Say cheese ( and avoid animal products)

http://www.vegsoc.org/page.aspx?pid=850

After reading the above article which mentions that Parmesan cheese has to be made with Animal rennet I popped a line to our reliable vegetarian Mastercheff Kurma dasa to find out the best whey to proceed.

Hb Kurma prabhu, i was surprised to learn that it is not possible to make
parmesan cheese suitable for vegetarians. I notice you include it in your
cookbooks and wondered if you were aware of this. According to the article
(see below) it is a protected species and must be made with rennet.
Mg das


HB Mg dasa!

Yes indeed, the Parmigiana Reggiano story...

All cheese needs rennet to become mature and hard, as you know.

It is a fact of course that the grana (hard) cheese made in Reggiano Region
of Italy called Parmigiana Reggiano ('Parmesan') is only legal if it is made
according to the 900+ -yr old recipe using calf rennet.

SO in Italy it is ILLEGAL to make 'real' Parmigiana with any other type of
rennet.

Anywhere else there is no such legality in place. It can physically be made
using any rennet, but the strict rules of Italian cheesemaking deem it
inferior and caste a wary eye on these attempts.

While I tested my cookbooks I found, in Melbourne Australia, a pure veg
rennet Parmesan from Argentina. It was excellent. That is no longer
available in Australia, but there are others that appear from time to time.
Some are terrible, some are fairly good (none as good as the real thing from
Italy).

You might have seen a blog recently of mine that gives ordering details for
the closest substitute for Parmigiano called Grana Padano - available in
Europe without any animal rennet. This cheese is the 'sister' of parmigiana
and is excellent. There are no such stringent rules in place for its
manufacture, but recently they have started adding egg-protein to the Padano
(region) Italian variety.

"You can find the blog post Kurmaji refers to here"
http://www.iskcon.net.au/kurma/2012/02/27 (mgd)

So wherever you live, search out one in your shops. Grana Padano is a great
substitute for parmigiana and is easier to find animal-rennet free than
parmigiana, but you might just come across one.

So it is a matter of perseverance.

Again, you need to search in your local area.

Hopes this sheds light.

dasa,

Kurma

website:
http://www.kurma.net/

blog:
http://www.iskcon.net.au/kurma/