I fiddled with fig trees, tapping them for their juices (not so easy) to make vegetable rennet to no avail. But all along, I had the answer growing right next to the fig tree, stinging me in fact. “Pick me, pick it” seemed to say with hairy outstretched arms waving in the air as I callously crushed it down with my boot.
Then I took a liking to Urtica Urens (the dwarf stinging nettles that grow well, like weeds around here) Perhaps, I should name my next daughter Urtica, what a glorious plant, the life blood of nature. A cleaner of swamps and garbage, fixer of 101 ailments from scratchy balls to milk flow to weak eyesight, the plant with the most iron that is not an animal, more vitamins than a health food multi-vitamin supplement (even more than super blue green algae). It's erotic and magic.
I was so excited to wake up yesterday morning and see that the nettle rennet that I made (boiled a large pan of washed stinging nettles with very little water for 20 minutes and used that juice with as much salt as it would dissolve) worked like a charm!
You make feta cheese as usual. Ha, as if this is usual for any of us anymore. (This from the house where I am curing bacon and grinding, spicing and stuffing casings for breakfast sausages today). Bring a half gallon of milk (goats, ewes or cows) to an almost boil and stir in a tablespoon of yogurt. Then add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice or white vinegar to separate the whey, and then stir in ¼ cup of liquid nettle rennet (if I had some cheese cultures, I would put them in to make other kinds of cheese) and then remove from the heat and let it set over night.
See the whey separating from the sides of the curds? It’s pretty tight for a homemade rennet. I cut them into cubes, waited for a bit and then added them to a strainer lined with cheese cloth, after four hours, the whey will be out (I can use the whey for the brine solution, and have enough to make buttermilk, and mayonnaise) After it's strained you will have a thick chunk of ricotta-like farmers cheese. You can slice it in cubes and store in a salt brine (whey and tablespoon of salt) or press it between two boards to get a firmer block of cheese. This site suggests letting it hang and then age before brining. Once it is in the brine (must have some acid, that is where the lemon juice or vinegar is important from the whey) it can last up to a year. For a detailed description with photos check out this tutorial on Feta making.
8 comments:
Riana that is fabulous ... the nettles grow in the blink of an eye, too, and I long to make a little cheese, rather than just dripped yoghurt cheese
Thanks for sharing
What part of the plant did you use? Stems? Leaves?
You are AWESOME!!!!!!!!!
I have read that nettles work as a vegetable rennet, so it is very nice to have some confirmation! I am working on starting my cheese making hobby, and live where there are plenty of nettles. We make kephir cheese, and I have made cottage cheese and ricotta, but I am soon going to try the more challenging mozzarella. I have some regular rennet on hand, so I can get started before the weeds poke up.
Hi, I just made cheese for the first time a couple of days ago and Laurie from Alaska sent me a link to your post.
I wish I knew this information before. My husband remembers another plant with thorns (I think it's called thistle) which his mother used to make rennet from and from artichokes.
http://kopiaste.blogspot.com/2008/04/say-cheese-or-better-halloumi.html
Thank you so much for this post! I had to plant my own stinging nettle because I cannot find it anywhere around our place. I use it mostly as a tea and medicinal plant. I had heard of using cleavers, or yellow bedstraw, as a rennet, but it did not work on it's own, and I did not have instructions for how to use it. Our new goats are kidding in January, I have some dried nettle leaves, I'll see if it works dried, the fresh nettle is already under the snow.
I tried this yesterday, using the non-dwarf variety of Stinging Nettles that grow here in northern California--Urtica dioica--and the milk did not separate at all. I boiled 2 pounds of leafy nettles in very little water for half an hour, salted it to saturation, and added the same proportion as did to the goat's milk, and the milk just sat there. I may have shocked the yogurt culture and killed it -- but I don't think this would stop the curdling action of the "rennet". I won't be trying this plant again to make cheese!
perplexed- sorry it didnt work for you. sounds like a different kind of nettle and it could depend on many factors like too young of nettles, or already gone to flower. there are many things that can wrong cheese making. nettles have been used since the Romans, so its not anything new that i figured out.
Also with home-brewed extracts, it's difficult to know how much of the infusion to use or strength or saltiness or time or heat, because of the variability of its strength and the milk's acidity. Ultra pasteurized milk also doesnt work very well either.
good luck with your future cheese adventures!
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