# do I have to use rennet?



## Tilly

I'm not currently milking and making cheese yet, but doing some very fun research for this fall after calving. The only cheeses we are really wanting to do are cottage cheese and mozzerella. All of this recipe search is giving me a headache!!! Some say use rennet, others say citric acid, lemon juice, another says vinegar. I clean with vinegar, so I always have it on hand. I would like to not add any other stuff to my grocery bill if possible, so will the vinegar work for the types of cheese I would like to do???? Or does it make a 'passable imitation' of the real thing???

Thanks
Tilly


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## Nessa's Nannies

Oh I do hope someone answers your question because I've always wondered about the feasability of making cheese out of store bought milk when compared to fresh milk. :baby04:


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## BarbG

I make cottage cheese with vinegar and I really like it. It's not a soft curd cottage cheese though. I was, until I got busy and had less milk, experimenting with my CC and trying to make it into a sliceable mott's substatute. I know that most CC will not melt but mine did. It was great instead of ricotta cheese with noodles and bacon. SO I guess mine was a mix between the two. If you want the recipe search under my name. I left the link in here somewhere. Good luck and have fun!! BarbG


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## Julia

Both Mozzarella and real cottage cheese require rennet. You can make a sort of Ricotta/Panir type cheese, like Barb said, using only vinegar and heat, but it's not really the same as cottage cheese. It may do, though.

And while some Mozz recipes call for the use of a food acid like vinegar to acidify the curd (instead of using a starter which produces lactic acid to do the same thing), they all require rennet. I don't know of anyway to make even an imitation Mozz without rennet. Sorry.

And as far as store bought milk vs. home produced, it takes a lot of milk to make even a pound of cheese. If you had to pay retail for the milk, it would be prohibitively expensive. 

And some store bought brands of milk are overprocessed to such a high temperature during pasteurization that it damages the proteins so much a cheesemaker can't get a proper curd to form. The only curd that forms from that milk is soft and extremely fragile, and that doesn't make good cheese. It's a trial and error thing to find out if your local brand will work---some do and some don't.


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## linn

Cottage cheese can be made without rennet. You simply add either 1/4 live-culture yogurt or 1/4 live-culture buttermilk and stir well. Let the milk set, covered, on the kitchen counter until clabbered, (the consistency of custard). My oven has a bread proofing setting that comes in handy for incubating milk in the winter. After the milk has clabbered, slowly heat while stirring until it forms curds. Heat until the curds are the consistency you wish. Drain curds, and rinse. Drain again and add salt if desired. You can either add cream and have creamy cottage cheese or just use the dry curds. Our great grandmothers never used rennet to make cottage cheese.

Here is a website from the extension service of the University of Missouri. It explains the process in more detail and may be confusing for someone just starting out. Hope this helps. Good luck with your cheese making.  
http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/agguides/agchem/g09550.htm


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## Julia

linn said:


> Cottage cheese can be made without rennet.


But not with goat's milk----the curd is too soft to cut. (My bias is showing.  )


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## linn

Sorry, Tilly. I thought you said something about calving. I assumed you meant cow's milk. I have never owned a goat so I don't know about working with goat's milk.


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## Julia

No, no---I meant it was my mistake in saying rennet is necessary because I always assume goat's milk. My bias was showing....


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## Tilly

Sorry, yes cows milk. There is simply wayyyy tooooo much info out there on the web to keep it all straight!!!! So, cottage cheese no rennet, mozz needs rennet. Soooooo, is there much difference between animal and vegetable rennet???


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## Julia

Tilly said:


> Soooooo, is there much difference between animal and vegetable rennet???


Only that animal rennet works much better than vegetable rennet, and has fewer off flavors in aged cheese.

If your concern about animal rennet is a vegetarian one, you should be aware that 95% of all animal rennet sold is made from bacteria and not mammals...if that matters to you.

And yes, cheesemaking is complex. Don't let anyone tell you different.


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## gryndlgoat

As far as cost goes, commercial rennet is a good deal. I bought a 2 oz bottle almost three years ago. A gallon of milk needs only one drop of rennet to make a good curd. That bottle of rennet (I believe it came to $7 with shipping) is still over half full and is still plenty active and still makes a lovely curd with only a drop. :dance: 
I keep it in the refrigerator in a foil-wrapped bottle. I have no idea how much longer it will last but it was worth the investment over the three year period I have had it.


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## Tilly

Not really a vegetarian issue, I just remember going out on the butcher truck with my dad growing up and there was one farm I would not go to because they always killed a calf to get veal and rennet among other things, totally made me sick to my stomach. I'm just a weeney.....maybe I just didn't understand what they were doing.


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## gerald77

i bought junket rennet tablets at the grocery store tonight for $1.35 for eight tablets. it was with the ice cream making stuff. 

kristin


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