How cheese is made
How cheese is made
The chemistry of the cheese-making process.
© American Chemical Society (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Transcript
SPEAKER 1: Cheese is made from milk. Sometimes that milk comes from cows, but in some parts of the world, it comes from sheep, goats, or other breeds. But its primary starting from milk. Most times, they will add starter culture to it, which are bacteria, to it. When they get added to the milk fat and the temperature is warm and there is lots of sugar around for them to ferment on, they will start to grow and ferment
on this lactose in there. They will start to increase in numbers. They will double, divide, and grow, produce more acid, and that's what we want in this cheese-making process. We want them to grow and produce some acid to drop the pH down. But their primary reason to be there is that they can ferment lactose.
Now there are other cultures out there that don't ferment lactose, and they're not that valuable in this process to ferment. Because they wouldn't use the sugar, because that's the only primary sugar in milk, is lactose. The other thing that's added often, too, for some varieties is some color to give it a stronger red color, or yellow color to it.
And the other thing that's-- the last ingredient that's usually added is what is called a rennin enzyme, which is historically extracted from calves. And that is the enzyme that actually clots milk and helps create the cheese. But they are the only ingredients that we use for it.
Main steps in cheese making are, nowadays, we pasteurize the milk. But historically they would not have pasteurized the milk. Next step, they would add a starter culture to it, which will be the thing that will ferment the lactose-- the sugar, milk sugar-- to lactic acid. After that they will add the rennin enzyme, which will be the enzyme that clots the milk protein and allows it to form this gel. Once this gel has formed, and it usually doesn't take more than 10 to 30 minutes for it to gel, the cheesemaker will cut it into cubes with a knife or a harp, or some blade.
Once that sample has been cut, they will stir it. And once they think they have enough acid developed in this milk by the starter culture, they will remove the whey, or drain it, to a sieve or screen or some belt or something. And all actions from there on are trying to get some more whey or water out of these curd particles to make them a lower moisture product so it will have a longer shelf life, rather than go spoiled very quickly within hours or days, which it would have historically done.
Then, depending on the variety, they will either chop it up into pieces and add dry salt to it, or, in some varieties like Swiss and other cheeses, they will take the cheese and put it into a tank of salt. We call it brine solution. And it will sit in that brine solution for either hours or days, depending on the variety.
Once that process is done, the cheese now is stored in some room, cave, or some environment where it will stay for days, weeks, months, years, depending on the variety. Sometimes we will package it with some plastic wrap or vacuum pack to remove oxygen. Sometimes we will put a wax on the outside. Otherwise it will dry out.
So here in this lab, we have several different approaches for testing cheese. One is compositionally testing what's in there, whether it's just how much fat, how much protein, how much salt, things like that are present in it. But there's also analytical for what type of flavor compounds are present. Are they the right type of flavor compounds for the cheese? Is the concentration too low, too high, for this nice flavor we expect in this particular variety? So that's another type of testing we do.
And other testing we do is how well it performs, or the texture is looking like, for example, for melt or stretch or some performance like that. Because a lot of cheese is used in pizzas, hamburgers, lasagnas, in all sorts dishes. What we do is we actually use rheology equipment, which is very similar to what they use in chemical engineering departments. We actually study what the mechanical properties are of these cheeses when they're heated. We use these kind of tests for all different types of cheeses.
on this lactose in there. They will start to increase in numbers. They will double, divide, and grow, produce more acid, and that's what we want in this cheese-making process. We want them to grow and produce some acid to drop the pH down. But their primary reason to be there is that they can ferment lactose.
Now there are other cultures out there that don't ferment lactose, and they're not that valuable in this process to ferment. Because they wouldn't use the sugar, because that's the only primary sugar in milk, is lactose. The other thing that's added often, too, for some varieties is some color to give it a stronger red color, or yellow color to it.
And the other thing that's-- the last ingredient that's usually added is what is called a rennin enzyme, which is historically extracted from calves. And that is the enzyme that actually clots milk and helps create the cheese. But they are the only ingredients that we use for it.
Main steps in cheese making are, nowadays, we pasteurize the milk. But historically they would not have pasteurized the milk. Next step, they would add a starter culture to it, which will be the thing that will ferment the lactose-- the sugar, milk sugar-- to lactic acid. After that they will add the rennin enzyme, which will be the enzyme that clots the milk protein and allows it to form this gel. Once this gel has formed, and it usually doesn't take more than 10 to 30 minutes for it to gel, the cheesemaker will cut it into cubes with a knife or a harp, or some blade.
Once that sample has been cut, they will stir it. And once they think they have enough acid developed in this milk by the starter culture, they will remove the whey, or drain it, to a sieve or screen or some belt or something. And all actions from there on are trying to get some more whey or water out of these curd particles to make them a lower moisture product so it will have a longer shelf life, rather than go spoiled very quickly within hours or days, which it would have historically done.
Then, depending on the variety, they will either chop it up into pieces and add dry salt to it, or, in some varieties like Swiss and other cheeses, they will take the cheese and put it into a tank of salt. We call it brine solution. And it will sit in that brine solution for either hours or days, depending on the variety.
Once that process is done, the cheese now is stored in some room, cave, or some environment where it will stay for days, weeks, months, years, depending on the variety. Sometimes we will package it with some plastic wrap or vacuum pack to remove oxygen. Sometimes we will put a wax on the outside. Otherwise it will dry out.
So here in this lab, we have several different approaches for testing cheese. One is compositionally testing what's in there, whether it's just how much fat, how much protein, how much salt, things like that are present in it. But there's also analytical for what type of flavor compounds are present. Are they the right type of flavor compounds for the cheese? Is the concentration too low, too high, for this nice flavor we expect in this particular variety? So that's another type of testing we do.
And other testing we do is how well it performs, or the texture is looking like, for example, for melt or stretch or some performance like that. Because a lot of cheese is used in pizzas, hamburgers, lasagnas, in all sorts dishes. What we do is we actually use rheology equipment, which is very similar to what they use in chemical engineering departments. We actually study what the mechanical properties are of these cheeses when they're heated. We use these kind of tests for all different types of cheeses.