Flower children: vegetarian cheeses with vegetable rennet

The production of cheese is always obtained from a coagulation due to the presence of a binding substance that can be of animal, microbial, or plant origin. In all cases, we are talking about rennet and the first coagulation of milk is precisely defined as curd. Rennet can be of three types: animal rennet, which is extracted from the stomach linings of calves, kids, or lambs; microbial rennet, obtained from fungi and molds often genetically modified; plant rennet: which is the new frontier of recent years and is obtained from the extraction of flowers from wild mountain plants. The most famous of these flowers is certainly the Cynara Cardunculus, the Thistle. The Thistle is a plant that belongs to the family of artichokes and is also conventionally called wild artichoke. It is a plant that can be found in good quantities, especially in central and southern regions, but it can also be found in some pre-Alpine pastures with not excessively cold climates.

Cheeses with vegetable rennet

With this type of rennet, Spaghetti & Mandolino presents some cheeses: Scimudin, Pan di Pan, Toma di Cascina, Caciotta di capra, Lessino di capra, and Genziana di capra. The cheeses obtained with vegetable rennet are always particularly creamy, with a pleasant freshness. Among other cheeses made with vegetable rennet, we remember the Caciofiore from the Roman countryside (Slow Food Presidio) and the Sicilian cheeses from Capra Girgentana that use fig and wild fennel rennet.

Dear friends be very careful! Many times cheese is sold to us as cheese made with vegetable rennet, even cheese produced with rennet derived from fungi. This is not vegetable rennet! It is microbial rennet that is used for mass production and has nothing to do with extracts from thistle, artichoke, fig, or wild fennel. Many times, moreover, these microbial rennets are of dubious origin and may come from genetically modified products.

Cheeses with vegetable rennet? Cheeses also for vegetarians

Using vegetable rennet means allowing even vegetarians to eat cheeses that do not contain elements from animal flesh and this is helping to increase the distribution of these products. From a qualitative point of view, they promote the quality of creamy-textured cheeses, slightly tangy, with a pleasant sensation of freshness and floral aroma. Regarding vegetable rennet cheeses, Slow Food is proposing a true community. It is not just a food trend factor but means safeguarding ancestral products that could otherwise disappear. Today experimentation is also trying to produce more and more hard cheeses, more aged.

Bernardo Pasquali