MMMM+Cheese

=MMMM Cheese!=

Don't you love cheese? If you do, I share your passion. Have you ever wondered how cheese is made? I took the time to look into how cheese is made. There are different enzymes that are used in the creation of cheese. Depending on what ype of cheese you are looking for you can use leave the milk in an enzyme for a short period of time or a longer period of time.

There a few different enzymes used to make cheese. Enzymes are vital in the creation of perfect cheese and also add certain flavors that everyone loves. To make chhese you must find something that is able to remove the water out of the milk saying that milk is 87% water. The more water that is taken out, the harder the cheese. If a small amount of water is removed then you get cream cheese and or cottage cheese. If you were to take almost all of the water out of a milk you get a cheese like cheddar or parmesan that has very minimal amounts of water.

__What is needed in the creation of cheese?__
Rennin or rennet is the main enzyme used to create cheese. Almost all forms of rennin are animal based. To make rennin one must harvest the inner lining of a calves fourth stomach. Rennin or rennet can also be made a few different ways. There is microbial and vegetable rennet. Rennet can also be genetically made as well. If you make cheesse using vegetable rennet it is most likely plant based. This is almost exactly the same as microbial rennet. This can be produced when certain funguses go thorugh fermentation. Although this certain type of enzyme can be used to produce chhese, it is unable to be used to produce cheddar cheese and other hard cheeses. The most commonly used rennet is bioengineered. Its creation consists of a calve's prochymosin gene and placing into genomes of bacteria and yeast. As we speak, 70% of the world's cheese is produced using genetically engineered chymosin. This is quite the break through for a few reasons. Calves will no longer be slaughtered simply for their stomachs and people will no longer have to pay expensive prices to produce cheese. In stores you may find this chymosin but it will be labeled as junket or rennet. It will most likely come in the form of a tablet.

__The Process!__
Cheese is produced in an interesting way. Because rennet is a protease (interacts with proteins) it binds to the protein, kapa caesin. Kapa Caesin is vital in the production of milk because it keeps it from coagulating. The job of the rennet is to break down this protein which allowsthe milk to solidify and clump together. To begin the procees a perfect acidic environment in which the milk is in. To speed this up, special bacteria are add to the milk to break down the sugars into lactic acids. Then the rennet is added whichs begins the formation of curds and whey. They curds are then pulled from the whey. If the idea is to make cottage cheese or cream cheese, the curds go almost straight to the shelves to keep the loose and wet from the left over whey. If harder cheeses are looking to be formed then they must go through a few more steps to fully drain the whey from within them. I hope everyone who has read this feels enlightened because I too feel enlightened after doing this project.