English

Process of making Cheddar cheese

Process of making Cheddar cheese

Introduction

There are many varieties of cheese produced all around the world. It is mainly due to the ingredients used in making of it. Raw milk is used in production of cheese. It is available in different flavors and textures. [1] In order to have variety of cheese, uncooked milk is given a mild heat treatment before cheese making. It is done to destroy some of the spoilage organisms for providing better quality of cheese. It is necessary that 60 days should be given to the cheese made from raw milk in order to minimize the disease causing pathogens that may be existing in the milk. Cheddar cheese is a hard, color ranging from pale yellow to off-white and sometimes kept sharp in taste. Ti is produced in many countries around the globe. It is originated in the English village named as Cheddar in Somerset. The art of making cheese originated way back at least 4,000years.

Discussion

In United Kingdom cheddar cheese is the most popular cheese. It is about 51% of the country's £1.9 billion annual cheese market. The Cheddar Gorge Cheese Co. is the only company in the United Kingdom which is producing cheddar cheese. [3] Cheese is mainly categorized as rennet or acid cheese and processed or natural cheese. Acid is added to milk for making of Acid cheese it is done to cause the proteins to get thicker. Direct acidification is done to make fresh cheese like queso fresco or cream cheese. For making cheddar cheese rennet is additionally used to the starter cultures of milk thicker. Natural Cheese is an industrial term used for cheese that is produced directly from milk. In making of process cheese, natural cheese along with other necessary ingredients are cooked together to form a texture and increase storage life.

Making of cheese was originated from the nomadic herdsmen who use to store milk in vessels made from the goats, sheeps' stomachs. As the stomachs linings hold lactic acid along with bacteria as rennet helped in fermentation and coagulation of milk. In this way they were able to make cheese with no extra cost through traditional way. [9]

Types

There are many types of cheese found around the globe. [5] They are all grouped on the basis of the ageing length, texture, methods of making, animal milk, region of origin etc. Some of the well known types of cheeses are as follows:

1.Moisture content (soft to hard)

Firmness of cheese is a common but impractical. The content of cheese may lie between “soft”, “semi-soft”, “hard” and “semi hard”. The major factor that controls cheese content is moisture, which mainly depends on the pressure with which it is packaged into molds and due to aging time as well.

2. Fresh, whey and stretched curd cheeses

Cheeses are mainly categorized on the basis of their aging. Fresh cheese can be spoiled in a day if it does not have any additional preservatives.

3. Content

Cheese is also differentiated on the basis of the raw milk ...