Rennet is a complex set of enzymes produced in the stomachs of ruminant mammals. Chymosin, its key component, is a protease enzyme that curdles the casein in milk. In addition to chymosin, rennet contains other enzymes, such as pepsin and a lipase.
Camembert is a moist, soft, creamy, surface-ripened cow's milk cheese. It was first made in the late 18th century in Camembert, Normandy, in northwest France. It is sometimes compared in look, taste and texture to brie cheese, albeit with a slightly lower butterfat content than brie's typical 20% – 25% by weight.
Colby is a semihard orange cheese made from cow's milk. It is named after the city of Colby, Wisconsin, USA, where it was first developed in 1885 and quickly became popular. Today the cheese is typically used in snacks, sandwiches, and salads.
Cheesemaking is the craft of making cheese. The production of cheese, like many other food preservation processes, allows the nutritional and economic value of a food material, in this case milk, to be preserved in concentrated form. Cheesemaking allows the production of the cheese with diverse flavors and consistencies.
Emmental, Emmentaler, or Emmenthal is a yellow, medium-hard cheese that originated in the Emme valley, Switzerland. It is classified as a Swiss-type cheese.
Blue cheese is any of a wide range of cheeses made with the addition of cultures of edible molds, which create blue-green spots or veins through the cheese. Blue cheeses vary in taste from very mild to strong, and from slightly sweet to salty or sharp; in colour from pale to dark; and in consistency from liquid to hard. They may have a distinctive smell, either from the mold or from various specially cultivated bacteria such as Brevibacterium linens.
Acid-set or sour milk cheese is cheese that has been curdled (coagulated) by natural souring, often from lactic acid bacteria, or by the addition of acid. This type of cheese is technologically simple to produce.
Gubbeen Cheese is a surface ripened, semi-soft, cow's milk cheese with a pink and white rind. The flavours are creamy with mushroom and nutty aftertastes but vary depending on maturity of cheese. Gubbeen Farmhouse Products also produce a Smoked Gubbeen.
The manufacture of Cheddar cheese includes the process of cheddaring, which makes this cheese unique. Cheddar cheese is named for the village of Cheddar in Somerset in South West England where it was originally manufactured. The manufacturing of this cheese has since spread around the world and thus the name has become generically known.
Cheese is a type of dairy product produced in a range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk. During production, milk is usually acidified and either the enzymes of rennet or bacterial enzymes with similar activity are added to cause the casein to coagulate. The solid curds are then separated from the liquid whey and pressed into finished cheese. Some cheeses have aromatic molds on the rind, the outer layer, or throughout.
There are many different types of cheese. Cheeses can be grouped or classified according to criteria such as length of fermentation, texture, methods of production, fat content, animal milk, and country or region of origin. The method most commonly and traditionally used is based on moisture content, which is then further narrowed down by fat content and curing or ripening methods. The criteria may either be used singly or in combination, with no single method being universally used.
Propionibacterium freudenreichii is a gram-positive, non-motile bacterium that plays an important role in the creation of Emmental cheese, and to some extent, Jarlsberg cheese, Leerdammer and Maasdam cheese. Its concentration in Swiss-type cheeses is higher than in any other cheese. Propionibacteria are commonly found in milk and dairy products, though they have also been extracted from soil. P. freudenreichii has a circular chromosome about 2.5 Mb long. When Emmental cheese is being produced, P. freudenreichii ferments lactate to form acetate, propionate, and carbon dioxide
(3 C3H6O3 → 2 C2H5CO2 + C2H3O2 + CO2).
Eyes are the round holes that are a characteristic feature of Swiss-type cheese and some Dutch-type cheeses. The eyes are bubbles of carbon dioxide gas. The gas is produced by various species of bacteria in the cheese.
Berner Alpkäse is a hard cheese produced in the Alps of the Bernese Oberland and adjacent areas of Switzerland. It is classified as a Swiss-type or Alpine cheese, and is a spicy, full-fat, raw milk cheese without holes. The cheese is manufactured exclusively with manual labour, usually on a wood fire. An extra-hard variety of Berner Alpkäse, known as Berner Hobelkäse, is aged for at least two years and it is this variety that is most widely available. Both Berner Alpkäse and Berner Hobelkäse are certified as AOPs in Switzerland.
Swiss-type cheeses, also known as Alpine cheeses, are a group of hard or semi-hard cheeses with a distinct character, whose origins lie in the Alps of Europe, although they are now eaten and imitated in most cheesemaking parts of the world. Their distinct character arose from the requirements of cheese made in the summer on high Alpine grasslands, and then transported with the cows down to the valleys in the winter, in the historic culture of Alpine transhumance. Traditionally the cheeses were made in large rounds or "wheels" with a hard rind, and were robust enough for both keeping and transporting.
Quark or quarg is a type of fresh dairy product made from milk. The milk is soured, usually by adding lactic acid bacteria cultures, and strained once the desired curdling is achieved. It can be classified as fresh acid-set cheese. Traditional quark can be made without rennet, but in modern dairies small quantities of rennet are typically added. It is soft, white and unaged, and usually has no salt added.
Microbacterium gubbeenense is a Gram-positive, facultatively anaerobic, non-spore-forming and non-motile bacterium from the genus Microbacterium which has been isolated from the surface of a smear-ripened cheese in Ireland.
Enzyme-modified cheese (EMC) is a concentrated cheese flavour ingredient that is produced from cheese by treatment with enzymes such as proteases, lipases and esterases. An incubation period under controlled conditions is required for proper flavor development. These enzymes accelerate and intensify the ripening of cheese, which is normally done with enzymes released by an microbial culture. They may be added to during cheesemaking, after the cheese curds have been pressed, or even after the cheese has been naturally aged. EMCs were first made in the 1970s.
