Assessment of swine, bovine and chicken pepsins as rennet substitutes for Cheddar cheese-making

Abstract

Summary Three enzymes were assessed as rennet substitutes for cheese-making. The bovine and chicken pepsins used were relatively crude extracts of bovine stomach mucosa and chicken proventriculae respectively; the swine pepsin was a partially purified commercial product. The ratios of milk-clotting activity to general proteolytic activity were high for rennet and bovine pepsin and low for swine and chicken pepsins. Both bovine mucosa and chicken stomach gave low milk-clotting activities compared with calf stomach. For all the enzymes the chemical reactions causing milk clotting appeared to be the same. The milk-clotting activity showed a decrease with increase in substrate pH for all the enzymes, although they were all still active at pH 6·81. Duplicate cheeses were made from each of the swine, bovine and chicken pepsins, with rennet as a standard in each trial. The cheese-making process was similar with each enzyme, but differences appeared during ripening. The chicken-pepsin cheeses had poor body and weak Cheddar-cheese flavour, with many and intense off-flavours. The cheeses made with bovine and swine pepsins were only slightly inferior in quality and intensity of Cheddar-cheese flavour to the rennet cheeses. From a simulated cheese-making experiment it was concluded that 30–40 % of the added rennet, bovine pepsin and chicken pepsin was probably inactivated during the cheese-making process and that most or all of the swine pepsin was lost. These results provide an explanation for the variations observed in cheese ripening. It was concluded that chicken pepsin would not prove a suitable rennet substitute for making Cheddar cheese because of the quality of the cheese produced, and that bovine pepsin would not prove suitable because of the cost of preparing a suitable extract. Swine pepsin would appear to be suitable if the ripening time were to be lengthened or if another enzyme were to be added to assist ripening; it is cheaper than rennet and other rennet substitutes.