Post Punk Kitchen Forum

So, I picked up some vegeren vegan rennet stuff a while back, as it was on sale for 5p, and I thought I could try some kind of epic cheese making extravaganza. Now, it has taken me some time, but I think I'm ready.

Halloumi is probably one of the only things that I can think of that there's no real vegan version of, and it is also one of the simplest cheeses to make anyhow, so that's a bonus.

Anyhow, I thought of veganizing this recipe: http://cheesemakinghelp.blogspot.com/20 ... loumi.html Be warned, there are some images of dairy products on there, so don't click if you don't want to see that.

Do you think it would work if I straight up subbed the dairy milk for non-dairy milk (I was thinking soy, as it tends to be the creamiest) or should I start with some kind of nut milk/cream?

Any imput would be kindly appreciated, as if I can pull it off, it would be pretty sweet!

I guess this experiment lives or dies according to whether the milk will curdle when you add the rennet. What I've read from people who experimented with curdling plant milks is that soy milk curdles most. You could try adding the rennet to small samples of a number of milks, to see which would give you the best result.

But basically, if you curdle soy milk, you get... tofu! Right? I think this recipe for tofoumi looks kind of nice. The author says it is made from home made tofu.

Dude! I really didn't think about that. I guess I would essentially be making tofu if I use soy milk. D'oh.

That recipe does look yummy, though.

The nice thing about homemade tofu is that you can add flavors when you make it so they're inside the tofu rather than on the outside! If you have a soymilk maker it's very easy - just add the coagulant to hot soymilk, let it sit, then press out the water. If you don't have a soymilk maker I would just soak beans, boil them in water for a few minutes and immersion blend the whole thing, strain it and add coagulant, then pour that off into a cheesecloth-lined colander, take the cheesecloth-tofu bag and put it in a tofu xPress, then twist the cheesecloth, add the tofu xpress lid, and press it into a block. If I mix things into the tofu I usually do it between the straining and pressing.

Homemade hemp milk is high enough in protein that it might work too, though I'd guess the taste would turn out a bit grassy. It would be interesting to see if the rennet did anything to a cashew milk/cream but I'm guessing the protein content might be too low. If you really want to get experimental, you could start with a cashew milk or cream and then mix in soy protein powder before adding the rennet and see what happens.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm gonna have a think/play to see what will curdle and go from there.

I wish you luck with this experiment and look forward to your results!

Necromancius threadorecto!

Did you have any luck with the vegeren? I just impulse-bought some. I'm going to make two batches of seed cheese, one with the rennet and one without and see what happens.

This came up eons ago on the old boards, and from what I recall it didn't work. Chymosin cleaves a specific peptide bond in casein, so just throwing a different protein at whichever enzymes are in vegetarian rennet (aspartyl protease, apparently) won't give you the same results.

I chucked in a little bit of wheat gluten in with the vegeren batch, because I read somewhere that it is a similar molecule. That might be fiction, though. Oh well, it was really cheap.

Incidentally, I got some vegeren on my finger by accident and it is delicious.

It seems like the grassy hemp milk (plus gluten?) would make the best halloumi - it wouldn't just be tofu and halloumi is kind of grassy anyway. I would love some veagnized halloumi! Pan-fried halloumi, I miss you! Maybe one of the Artisan Vegan Cheeses would work?