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>> A coagulant is typically added to turn the milk proteins into solid curds — in many cheeses, that coagulant is an enzyme called rennet, which is traditionall
by cheese_goddess 6y ago
>> A coagulant is typically added to turn the milk proteins into solid curds — in many cheeses, that coagulant is an enzyme called rennet, which is traditionally taken from an unweaned calf’s stomach lining, although vegetarian rennet, derived from molds or plants, is used in some cases.
"Traditionally" rennet was taken from an unweaned milk animal's stomach (not just a calf's stomach. Some people make most of their cheese from ewe's and goat's milk).
Fast-forward a couple thousand years and in modern times, most rennet in commercial cheeses is the product of fermentation by cute little bacteria cultured in cute little bacteria incubators:
... Because of the above imperfections of microbial and animal rennets, many producers sought other replacements of rennet. With genetic engineering it became possible to isolate rennet genes from animals and introduce them into certain bacteria, fungi, or yeasts to make them produce recombinant chymosin during fermentation. The genetically modified microorganism is killed after fermentation and chymosin isolated from the fermentation broth, so that the fermentation-produced chymosin (FPC) used by cheese producers does not contain a GMO or any GMO DNA. FPC is identical to chymosin made by an animal, but is produced in a more efficient way. FPC products have been on the market since 1990 and, because the quantity needed per unit of milk can be standardized, are commercially viable alternatives to crude animal or plant rennets, as well as generally preferred to them in industrial production.[12] ...
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rennet#Fermentation-produced_chymosin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rennet#Fermentation-produced_c...
But, somehow, everytime I read an article about vegan cheese it seems to lead with the outdated information that rennet is, like, normally, made with the stomach lininig of unweaned calves.
- h0l0cube 5y ago> everytime I read an article about vegan cheese it seems to lead with the outdated information that rennet is, like, normally, made with the stomach lininig of unweaned calves From the article: > What Perfect Day is doing isn’t new, exactly: Pandya, who is vegan, points out that for a long time, dairy cheese wasn’t even considered vegetarian because of its use of rennet. When vegetarian rennet was developed in the 1970s and commercialized in the 1980s, “it wasn’t done for any profitability reason or consumer trend reason or anything to do with animal welfare,” Pandya says. “It was just economics — like, it just made more sense to use the latest in fermentation and biotechnology to figure out a way to make that enzyme without the extraction from an animal.
- cheese_goddess 5y agoI've read that. Why do you copy it here?
- h0l0cube 5y agoBecause the very counterpoint you were making was already addressed in detail in the article. Admittedly not as much detail, but they weren't being as simplistic and false as you suggest with your quote of the article.
- cheese_goddess 5y agoThanks for the explanation but the text you quote doesn't say that fermentation-produced rennet is the norm in the cheese industry and that animal rennets (as well as fungal and plant rennets) are only used in a tiny proportion of all commercial cheeses. If someone who didn't know anything about cheesemaking were to read the article, the opinion they would form from it would probably be that rennet is made from calf stomachs' linings and that other kinds of rennet are "some times used". It wouldn't help anyone reading the article to find out that "vegetarian rennet" was commercialised in the 1970's and 80's as the article later says, because the article hasn't made any attempt to explain what "vegetarian rennet" is, exactly. "Vegetarian rennet" can apply to fungal or plant rennet as well as it can apply to rennet produced by bacterial frermentation and an inexperienced reader may well confuse the three and think that it only applies to the former two. To quote directly from the article, the phrase "vegetarian rennet, derived from molds or plants, is used in some cases" is the one I find the most potentially confusing to readers who don't have detailed knowledge of cheesemaking.
- ThrowawayIP 5y agoThis is entirely dependent on the type of cheese being made. Famously, Parmigiano-Reggiano is required under the EU DOP scheme to be made with calf rennet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmigiano-Reggiano#/media/File:Parmigiano-Reggiano.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmigiano-Reggiano#/media/Fil...
- cheese_goddess 5y agoAs I say, most cheese is made with rennet enzymes produced by bacterial fermentation. Obviously, some aren't, but they are the tiniest minority. The article gives the impression that animal rennet is the norm and what I say in my comment is that it is not.