How To Make Nettle Rennet For Cheesemaking - Cultures For Health (2024)

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How To Make Nettle Rennet For Cheesemaking - Cultures For Health? ›

Fill a large saucepan 3/4 full of nettles (Urtica dioica) and just cover with water. The volumes should be about 1:1 (So for 1 kilo of nettles you need about 1 litre of water.) Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 30 minutes, then add 1 heaped tablespoon of salt and stir to dissolve.

Fill a large saucepan 3/4 full of nettles (Urtica dioica) and just cover with water. The volumes should be about 1:1 (So for 1 kilo of nettles you need about 1 litre of water.) Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 30 minutes, then add 1 heaped tablespoon of salt and stir to dissolve.

Rennet is made of enzymes that are found in the lining of un-weened mammal stomachs, usually from a cow (calf), sheep (lamb) or goat (kid). Young mammals' main source of food is milk.

ANIMAL RENNET FOR HOME CHEESEMAKING

The most common coagulant throughout history is rennet, or rennin, the enzyme found in the stomach of young ruminants that have not been weaned from their mother's milk. Rennet is essentially an enzyme used to convert milk sugars (lactose) into lactic acid.

1/4 cup of water is a sufficient amount for diluting rennet for 1-2 gallons of milk. If rennet is not diluted, it will be unevenly distributed in the milk, which could produce a faulty curd. Powdered Rennet: let rennet sit for 30 minutes in the water, stirring occasionally, to completely dissolve it before use.

The lemon juice, vinegar and citric acid can coagulate the milk without rennet but frequently work best with hot milk.

To prepare nettle leaf tea, bring 10 ounces of water to a boil over a hot stove, then pour a tablespoon of fresh nettle – or a teaspoon of dried nettle – into the water. Allow the nettle to steep for 5-10 minutes, strain, and serve.

Too much rennet was used or too much butterfat, left your cheese during the process. Rubbery cheese can happen when an excess amount of rennet is used, too much rennet equals a rubber ball, too little, soup!

Most stomach-derived rennet is taken from the fourth stomach of young, unweaned calves. These animals are not killed expressly for their rennet; rather they are killed for meat production (in this case, veal) and the rennet is a byproduct.

A demand for an inexpensive and reliable alternative to calf rennet led to the development of a genetically modified bacterium that can produce rennet enzymes through fermentation, called fermentation produced chymosin.

What is the healthiest cheese to eat? ›

Pig pepsin and chicken pepsin were used previously, however, not now. All successful rennet substitutes are aspartyl proteinases. Proteinases from Rhizomucor miehei, R. pusillus, Cryphonectria parasitica, Aspergillus oryzae and Irpex lactis are used for commercial cheese production.

There are two main varieties of natural rennet: those derived from plant or animal. The three animals with the rennin enzyme are lambs, goats, and calves. The plants that contain this special enzyme are artichokes, nettles, and cardoon thistle.

Plants which can be used as a source of vegetable rennet in cheesemaking include Yellow Bedstraw or cheese rennet (Galium verum), thistle cardoon, artichoke and other species of the Cynara genus^1,2, stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) and Sodom apple (Calotropis procera).

Dried and cleaned stomachs of young calves are sliced into small pieces and then put into salt water or whey, together with some vinegar or wine to lower the pH of the solution. After some time (overnight or several days), the solution is filtered.

Alternatives to Animal Rennet and How They Are Made

Plant-based options like fig leaves, stinging nettle, and thistle can be easily harvested and used to coagulate milk, while microbial rennet is produced using fermentation techniques to create enzymes that break down milk proteins.

Typically, plant-based rennet for cheese comes from cardoon thistle, artichokes, or nettles. The plants are soaked in water to extract a thickening enzyme similar to chymosin. Many traditional Spanish and Portuguese cheeses are made from plant rennet.