FACTS: Kosher for Passover?

By Kara

So you're invited to a Passover seder, and you're a cheesemonger: can you bring your favorite wedge to the seder? This simple question and the "Facts" heading on this post belie the complexities of kosher-for-passover cheeses.

For one thing, cheese is one of the few edible substances not built into the already filling seder meal. More controversial is the presence of our old friend rennet, which is often made from the stomach linings of cows and other animals (see our original rennet post here). Because rennet consists of enzymes harvested from the gut of an animal, rather than consisting of actual animal flesh, it is not considered a "meat product," and is therefore exempt from kosher laws prohibiting the mixing of milk and meat (phew!). However, in order to access this non-meat product, you still have to slaughter the animal host - so in order to get kosher rennet, both the animal involved, and the method of slaughtering, must be certifiably kosher. Different families will be more or less careful about checking on the kosher status of the rennet used in specific cheeses - but around Passover especially, better safe than sorry. There is also the possibility that a cheese has been exposed to environments that are not up to Passover standards, or that the cheesemaker has added vinegar to the product (which must also be certified kosher), or that the mold in your favorite cheese (e.g., if you like a good bleu) has been grown on bread.

There has been a recent push for reliably certified kosher-for-passover cheeses, which sound pretty yummy. (Check out Kosher Blog for some suggestions, especially if you're in the Boston area.) And there is a slew of traditional Passover meals that contain cheese (though it's probably best not to bring these dishes unsolicited).

But in the end, even if you found a delicious hunk of kosher cheddar, you still couldn't serve it with proper crackers. The conclusion: stick with the Manischewitz next year.

Sources:

- Wikipedia: "Kosher foods"

- Askmoses.com: "Why do dairy products require kosher certification for Passover?"

- About.com: "Passover dairy mains"

FACTS: A Cow's Milk + Its Fourth Stomach = Cheese

By Erica

Both Kara and I (and probably the majority of you out there), thought that all you needed to make cheese was milk. There is, however, a second ingredient that is necessary: rennet. Rennet is collection of enzymes that mammals (that means you!) have in their stomachs to digest milk. In the cheese making process, it is what causes milk to split into curds and whey (Little Miss Muffet, &c &c). Today, about 60% of cheese produced in the US is made with genetically engineered rennet, but this was not always the case. Cheese, The Making of Wisconsin Tradition by Jerry Apps (a lovely little piece of propaganda "Courtesy of the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board," and my reading material on the bus to work), tells me that in the 1800s, when cheese making was still a domestic chore, rennet was made by combining six gallons of water, loads of salt, 12 calf's stomachs "half emptied, rinsed, and salted", six lemons, and an ounce of cinnamon cloves. It was stored for around a year before it was used.

Most people would probably prefer that their cow stomach's were not involved in the making of their cheese, or at least that they didn't know about it. The Vegetarian Society writes that "The usual source of rennet is the stomach of slaughtered newly-born calves," and advocates for the use of other sources of rennet, like fungus, bacteria, or a petri dish. But there's something intriguing to me about getting the milk and rennet from the same source. It seems more natural. When you eat cheese made with cow rennet, it's like you're eating something that, more or less, exists already in a cow's fourth stomach somewhere.
























Moo.