The Art Of Cheesemaking: A Variety Of Techniques

Cheese is a dairy product made from milk, cultures, coagulants, and salt. The specific strains of microbes added to the milk play an important role in giving each variety of cheese its distinct flavour. The type of milk, geographical location, the animal's diet, the cheese-making process, and the duration of aging are some of the factors that determine the characteristics of the cheese.

The cheesemaking process can be broken down into the following steps: preparing the milk, acidifying the milk, curdling the milk, cutting the curd, processing the curd, draining the whey, cheddaring the cheese, salting the cheese, shaping the cheese, and aging the cheese.

The different types of cheese can be categorised based on texture, flavour, age, region, and preparation method. The eight varieties of cheese are blue, hard, pasta filata, processed, semi-hard, semi-soft, soft, and soft-ripened.

Milk sources

Cow's Milk

Cow's milk is the most commonly used source for cheesemaking due to its wide availability and optimal fat and protein content. It serves as the base for a variety of cheeses, including Swiss, Cheddar, Gouda, and many others. Cow's milk is also often used in mass-produced mozzarella, though traditional mozzarella is made with buffalo milk.

Sheep's Milk

Sheep's milk is not typically consumed as a beverage due to its high lactose content. However, it is highly valued for cheesemaking, lending a distinctive flavour to cheeses such as Roquefort, Feta, Petit Basque, and Manchego.

Goat's Milk

Goat's milk adds a tangy flavour to cheeses such as Le Chevrot and French Bucheron. Goat milk cheese is also known as "chevre."

Buffalo Milk

Buffalo milk is the traditional choice for mozzarella, though it is less commonly used in mass-produced varieties.

Other Milk Sources

Even more obscure types of milk can be used for regional specialty cheeses. For example, camel's milk is used to make caravane cheese in Mauritania. Other cheeses can be made from the milk of horses or even yaks.

Curdling

Once the milk has started to gel, cheesemakers cut it with long knives, allowing the whey to come out. Drier cheeses are cut more to form smaller curds, so more moisture is released, while curds that are cut less are larger and moister. After cutting, the curds are stirred and heated to release even more whey.

Processing the Curd

The next step is to process the curd by cooking, stirring, or both. The heat and stirring motion further separate the curds and whey and make the cheese drier. The curd may also be processed by washing, which involves replacing some of the whey with water. This affects the cheese's flavour and texture, making it more elastic and mildly flavoured. Examples of washed curd cheeses include Gouda, Havarti, and Swedish fontina.

Draining the Whey

Once the curds and whey are sufficiently separated, the whey is drained, leaving only the solid chunks of curd. For harder cheeses that require a lower moisture content, this can be done using a mould or press, which forces out more whey.

Cheddaring the Cheese

After draining the whey, the curd slabs are cut into sections and stacked, which puts pressure on them and forces out more moisture. This step is repeated, cutting and restacking the slabs until the desired moisture level is reached. Fermentation also continues during this process.

Draining and pressing

Once the whey has been drained, the curd should form a large slab. For some cheeses, another step is required to remove even more moisture from the curd. This step is known as cheddaring. The cheesemaker cuts the curd mat into sections and stacks the individual slabs of curd. This process is repeated, cutting and stacking the curd slabs multiple times to remove as much whey as possible. The longer this process goes on, the denser and more crumbly the finished cheese will be.

Salting and brining

Cheesemakers might either salt their cheese or brine it in a salt solution. For example, mozzarella is soaked in brine, whereas cheddar is salted.

Salt is added to most cheeses, but the type of salt used is important. Cheesemakers tend to use non-iodized salt or cheese salt. Iodine can affect the cheese's flavour and texture.

Aging

During aging, molecular changes cause the cheese to harden and the flavour to intensify. The aging process can take anywhere from a few days to many years. In general, the longer the cheese ages, the more complex the flavours become.

Surface-ripened cheeses are not sealed off on the outside, so a natural rind develops with the help of bacteria. This process causes the cheese to age from the outside in. Brie and Muenster are two examples of surface-ripened cheeses.

The aging process also encourages the development of different types of mould. Red mold cheeses, such as French Morbier, Reblochon and taleggio, are rinsed with a liquid such as wine or brine and stored in a humid environment. White mold cheeses, such as brie, are created by spraying or rubbing a white penicillin mold onto the aging cheeses. Blue cheeses, such as Roquefort, have mold spores added during the cheesemaking process, and the mold is encouraged to grow and spread by poking air tunnels into the cheese.

Aged cheeses usually have more complex and deep flavours, and the interaction of compounds formed during the aging process produces a nuanced taste that cheese enthusiasts enjoy.

Frequently asked questions