CHEM 181 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Cheese Curd, Cottage Cheese, Fermentation Starter

• School: McGill University
• Department: Chemistry
• Course: CHEM 181
• Professor: Ariel Fenster

Document Summary

People kept milk/dairy in iron pots in which case acidity can develop. The milk started coagulating and producing something that we would call cheese today. (oldest remnant of cheese) Cheese as we know it goes back 5000 years or so. A trader carried milk in the stomach of an animal (cow/calf) and he noticed that the milk had solidified. Milk contains water, lactose, fat, protein and minerals. A protein in milk known as casein micelles are suspended in milk. The alpha and beta caseins are trapped in a ball of kappa casein and to release the curds, you have to break down the kappa casein. Starter culture - microorganisms or even acid that breaks down the kappa casein to release the micelles that are in suspension. Now that the protein have coagulated, we have the curds. The liquid that is left behind is whey.