Rennet - Malta Story

[Tea]

I spent the day yesterday with the Maltese friend of mine that initially taught me to make cheese.  She has been asked me for ages to come and teach her how to make feta.
She told me that she would be milking the cow in the morning so to come over early.  Well the milk didn't even need to be warmed it was so fresh.  So we made cheese.
She was telling me that her mother used to use the stomach juices of a baby kid or lamb that was still suckling "milk only" as the rennet.  She said that they used to tie off each end of the stomach, and it was preserved somehow with salt, she thought, and that this would last for years in such a manner.  She was saying that the word that they used for this "rennet" meant "one drop" which was literally what they used to set their cheese.

I thought this was interesting as we take it for granted using the rennet tablets or liquid that we have today.  She is going to see if she can find out how they traditionally preserved the stomach as it would be interesting to know.

To top it all off, she rang this morning to say that she will call around Monday moring with the milk from that mornings milking.     Am I spoilt or what.  Can't wait.

Anyway, just thought I would pass this along.

[reg]

good stuff Tea. yes that stomach material can be kept for years i'm just not exactly sure of the method. i will check with the Italian fellow that i know, he has some and has kept it for years

fresh milk ... i'm jealous

reg

[Cheese Head]

Interesting that called rennet kind of means one drop. My understanding that the key milk coagulating enzyme in tradional rennet is called chymosin. And while the original rennet was made that way, more recently science has overtaken that ancient process and most "rennet" is now mycrobial, see the webpage on this subject. While most would think that that is a step backwards, I think good as I'm a bit too squeamish to dried baby kid or lamb stomachs lying around, sorry.

It is kind of odd that milk and rennet created by the same animal, there must be a biological reason for that . . .

Congrats on the fresh milk supply, very envious, I just googled Maltese Cheese and main one appears to be gbejniet, that's interesting as it's the same word used in Lebanon & Syria for a Cheese so must be common to the area.

[Tea]

This is the cheese that she taught me to make.  They are then tuned into pastizzi's and ravioli, and we have come to just adore them.

When I went there on Thursday, she had what looking like mushrooms in big bottles.  I asked her what she was doing with them.  She told me that they were pepper cheese, and that she had already given away over a dozen bottles, and that at the moment she couldn't keep up supply to people wanting them.  She then tool me around the corner of the house and there she had dozens of cheese drying on racks.  Simply amazing.

[Cheese Head]

Tea, wow, if you go again can your take and post the rest of us a few pictures please, also would be great to get a recipe and tricks and traps, if you can , pretty please.

Had to look up pastizzi's.

[SalMac]

Cheese Head I remebered Rennet is critical to Milk digestion from school here from Wikipedia:

Rennet is a natural complex of enzymes produced in any mammalian stomach to digest the mother's milk, and often used in the production of cheese. Rennet contains a proteolytic enzyme (protease) that coagulates the milk, causing it to separate into solids (curds) and liquid (whey). The active enzyme in rennet is called chymosin or rennin (EC 3.4.23.4) but there are also other important enzymes in it, e.g., pepsin or lipase. There are non-animal sources for rennet substitutes.

[Cheese Head]

Thanks SalMac, so rennet is required in the calf's stomach to digest the mother's milk, makes sense that that's why it's there.

Just not sure why separation of curds and whey in calfs stomach is required for digestion.

[SalMac]

Now that is a really good q. From an evolutionary standpoint it doesnt make much sense to have that extra step required to digest what your mothers trying to feed you with!

[bec1986]

i can answer a litle bit of the rennet and calf question. the rennet in the calfs stomach separates the solids and liquids as previously stated, from there the liquid is passed into the intestines to be absorbed while the solids are further broken down (could drawl on about the four stomaches in a cow but only one works in a young milk fed calf and thats the reason for the extra step in digestion but thats a very long story and a calf only runs on 1 stomach alone for a week or so before the others start to kick in). milk as a whole (not curds and whey) is extreemly irritating to a calfs intestines and if overfed milk can spill over into them causing extreem diahorrea, dehydration and death within a day. its fixed by taking off milk feed and giving electrolytes in water to rehydrate for a day then adding rennet or junket tablets to the first feed of milk after treatment can help out. a calf on its mother feeds small amounts every hour or less and its never really a problem but in hand raised calves fed once a day it is the major cause of mortality sometimes up to 16%.
well thats what it does and doesnt do in some cases, hope that helps with the reason its there

[Cheese Head]

Thanks bec1986, I knew there had to be an evolutionary reason for it, thanks for taking time to explain !

[Tea]

Bec thanks for this.  Very informative, and helpful when hand feeding calves, now that I understand the process better.
Many thanks.

[bec1986]

its stuff you get to know very quickly when raising calves, im very lucky from 20 ive only lost 1  :'( . it was a pretty calf so im salt drying the hide to work into a rug when i get the chance.

[NANCYKROGH]

hi ,
we made a LOT of swiss cheese and we used the  new  zealand calves rennet in the p[owder form.
we made around 75-90 pounds of milk into cheese and we used 2 tablespoons dissolved in water , we used a culture and we put that in fiurst , let it ripen and then we added the rennet, let it sleep for 30 -45 minutes and then we  cut the curds ( takes about 10-15 minute s) , then we began to expell the whey.............. and so on.
but the new zealand rennett was the best !