Culture Magazine

52 culturecheesemag.com BEGINNINGS 2024 2. RENNET 3. COAGULATION 4. SALTING (PT. 1) Makers submerge abomasum in salt water. Salty rennet is added to salty milk, separating it into curds and whey. Curds are salted to balance pH and expel moisture. T raditionally, milk is separated into curds and whey using animal rennet. To make this essential ingredient, the dried and cleaned fourth stomach (abomasum) of a young calf is sliced into pieces and submerged in salt water, then left to rest for several days. "Salt is added solely to preserve the coagulating power of rennet long term," says Trevor Warmedahl, a researcher who studied rennet on a Daphne Zepos Teaching Endowment in 2022. This isn't necessary if you're making rennet every day, though—most artisanal rennet production Warmedahl witnessed forewent the salt bath in favor of more frequent production. Salt in Rennet Making: True Beginnings Salt Rules W hile American frontiersmen are free to use anything from Maldon to Morton in their makes, European makers are often governed by strict consortium rules dictating salt type, origin, and size. Le Gruyère AOP, for instance, must be made with salt under .25mm grain size hailing from the Bex Salt Mines in the Vaud Alps. "Switzerland's salt was gifted to us by the primordial ocean that evaporated 200 million years ago," says Denis Kaser, Head of International Marketing for Le Gruyère AOP, "[leaving] behind layers of salt up to 164 feet thick in the Swiss Plateau." Le Gruyère AOP also requires that brine baths remain at a consistent 22 percent salinity level. Wheels must be salted daily in their first eight to 12 days, then rubbed with salted water "to induce the forming of a crust-like rind," according to AOP regulations. Makers rarely stray from this, nor would they want to. According to Kaser, these rules "let the milk do the talking." Inside Switzerland's Bex Salt Mines. PHOTO: Rennet: Alexander Pomper; Bex Salt Mines: Cherry/Adobe Stock; Illustrations: Avram Dumitresco

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