Rennet

Présure

What it is

Rennet is an enzyme, chymosin, taken from the fourth stomach of an unweaned calf, where its job is to clot its mother's milk and slow it down for digestion. Since 1990 most of it has been made by fermentation instead - the first genetically engineered enzyme cleared for food, and the reason a great deal of cheese is now vegetarian.

In the kitchen

It is sold by strength, usually 1:10,000: about 0.5 ml for 4 litres of milk at 32 C. Stir it in for thirty seconds, then stop completely - any movement after that tears the curd as it forms and the fat runs out into the whey.

Goes with

Cream Butter Buttermilk Whey butter Fromage blanc Salt Thyme Honey

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