I want to make some homemade mozzeralla and I know that I need rennet but I am at a loss at how to obtain it. I also don't know which type I need out of the artifical or natural. Is there a way to make it for myself? My searches are turning up conflicting information and I am a little lost in the woods here.
asked Oct 15, 2010 at 21:56
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5 Answers
The easiest way where I live to get rennet is to buy Junket tablets at the grocery store. If they have it it's near the ice cream toppings. You can buy it online from the company. It's very cheap and although not 100% pure rennet it works just fine for the variety of cheeses I have made. The box of tablets comes with reliable recipes for a variety of cheeses and ice cream.
Online cheese making suppliers can sell you "higher quality" rennet that is much more expensive. This may make sense for you- especially if you are buying from them anyway for specialized bacteria or mold to make a particular cheese like swiss, etc. I can't recommend one in particular but they are easy to find.
You can make your own. I wouldn't recommend it. Rennet is an enzyme used by calves to digest their mother's milk. Historically, when a calf was slaughtered the correct stomach (I believe the first) would be chopped up and soaked for some time in water. The stomach was then removed and the water with dissolved rennet would be used to make cheese.
If you have access to a calf and have a tougher constitution than I you could certainly try this.
Nowadays rennet is mostly recombinantly produced. For those opposed to our genetically-modified-bacteria-friends non-recombinant rennet can be found. Vegetarian rennet derived from vegetables or mold with similar properties is also available. Recombinant is, of course, much less expensive.
answered Oct 15, 2010 at 22:11
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4+1 for knowing the oh-so-yummy origin of rennet. You have to wonder what joker figured that out...It doesn't work if the calf has had real food at any point. Commented Oct 16, 2010 at 0:09
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2@Satanicpuppy - instead of boiling a kid in it's mothers milk, someone must have stored the milk in the stomach of the formally nursing animal - possibly in a warm desert environment - in the days before glass or plastic bottles. Commented Jun 15, 2011 at 2:40
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4Stomachs (and bladders) were commonly used for storage of liquids in antiquity, so that explanation of rennet's discovery rings true. A lot of dairying processes were probably discovered in gross ways; I picture people saying (in whatever language they used in Sumeria) "ewww, that's all clumpy and smells weird... but I'm so hungry I might as well eat it!"– BobMcGeeCommented Sep 3, 2011 at 16:29
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You don't need to store milk in a stomach to make this discovery. If you slaughter a calf, milk will be in its stomach, right? Apparently it was a Roman delicacy to poach the innards with their partly-digested milk in place. It's a short step from that to getting fresh milk and exposing it to the saved raw stomach a few times to make the same creamy stuff. Commented Jun 13, 2014 at 14:29
Homebrewing beer is becoming more and more popular. Many cities have homebrew stores and many of those stores also carry cheesemaking ingredients (along with winemaking).
So, if you have a local homebrew/winemaking store, you might check to see if they also carry cheesemaking supplies.
As an example, my local Austin Homebrew Supply, and a similar Seattle homebrew store, Sound Homebrew Supply. Both of these companies allow online purchase, too... so you could source it from them if you don't have a local cheesemaking supplier.
I've gotten Junket rennet tablets from a popular mail-order supplier with free shipping if you order totals over $25 dollars. Probably not cheaper than local, but I've had no luck shopping locally.
answered Jun 15, 2011 at 2:36
If you have a WHOLE FOODS store they sell them there! I just bought some this weekend, they are in the baking aisle, if you can't find them ask a sales associate!
A few sites online, but i usually buy liquid rennet on E-Bay
