It makes you smile because say cheese...

You’re fun of cheese and you agree that there’s no meal that it doesn’t go well with. Perhaps, for this reason, human have been making cheese for thousands of years and today there are hundreds of different type available in the market. Let’s talk about Cheddar cheese, which is a hard cheese that originated in Cheddar, England at least 800 years ago.

WHAT TO START WITH?

Have you ever wonder what is the basic ingredient of Cheddar cheese? But, raw or pasteurised milk? If you want a rapid development of characteristic Cheddar flavour on your cheese, raw milk is your best option.

MILK'S PARTNERS 

Milk is not alone! It is accompanied by many 'friends'.

You are what you eat, that's why you should know what you eat! So, please take a look on the typical composition of Cheddar cheese before you buy and eat it. 

Tips: 

1. Cheddar cheese must be stored in dark to preserve riboflavin.

2. Cheese contains little or no lactose, that's why cheddar is an important source of calcium and many other nutrients that are found in milk for lactose mildigesters of persons who have difficult digesting lactose.

Are cheeses formed as easy as mentioned in the quote? If this is true, by just having a cow, you are able to produce any type and as much cheese as you want.

MILK TURNS CHEDDAR - ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Nothing is impossible! Milk undergoes a series of steps and slowly transforms into cheese. Some of the steps are critical and must be properly done for the production of Cheddar cheese.

Renneting/Coagulation

Rennet used for milk coagulation remove the caseino-macropeptide ‘hairs’ from k-casein,causing the casein micelles become unstable and start to aggregate. Consequently, the solid curds form.

Whey drainage 

Whey drainage is one of the critical stage in Cheddar cheese manufacturing as it affects the amount of residual chymosin, mineral content, final pH and moisture-to-casein ratio of the cheese, which may in turns alter the texture of the cheese. Changes in pH are closely related to the changes in protein network of the curd. Colloidal calcium phosphate loses from casein micelles as the pH of cheese curd drops due to the addition of starter culture and the sub-micelles dissociate into smaller aggregates when the pH is less than 5.5.

Cheddaring 

During cheddaring, the drained mass of curd is allowed to spread for a period of time, which helps to retain higher moisture content. The flow of curd promotes deformation of curd grains, thus closing pores and hindering drainage of any moisture still leaving the grains due to syneresis. Cheddaring affects the cheese structure by making the closed structure of the cheese more enhanced due to the removal of entrapped air from the cheese.

Kindly refers to the video below for better understanding.

How is cheese made? - Naked Science Scrapbook from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pnw-XwCctYY&t=35s

NEED MORE TIME... 

Cheese ripening/ Aging

Aging is the only difference between mild and sharp Cheddar cheese. The longer the cheese is aged naturally, the sharper and more pronounced the Cheddar flavour becomes. Biochemical changes that occur during ripening stage can be categorised into:

Primary events

• Glycolysis
• Proteolysis
• Lipolysis

Secondary events

• Development of volatile flavour compounds
• Metabolism of amino acids and fatty acids

Glycolysis happens, converting lactose to lactate which responsible for the overall acidic taste of Cheddar cheese.  The production of lactate alters the cheese pH which directly influences the casein solubility, activity of enzymes and retention of coagulant in the cheese curd. Lactate may eventually oxidize and produce acetate. The presence of acetate in high amount contributes cheese flavour to Cheddar, however, too high concentration contributes to off-flavour. Other important compounds in Cheddar flavour formation like diacetyl and acetaldehyde are also produced through glycolysis.

Citrate from the milk is another important precursor for the flavour compounds in Cheddar. Citrate metabolism produces acetic acid and diacetyl which are also responsible for the development of Cheddar cheese flavour but it contributes to the undesirable openness and floating curd in Cheddar.

Hydrolysis of casein leads to the formation of large- and intermediate-sized peptides, which in turn are degraded to smaller peptides by coagulants and enzymes derived from starter and non-starter bacteria. Small peptides are then further degraded to free amino acids. This breakdown of the protein leads to textural changes in the cheese matrix and is responsible for aroma formation in Cheddar cheese.  Carboxyl and amine groups that are liberated during proteolysis cause a decrease in water activity by binding water molecules. Cheese texture softens as a consequence of hydrolysis of casein micelles by proteolysis and changes to the water-binding ability of the curd and changes in pH. Proteolysis also contributes directly to flavour and to off-flavour of cheese through the formation of peptides and free amino acids as well as liberation of substrates such as amino acids for secondary catabolic changes.

Hydrolysis of triglycerides of milk fat is the principal biochemical transformation of fat during ripening, leading to the production of free fatty acids, diglycerides, monoglycerides, and possibly glycerol. It has an important effect on flavour and aroma development in cheese during ripening. FFA are further catabolized to highly flavoured compounds including methyl ketones, thioesters and lactones. These compounds have been associated with the lipolysed flavour defect or rancidity in Cheddar cheese if present in high amount.

Physical change may happen too!

D-lactate that formed directly from lactose may crystallize particularly on the cut surfaces of the cheese and the formation of crystals always mistaken by consumer as spoilage. 

WHY MILK IS WHITE, CHEDDAR IS YELLOWISH-ORANGE?

Don’t you curious about this? As cows eat the grass, they digest the naturally orange-ish beta-carotene pigment in the grass and the pigment is stored in their fat cells. When they give milk, the milk will usually appear white. The beta-carotene infused fat will eventually left in the milk, and after the rennet, bacteria and heat work their magic on the liquid, the protein clusters release their grip on the globules and their membranes dissolve, making the beta-carotene a little more visible. Once the whey is drained, the fat is also more concentrated in the final product than it was in the original milk. Thus, Cheddar cheese tends to take on a yellowish orange hue.

Some cheese manufacturers prefer to skim some of the cream off the milk before making the cheddar, this results in much paler Cheddars. To make the cheese more attractive, manufacturers tend to add color to the cheese. This is why Cheddars have different colour as compared to the milk.

Why Cheddar is Orange When Milk is White from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9X5Wp-LER0&t=208s

THERE'S NO REASON TO IGNORE CHEESE
It was found out that, people who consumed high levels of cheese had a 14% lower risk of having coronary heart disease and were 10% less likely to have stroke than those who rarely or never eat cheese. The fats in cheese also encourage our brains to produce dopamine, which is a natural feel-good chemical released in our brain. Of course, there are still many more benefits of consuming cheese. In short, only crazy people would ignore cheese!