Raw milk contains lactic acid bacteria that are present in the environment of that farm. Raw milk is made from cow blood through mammary gland cells and is basically sterile. However, lactic acid bacteria contained in grass and bedding straw adhere to the udder and are mixed with raw milk during milking. These lactic acid bacteria strongly reflect the environment and seasons on the farm. Therefore, we planned to cultivate the lactobacilli in raw milk and use raw milk from the same dairy farm to make cheese unique to the farm.
We made Bacon Gouda cheese and Whey ricotta cheese. We will use some of the raw milk we used to make Gouda cheese by culturing the lactic acid bacteria contained in the raw milk.
The method is as follows,
1. Leave 300 cc of raw milk at a temperature of 24°C for 1 day, remove the cream layer floating on the surface, and leave it at the same temperature for about 3 days to make a kind of yogurt.
2. Add glucose to 50 cc of nonfat milk, add 10 cc of the yogurt made in step 1, and incubate at 24°C for 24 hours.
3. Add glucose to 50 cc of nonfat milk, add 10 cc of the yogurt made in step 2, and incubate at 24°C for 24 hours.
4. When it is confirmed that the resulting yogurt has a pH of 4.7 or less, add 240 cc of nonfat milk and glucose, add 60 cc of the resulting yogurt, and incubate at 24°C for 18 to 24 hours to confirm that the pH of the yogurt is 4.7 or less. This completes the bulk starter according to the farm environment where the raw milk was produced.
5. Make Gouda cheese by adding 300 cc of bulk starter to 15 L of raw milk.
Raw milk itself is made from cow blood through mammary gland cells and is basically sterile and contains no lactic acid bacteria.
Raw milk contains lactic acid bacteria because the lactic acid bacteria contained in grass and bedding straw in pastures adhere to the cow’s udder and enter the raw milk during milking. Therefore, the quality of the pasture and rearing environment determines the type and number of lactic acid bacteria contained in the raw milk.
My friends and I will be making Gouda cheese on November 21 and 22. We will make 6 Gouda cheeses of about 2 kg with 100 liters of milk. ・The lactic acid bacteria is 10U of Christian Hansen’s CHN-11. ・Calcium chloride is used at 0.02% of the milk volume. ・Use 16.6 mℓ of rennet with a strength of 300 IMCU/mℓ. ・pH was 6.55 when rennet was added. ・The pH at the time of pre-pressing was 6.35. ・The time from feeding the lactic acid bacteria to filling the mold is scheduled to be 180 to 210 minutes.
The production scenery will be announced at a later date.
Today I made mozzarella cheese. The milk used was 15 liters of raw milk.
In other countries, pasteurized milk is sold in gallon bottles (4.5 L), which makes it easy to make cheese at home, but in Japan, pasteurized milk of this size is not sold, and we have to share raw milk from dairy farms and pasteurize it ourselves.
This time, in addition to mozzarella, we also made whey ricotta. Mozzarella whey has a low pH, so we used a pH adjuster to adjust the pH to 6.5. The result is creamy and can be mixed with jam or honey. The video shows the pasteurization process, etc.
Yesterday (11/3), we made Gouda cheese at the renovated cheese processing facility at Sarabetsu Village Furusato Kan. It was the first cheese making after the facility was put into operation, and although there were a few accidents, such as batteries for the thermometer and precision scale being out of order and the platform scale being sent for repair, we were able to make cheese according to the recipe. We are now salting the cheese in plastic bags as shown in the photo. Our method of salting is to sprinkle 1.5 to 1.7 % of the weight of the cheese with salt and turn it upside down for 3 days to achieve the desired salt concentration.
After the harvest work in the field today, we had the participants compare the taste of the cheese to see if the type of salt used would change the taste of the cheese. The three types of salt used were (1) refined salt, (2) Ako salt, and (3) rock salt, and the cheese was ripened for two and a half months. Fifteen participants were asked to taste them in order starting from (1) and raise their hands to indicate which salt tasted better. The result was five each from (1) to (3). Those who chose (2) and (3) rated the saltiness as more salty later, rather than immediately after eating. Those who chose (1) also rated the saltiness as gentle.
The components of the salt used are shown in the table.
Today’s results show that there is no change in the taste of cheese no matter which salt is used, and that there is a time difference in the perception of salty taste depending on the mineral components in the salt used. The salt equivalent of (1) was the highest, but the mineral component was the lowest, resulting in a flatter and gentler salty taste. From the above, we learned that the taste of cheese does not change depending on the salt used, and we would like to use refined salt next time. Also, if you are careful about taking in too much salt, it is a good idea to choose salt with a high mineral content.
このことを理解するための資料として「原料と製品のパフォーマンスにおける乳由来たんぱく質の役割を理解する」という「Think USA Dairy」のテクニカルレポートを見つけました。(Googleで資料名を検索すると最初に出てきます。)また以前のブログにも掲載した「ChemMatters | DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018 9 」 にある酸性化とチーズ製造についての資料も併せて見ることで理解に役立つと思います。
In cheese production, it is said that the acidification rate and time from the addition of starter to the time when the card is pulled from the whey and molded, as well as the pH at the time when the card is pulled from the whey and molded, determine the basic structure of the cheese.
To understand this, we found a technical report from “Think USA Dairy” (https://www.thinkusadairy.org ‘ C3- Using Dairy). It would also be helpful to view the material on acidification and cheese production in “ChemMatters | DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018 9 “, which was also posted in a previous blog, to help understand this topic.
Since we had bamboo and wood, we purchased stainless steel wire and rods to create a wire cutter (horizontal cut) to cut cheese curds. The left wire spacing is 2 cm for mozzarella and the right wire spacing is 1 cm for semi-hard cheese. The vertical cutting is done with a knife. For hard cheese, cut with a whisk. We created this product in the belief that it would make the moisture content of the cut card as uniform as possible and reduce the moisture bias of the green cheese.
Gouda cheese made in January, started to puff up (butyric acid fermentation) after one month of aging, so I vacuum-packed it and stored it in the refrigerator (about 7 or 8 degrees Celsius). After 6 months had passed, I cut the cheese and found that many gas holes had formed. Since it was stored in the refrigerator, the activity of butyric acid bacteria was suppressed and there was almost no fermentation smell. When I tried to eat it, I found it to be a delicious cheese with a lot of flavor components. Since it did not look good, I made shredded cheese and used it for toast and pizza. When you make Gouda cheese and the cheese swells up after butyric acid fermentation, do not throw it away but vacuum-pack it and store it in the refrigerator for at least six months before eating.
I made 4 dessert cheeses. They are bacon, wine, dried fruit, walnuts and oranges. The surface is dried and vacuum packed and will be on the table in 3 months.
Molds are expensive, so cases from 100 yen stores are processed and used. In this case, we used a draining net from a 100 yen store instead of cheesecloth. It fits the case perfectly and is disposable.
This time ・15 liters of raw milk ・Lactobacillus CHN-19 was used. ・Colored a little with annatto ・Bacon is homemade and crisped in bacon oil before use. ・Dried fruits are sterilized by steam. ・Walnuts are roasted and orange zest is sterilized with liqueur.
The food processing room at Sarabetsu Village Furusato Kan, which is used by the Cheese Study Group for cheese making, will be out of service from August through the end of October due to renovation work. The renovation work will include updating the flooring and equipment, and the environment will be improved. During the construction period, we will not be able to conduct any activities as a research group, but will be making cheese prototypes privately at home. The prototypes will be posted on the blog.
we made string cheese yesterday. The outline is as follows. ・Six participants and 100 liters of milk. ・Lactic acid bacteria was Christian Hansen’s TCC-3. ・The pH was 6.45 when rennet was added. ・The time from adding rennet to curdling was 11 minutes. ・The time from adding rennet to cutting was 33minutes. ・Cards were cut into 1 cm squares to speed up the whey discharge. ・The pH of the card was reduced to 5.3 by matting before processing into string cheese. This time, the cheese had a low moisture content and was a little firmer, with clearly visible fibers.
The salting process for the Gouda cheese I made yesterday is as follows: Instead of soaking the cheese in saturated brine, we directly rub salt with a salt content of approximately 1.5% to 1.8% onto the cheese and let it rest for about 3 to 4 days. Since we produced four small Gouda cheeses this time, we salted them using three different types of salt. I am looking forward to seeing how the taste and aroma changes with each salt after 3 months.
Today, I made Gouda cheese using my homemade cheese-making equipment. I used 15 liters of milk. I sterilized all the utensils and pasteurized the milk at a low temperature. I used a type of lactic acid bacteria called CHN-19, which does not produce gas holes. Despite being prepared, I was a bit flustered since it was my first time making cheese at home. My homemade mixer was able to rotate, but the blades were small, so I couldn’t stir the mixture as effectively as I wanted. In the end, I resorted to manual stirring. I ended up with four small Gouda cheeses.
Tomorrow, I plan to salt them using refined salt, Akou’s natural salt, and rock salt (Alpen Salz), and after surface drying, I will vacuum-pack them. I’m looking forward to seeing how the different salts will affect the taste and aroma.
Yesterday, seven members of the weekend team and I made Mozzarella cheese. This time, we incorporated finely chopped Nara pickles into the Mozzarella dough, rolled it into balls, and covered them with Mozzarella dough to create a cheese resembling mochi. Some of the members were not fond of Nara pickles, but they found the final product delicious. Since both Nara pickles and Mozzarella cheese are fermented foods, they complement each other well. The photo shows the Nara pickle-filled cheese used in a Caprese salad. Fruits go well with Caprese, don’t they?
When my friends and I make mozzarella cheese, we usually use 100 liters of fresh milk. First, we pasteurize the milk at low temperature and add starter culture and calcium chloride, then we wait for the pH to reach 6.45. At pH 6.45, we add rennet and determine the cutting time using the flocculation method.
Typically, the flocculation coefficient for mozzarella cheese is stated as 4 in many online sources. However, in our case, since the pH is already 6.45 when we add rennet and the acidification process is advanced, the curds tend to incorporate a significant amount of whey. Therefore, we use a coefficient of 3.
On the other hand, when making string cheese, we repeatedly stretch, fold, and knead the curds to achieve a fibrous texture. Recently, when we used the same method as mozzarella cheese to make string cheese, it turned out to be soft with a high whey content, and the fibers broke in the middle.
Therefore, for our next attempt at making string cheese, we plan to experiment with either increasing the pH at which we add rennet to around 6.5 to reduce whey incorporation into the curds, or adjusting the flocculation coefficient to 2-2.5 to enhance whey expulsion. We will determine which method produces the optimal string cheese.
In our group, instead of immersing Gouda cheese in saturated brine, we use a method of rubbing salt to achieve a salt content of 1.5% to 1.8% in the cheese. Recently, we have been asked about the potential changes in taste and aroma when using mineral-rich salt or smoked salt.
There are several reasons for salting cheese. Firstly, rubbing salt into the cheese provides surface sterilization. Salt also helps remove whey from the cheese and inhibits the growth of lactic acid bacteria and molds. Additionally, salt plays a role in increasing the presence of umami-enhancing compound sodium glutamate, contributing to the flavor of the cheese.
However, we still have limited understanding of how the mineral content in salt and other factors might influence the taste and aroma of the cheese. Therefore, we have decided to conduct a comparison.
Specifically, we will make two Gouda cheeses. One will be salted using refined salt, and the other will be salted using salt with high mineral content, primarily magnesium chloride (such as Akō’s natural salt). After salting, we will mature and store both cheeses in the same environment. Subsequently, we will conduct taste tests to discern any differences in flavor and aroma.
This cheese will be made with prototype equipment.
We are planning to make Mozzarella cheese on the 22nd, as it is the season when tomatoes, basil, and fruits are easily available. There will be 7 participants, and we have 110 liters of fresh milk. This time, we will also make Mozzarella with added Nara-zuke (Nara-style pickles). We will be using hot water for cheese processing, so we hope that the temperature does not rise.
