Author Topic: Rennet - Ingredients  (Read 9805 times)

Missy

  • Guest
Rennet - Ingredients
« on: January 31, 2009, 02:31:37 PM »
I ordered some supplies through DC and some through cheesemaking.com.  Anyhow, I ordered my rennet through cheesemaking.com  I just received it yesterday and it has a list of ingredients like caramel color, sodium benezoate (that's bad) and "flavor" (that's really bad - usually code for MSG) and a few other things I didn't know what they were.  Anyhow, so disappointed.  Does any company sell 100% pure rennet w/o all that junk?  I am making my own cheese to give my family PURE foods, not junk.  Grrr. 

Offline Cartierusm

  • Old Cheese
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,874
  • Cheeses: 21
Re: Rennet - Ingredients
« Reply #1 on: January 31, 2009, 08:58:23 PM »
VERY good question missy. I really have no idea, but I would call around and if you don't I might. I would like to know this as well. It could be one of those things you might not be able to get away with as the rennet might break down without all the preservatives. Rennet powder though? John uses powder maybe he knows.

Cheese Head

  • Guest
Re: Rennet - Ingredients
« Reply #2 on: February 01, 2009, 10:00:24 AM »
It is a good question and up to know I assumed it was a pure 100% product, except for rennet in tablet form where understandably the manufacturer adds other ingredients as Chilipepper found to help form the tablet.

Missy, can you post a picture of your product?

The basic question is: Is 1) rennet not a pure product and thus is CheeseMaking.com being very honest about its' rennet's ingredients, or 2) is it a pure product and Cheesemaking.com selling a diluted product?

I've only bought two rennet's todate:

When you look at DairyConnection.com's webpage on rennet, they list three, with no real detail of ingredients other than addition of salt in one. Two of their products are named DCI rennet which I assume is from huge DCI Cheese Company that makes many North American Brands of cheese, but I couldn't find any info on rennet on their website.

Renco New Zealand's website has detailed info on their animal based rennet which says no deodorants or reoderants and looks very pure.

Danlac Canada's website looks like it resells Renco New Zealands rennet and has more info, listing reasonable additives of just salt and gelatin.

CHR Hansen manufacturer's website says their microbial based rennet product is 100% pure.

So in summary it looks like no-one has the long list of ingredients you have found Missy!
« Last Edit: February 01, 2009, 03:18:33 PM by Cheese Head/John »

wharris

  • Guest
Re: Rennet - Ingredients
« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2009, 01:55:58 PM »
Being a relative newbie, I've never really paid much attention to my rennet.  Missy did make me look into it a bit.  My gut says that Carter is right with the perservative part,  but as for flavor?  Jeez I dunno.  In the past, I've used both animal and vegetable rennet without much regard to rennet ingrediants or cheese application.  I get my rennet from Dairyconnection.com or Leeners (10 miles from my home.)


This thread, however,  is very timely as I read this last night: (yes, i have a stack of 'stuff' next to my bed to read at night)
"There is a range of animal, microbial and recombinant rennets to choose from... Calf rennet, high in chymosin, has beenused traditionally for Cheddar cheese production. The advantage of using a high chymosin content calf rennet is that the flavour and the texture of aged Cheddar are more predictable, with less bitterness. The same could be said for the recombinant chymosins. However,some customers have strong aversions to the use of genetically engineered ingredients in cheese. Some cheese manufacturers are now investigating the use of microbial rennets, which provide the added advantage of being suitable for Kosher, Halal and some vegetarian products. In addition, use of microbial rennets in Cheddar cheese production opens up the options for downstream whey products (whey protein concentrates, milk protein concentrates, etc.)."


While I have some questions about the genetic engineering aspects of the natural animal rennet, I do believe that I will be using that exclusively.

And btw,  my wife just looked over my shoulder as I type this.  This,  combined with my nightly readings... 
Well, I just got called a "cheese-nerd"   
Made me smile.

Missy

  • Guest
Re: Rennet - Ingredients
« Reply #4 on: February 01, 2009, 02:30:45 PM »
Here are the ingredients: Veal rennet, sodium chloride brine, acetate, propylene glycol, caramal color, flavor, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate.


wharris

  • Guest
Re: Rennet - Ingredients
« Reply #5 on: February 01, 2009, 02:38:56 PM »
I did find this:
and this:

Both are online books.  .

« Last Edit: February 01, 2009, 02:44:32 PM by Wayne Harris »

Cheese Head

  • Guest
Re: Rennet - Ingredients
« Reply #6 on: February 01, 2009, 03:14:23 PM »
Wayne thanks, good read, looks like applies to animal based rennet and looks similar to what Renco says on their website.

Also, just for side interest, Renco also have an info page that vegtable based rennet is fed to calves to aid digestion/reduce incidence of scouring and that previously calf based rennet was used, but stopped due to concerns of mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE).

No kidding.

I just looked at Cheesemaking.com where Missy says she got her rennet. Question to Missy, did you buy the animal based rennet or the vegtable (?) based rennet?

On Cheesemaking.com's animal based rennet, most of bottles looks like they have rebottled from larger container, and if you look at the 5 US gallon picture, you can see the brand name Cargill and product name as American SF-100 Veal Rennet. Cargill's website gives limited info on their different rennets, but I also found a Product Data Sheet for their American SF-100 Veal Rennet.

eVenom

  • Guest
Re: Rennet - Ingredients
« Reply #7 on: March 18, 2009, 06:27:38 PM »
well cheesemaking.com also sells organic rennet with has no added stuff and its supposed to be certified kosher