Animal rennet
Rennet taken from the stomach of young calves, kids or lambs, the traditional way of setting milk.
Also: calf rennet, traditional rennet, kid rennet, lamb rennet
Animal rennet is the enzyme mixture found in the fourth stomach, the abomasum, of young ruminants that are still feeding on milk. Its main enzyme, chymosin, makes milk set into a firm, clean curd. Herders discovered it, most likely, by carrying milk in bags made from animal stomachs. Today it is extracted from the stomachs of calves slaughtered for veal, and from kids and lambs for some Italian and Greek cheeses, where a paste of the whole stomach adds lipase and a piquant flavour. Many protected cheeses, Parmigiano Reggiano among them, must use animal rennet. Because it comes from slaughtered animals, cheese made with it is not vegetarian, which matters greatly to buyers in India.