Cheese and Rennet

I learned some interesting information recently about cheese and how it is made. I will put the introduction on here along with a link to more information. This stuff is so fascinating. Please read on.

Introduction

Cheese is made by coagulating milk to give curds which are then separated from the liquid, whey, after which they can be processed and matured to produce a wide variety of cheeses. Milk is coagulated by the addition of rennet. The active ingredient of rennet is the enzyme, chymosin (also known as rennin). The usual source of rennet is the stomach of slaughtered newly-born calves. Vegetarian cheeses are manufactured using rennet from either fungal or bacterial sources. Advances in genetic engineering processes means they may now also be made using chymosin produced by genetically altered micro-organisms.

for more info: http://www.vegsoc.org/info/cheese.html