Making cheese is something I wanted to do for years. I wanted to be able to make my own cheese from whole, natural milk for a good, wholesome food for us to eat. We have long tried to minimize the additives and chemicals in our diet. That doesn't mean we don't like pizza, green bean casserole, lasagna, potato chips and Cheetos sometimes, but as a general rule we try to eat fairly healthy.
After I had made cheese for a while, I decided to research how to make rennet. I knew from some past reading that natural animal rennet is made from the stomach of a newborn calf. Well, I don't have any calves and even if I did, I don't really want to butcher a newborn for his stomach.....unless I really needed to.
This information prompted more research. What I found made me upset and depressed. Almost all (depending upon what you read, about 90%) commercially made cheese in the United States is made from GMO (genetically modified organism) rennet. I was appalled!! Even when you try to buy the most basic ingredients and cook a healthy meal for yourself, you unknowingly get to consume more GMO.
So, with a little more research, I have found that some companies sell imported rennet that is not GMO based. This is the rennet I use in our cheese. Knowledge gives us more control over our lives and decisions.
I sometimes find it disheartening that our food and water is laced with so many chemicals that have been proven to damage the human body. It is impossible to eliminate them all in this day and time, but it doesn't hurt to try. We find the more we educate ourselves, the better choices we are able to make. And in the process of doing so, we not only take more control of how we treat our bodies, but we take responsibility for the choices we make.
Until next time - Fern
I did not know that! Ever just feel like we can't win with this whole GMO issue ?
ReplyDeleteHi CQ,
DeleteIt takes a lot of attention to detail to find out some information. I had no idea until I wanted to find out how rennet was made. Aren't you glad you raise your own food and save your own seeds?
Take care,
Fern
Well, this is disheartening news. Having found a steady supply of goat milk from a neighbor, I have just started making cheese (chevre, from your recipe). Who is your source for the non-GMO rennet?
ReplyDeleteHi Arizona,
DeleteThe links in the next to the last paragraph on the words 'research' and 'companies' both go to places that sell non-GMO rennet.
I also found it very disheartening when I first found out. I was thankful there are sources of rennet that are not genetically modified. Sometimes research really pays off.
Best of luck with your cheese!
Fern
I have been through the same investigation here in Australia, although I have not been successful in finding a non-GMO source of rennet. I'm not so worried about the GMO status as its a product that is extracted from the bacteria, rather than the rennet being GMO itself, and I understand that its much cheaper and easier to mass-produce bacteria than to extract the rennet from baby calves. I too would find it hard to kill one of our calves just to harvest their rennet, but I did a cheese-making course a while ago and the teacher had tried it with a baby kid, and it had worked. I suppose if you were desperate for rennet it would be good to know how to do it. I have also thought about trying some of the plant based options, but I haven't done so yet. It is very difficult to make an ethical choice even when you're making everything yourself!
ReplyDeleteI hope to be able to do hard cheese one day...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great information and sharing it with us at the HomeAcre Hop!
Sandra