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By Harold McGee
Published 2004
The making and use of rennet was humankind’s first venture in biotechnology. At least 2,500 years ago, shepherds began to use pieces of the first stomach of a young calf, lamb, or goat to curdle milk for cheese; and sometime later they began to make a brine extract from the stomach. That extract was the world’s first semipurified enzyme. Now, by means of genetic engineering, modern biotechnology produces a pure version of the same calf enzyme, called chymosin, in a bacterium, a mold, and a yeast. Today, most cheese in the United States is made with these engineered “vegetable rennets,” and less than a quarter with traditional rennet from calf stomach (which is often required for traditional European cheeses).
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