Rennet [REN it] n. Substance containing the active enzyme rennin, key to digesting and coagulating and milk.
Rennet is a set of enzymes that coagulates milk, separating it into curds and whey. It's an aid to milk digestion, and it's found in every mammalian stomach.
It's also an essential part of the cheese-making process. Traditionally, cheese was made with rennet extracted from calves' stomachs, but this method is rare now and most cheese producers use non-animal substitutes made from plants or fungi as coagulants. Rennet made a big splash in the news this week...
Though among factory-produced cheeses, the process of using animal rennet is pretty-much extinct, it's still going strong on the artisanal front. Back when I worked the counter at Murray's, 50-75% (or more) of our cheeses were made with animal rennet. The portuguese do something interesting, though, and use thistle rennet. In this process, the purple thistle plant is steeped in water. That water is then used to coagulate the cheese, resulting in a signature sour flavor to many of their cheeses.
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I wish more cheeses (and other products) would tell me the type of rennet that they are using. Since I don't eat meat products like rennet and gelatin, it would be helpful to know that the rennet listed in ingredients is from plants, bacterial, etc instead of animal based.
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