rennet

You can tell whether or not a cheese contains animal rennet: if the list of ingredients contains the word "enzymes," it uses animal rennet, unless it specifically states otherwise. For example, many cheeses produced by Cabot specifically state, "Contains no animal rennet."

Ren"net (r?n"n?t), n. [F. rainette, reinette, perhaps fr. raine a tree frog, L. rana, because it is spotted like this kind of frog. Cf. Ranunculus.] Bot.

A name of many different kinds of apples. Cf. Reinette.

Mortimer.

© Webster 1913.

Ren"net, n. [AS. rinnan, rennan, to run, cf. gerinnan to curdle, coagulate. 11. See Run, v.]

The inner, or mucous, membrance of the fourth stomach of the calf, or other young ruminant; also, an infusion or preparation of it, used for coagulating milk.

Cheese rennet. Bot. See under Cheese. -- Rennet ferment Physiol. Chem., a ferment, present in rennet and in variable quantity in the gastric juice of most animals, which has the power of curdling milk. The ferment presumably acts by changing the casein of milk from a soluble to an insoluble form. -- Rennet stomach Anat., the fourth stomach, or abomasum, of ruminants.

© Webster 1913.