MAKING OF CHEESE

MAKING OF CHEESE

Cheese is made from whole milk, partially or totally skimmed from cream. The phases of the described production process require a high level of experience, precision, and meticulous attention to details, and it is in fact the master cheesemakers who follow the production chain.

A fundamental part of cheese production is the choice of milk, which is a complex and complete product, as it contains protein, fat, lactose, mineral salts, vitamins. In particular, the milk that contains less fat and less protein is cow’s milk, while the more proteinic milk is goat’s milk, and the fatter milk is buffalo’s milk: these differences are then found in the different flavour balances of the resulting cheeses. Finally, the components of milk, even if they are of different milk sources, are always influenced by the animal’s diet, climate and environmental factors.

The first stages of milk treatment take place, albeit with small differences, for all types of cheese, from hard to soft cheeses, from washed-rind to soft-ripened. The production of the cheese begins with the pasteurization of the milk, that is a heat treatment to reduce bacteria harmful to our organism. Cheese that bear the PDO, such as the famous Parmigiano Reggiano, are usually not made with pasteurized milk, but raw milk, which will then be grafted with milk enzymes. The milk should not be too “clean” in terms of bacterial load, otherwise it will need to undergo a maturation process to facilitate fermentation. Before cheesemaking, the fat in the milk often is brought to the surface. Immediately afterwards the milk is poured into different recipients depending on the type of cheese, but the most typical container is the copper pot. Some cheeses, such as soft-ripened, washed-rind or blue, such as Gorgonzola, require the grafting of molds, generally some varieties of penicillium.

The production process here is divided into two macro categories, rennet or lactic curd cheeses.

The first are characterized by the coagulation of milk through rennet or other coagulating agents; later, through the sapient use of sharp instruments, the product, now called curd, is broken into granules, heated, and “extracted” (which means that the water is drained). Precisely at this point the curd is put into circular baskets called fuscelle that will give it the desired shape. Before ripening, the cheese must be skillfully salted according to the type of cheese, and then let stand for a very variable period, which may take from few hours to several months. Ripening is a very delicate process, but it is what gives the final physical and organoleptic characteristics.

Still Life with Cheese Bread

George Bouzianis, 1932

Lactic curd cheeses, on the other hand, do not contain coagulating agents, and the cheeses obtained are smaller because small containers are used; often these are spreadable cheeses or packaged in sealed packages. The sort of dough obtained by letting the milk stand in these small containers should not be broken into granules, but simply left to fall into small fuscelle. Finally, ripening lasts approximately 15-20 days, being fresh cheeses. This is also reflected in organoleptic differences, as in low-matured cheeses, enzymes do not have time to break down fats into fat acids, which give rise to a high aromaticity - typical of long-matured cheeses.