants. The substance formed during a chemical reaction is called rennet.
Rennet breaks down a milk protein called caseinogen. After the active work of the enzyme, the insoluble protein casein is obtained from milk. In this way, the main milk protein is converted into a more solid cheese structure, which is slowly broken down by pepsin. Once in our stomach, the cheese mass is slowly broken down, thereby saturating our body.
Cheese without the participation of enzymes in the production process will not be cheese, its state will not be so dense. Other types of cheese can be prepared without the addition of rennet, such as soft cheese or processed cheese. But these types of cheeses have a shorter shelf life.
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Rennet of animal origin. Buy rennet of animal origin inexpensively in the online store. Buy rennet of animal origin by mail. Buy rennet of animal origin cash on delivery.
A question of ethics
To make cheese, milk must first be separated into a solid protein fraction and translucent whey, a process called milk curdling. In this case, the rennet acts as a catalyst. The use of rennin is quite beneficial for the manufacturer: the process of curdling milk is reduced from several days to a matter of minutes.
Even in ancient times, warriors transported milk in skins made from the stomachs of animals, and along the way the milk turned into a cloudy liquid and a dense white clot. The reason for such transformations of milk was rennet, first isolated in 1874 by the Danish scientist Christian Hansen from the dried stomach of a calf.
Today, the main source of natural rennin remains the same raw material - the stomachs of dairy calves, kids or lambs no older than 10 days old. At a later age, along with rennin, a significant amount of pepsin begins to be produced, which worsens the quality of the cheese.
But not every modern person likes such a dairy and meat product with a touch of cruelty. It is one thing to eat a steak from an adult cow - here many believe that it is permissible for a person to have hunter or predator instincts. It is a completely different matter when it comes to the cubs of animals, because a person has an equally strong instinct for caring for the cubs of other mammals and birds. It is no secret that even in nature there are amazing “adoptions” of orphaned babies of other species: sometimes a lioness can take care of an antelope cub, a monkey can raise a tiger cub, and a she-wolf can feed some feral Mowgli ...
For vegetarians, as you know, it is generally unacceptable to eat someone, so developed countries have long begun to look for an alternative to rennin. The global Slow Food movement, which helps private farms and also protests against the callous attitude to food in the fast food industry (the so-called fast food), has also had a significant impact.
How to recognize the presence of rennet?
Rennet has no effect on the color, smell, or taste of the product, so you can't tell from the outside whether the cheese was made with or without rennin. However, the following designations can be found in the composition, which signal the presence of an undesirable enzyme:
* Rennet extract
* Animal chymosin
* Kalase
* Sweet milk cheese
It is best to read the composition of the cheese on the factory labels, and not on the stickers that the supermarket leaves directly (this information can often differ).
Rennet Substitutes
In the 1960s, strains of the fungi Mucor pusilus and Mucor miehei were isolated, synthesizing suitable enzymes for milk clotting. Later, methods were developed for obtaining enzymes from Pseudomonas mixoides, Bacillus licheniformis, Edothea parasitica, etc. Mushrooms have less activity, but, of course, they are much cheaper than newborn calves.
Non-animal rennet substitutes are now widely used in the production of vegetarian cheeses, especially imported ones. In their composition, you can read the following designations:
* Microbial (microbiological) rennet
* Enzyme preparation of non-animal origin
* Microbial rennin
* Milase (Milase) - a product of the fermentation of mushrooms Rhizomucor miehei
* Fromase (Fromase) - a product of the fermentation of the fungus Mucor miehei
* Maxilact (Maxilact) - a fermentation product of strains of dairy mushrooms
* Suparen (Suparen) - a product of the fermentation of mushrooms Cryphonectria parasitica
* Meito (Meito Microbial Rennet)
* 100% Chymosin - a fermentation product of mold fungi (Mukor Miehei, Rhizomucor meihei, Rhizomucor pusillus)
* Mucopepsin (Mucorpepsin)
* Sour-milk cheese - the so-called cheeses prepared using lactic acid fermentation.
Separately, we list the enzymes obtained using genetic engineering. In this case, the bacteria is injected with a gene that is responsible for the synthesis of chymosin. In this case, the resulting substance does not contain the DNA of the microorganisms that produced it:
* Chymogen by Genencor International
* Pfizer ChyMax (aspergillus niger fermentation product)
* Maxiren from the Dutch company "DSM" (obtained by fermentation of lactic yeast Kluveromyces lactis)
Among other things, there are vegetable substitutes for rennet - for example, fig juice, starter grass, bedstraw flowers. However, they are rarely used - mainly for making homemade cheese.
Examples of vegetarian cheeses
It is not difficult to find vegetarian varieties among Ukrainian cheeses: for example, Dobryana, Pyryatin and Cheese Club trademarks do not use rennet at all. Cheese with lactic acid bacteria is produced by TM "Hercules" ("Health", "Adygeisky", "Brynza"). This also includes processed cheese TM "Romol", as well as "Mozzarella" and "Ricotta Fresca" TM "Dobrynya".
Among the imported products, the line of vegetarian cheeses is represented by the trademarks Valio, Kaserei Champignon, President, Arla, Friendship, Akadia, Babybel, Dairyland, Kiri, Prestige, "Galbani", "Hermis", etc.
The main thing is to carefully read the label and make sure that the product is made with the addition of a milk-clotting enzyme of microbial origin. However, this is not the only thing worth paying attention to: it is also important, for example, whether the manufacturer has replaced part of the milk fat with harmful palm fat.
(FROM NUTS).
Some lacto-vegetarians are unaware that not all dairy products are kill-free. This is especially true for people who are just starting to change their diet.
The fact is that industrial cheese (and often made on the basis of rennet (the so-called animal origin). And it is extracted from the stomach of newborn calves, which are slaughtered for this purpose a few days after birth.
Not to sponsor the slaughter of cows, you need to be able to choose cheeses produced without the use of this enzyme.
Or make your own vegan cheese without rennet.
How are cheeses made?
Any cheese is made from mature milk, in which the solid fraction is separated from the whey. The very process of such separation is called milk coagulation.
To quickly curd milk - that is, to separate the protein components from whey - most often they use rennet extract. This is beneficial for the manufacturer - he minimizes the process of maturation of milk.
And it is imperceptible to the consumer, since such an enzyme does not change the color, smell, or taste of the finished product.
In curdled milk, a clot is formed, which, in turn, is crushed into a “cheese grain”, and it is already mixed with whey. It turns out cottage cheese - by the way, also with the "participation" of rennet.
To get cheese, the "grain" is left alone until it acquires a certain percentage of moisture. And put in a form with holes for draining whey. After salting and pressing.
In brine, the cheese ripens for 10 days, and then it is sent to ripen on the shelves in a special room. And there the cheese is from three weeks to several years, depending on the variety.
The cheese turns out to be of high quality, it cooks quickly, and there is little enzyme for curdling milk. It would be nice if not for one aspect.
Rennet extract
Where does the "rennet" come from, which so simplifies the industrial production of cottage cheese and cheese?
It is extracted from the stomachs of newborn calves (sometimes goats or lambs), which feed on mother's milk.
This is the very secretion that crumbs need in order to better digest milk.
And that is why it separates whey from milk protein with such ease and speed in large vats of dairies and cheese shops.
The calf, which barely had time to know the mother and the taste of her milk, is slaughtered at exactly 3 weeks of age.
Can animal rennet be replaced?
Of course you can. For example, using the synthesized or plant pepsin, fermentation chymosin, or using microbial aspartyl proteinases, as is done in many European countries. To taste, such cheeses often even surpass the “rennet counterpart”.
There are also vegetable "curdling agents" - juices of figs and lemons, starter grass.
But all of the above cheeses still need to be able to find and distinguish from slaughter products. If you live in a big city, then this is not difficult - the main thing is to view and analyze the labels on purchases. The choice of ethical cheeses in supermarkets is quite large. But if you live in a rural area, the shops of which are not famous for their variety, then it will be more difficult. The solution is to make homemade cheese.
How to distinguish an ethical product from an unethical one?
Not worth buying cheese and cottage cheese, if their labels contain the following information 
1. "Rennet" - most manufacturers do not even hide this. Such an enzyme may also go under pseudonyms: rennin, animal chymosin, abomin, Kalase, or Stabo-1290.
2. “Sweet milk cheese” is the name of cheeses that are 100% prepared with the “participation” of rennet.
Feel free to take from the counter products, on the labels of which there are marks:
1. Chymosin of non-animal origin or 100% chymosin - it is obtained during the fermentation of a special type of mold fungi;
2. Microbiological enzyme;
3. Mucopepsin;
3. Microbial rennin;
4. Microbial enzyme Milase;
5. Enzymatic coagulator CHY-MAX®;
6. Fromase or Fromase, Maksiren, ChyMax, Chymogen;
7. "Sour-milk cheese" - this is the name of cheeses prepared by lactic acid fermentation.
8. Milk-clotting enzyme of plant origin
9. Sometimes packers in a store illiterately sign “rennet of microbial origin” (or the same thing, only “vegetable”), forgetting that rennet is rennet (made from the stomach of an infant animal), and microbial origin is microbial . But here we must understand that the product is made on a microbial basis.
It is preferable to focus on factory packaging, and not on those that packers paste in supermarkets.
By the way, milk-vegetarians can no doubt buy Adyghesky cheese, in the recipe of which rennet is simply not provided. The Indians call this cheese in their own way - "paneer". This is a vegetarian cheese without rennet.
Vegetarian Adyghe cheese: cooking at home
You can make your own delicious paneer. It will take a little time and a set of products available to everyone. And in order to make the recipe “beautiful”, you can make paneer “in a crust”. Dill or spicy-nutty.
To prepare 350-400 grams of homemade paneer, you need to take:
- take 3 liters of milk, fat content 3.5%;
- big lemon
- a medium bunch of dill for rolling the finished cheese;
- 50 grams of crushed peeled walnuts;
- a mixture of spices - 2 teaspoons. To prepare such a mixture, it is necessary to ceiling and mix Provencal herbs, white and black peppers, coriander, salt and turmeric in equal proportions.
Vegetarian homemade cheese: recipe
1. First, pour the milk into a saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. As soon as a “bubbly” foam appeared on the surface, remove the milk from the heat.
3. Add the juice of one lemon. And the milk immediately begins to curdle - the whey is separated.
4. We must wait 5 minutes, and then drain the serum through cheesecloth. Paneer, at the same time, should remain on gauze. Whey can later be used to make pancakes.
5. The ends of the gauze must be tightly twisted, the whey is squeezed out, and the resulting cheese clot is placed directly in the gauze under the press (you can use a stone for sauerkraut or just a bottle of water).
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