Cheese Ingredients- Convert Milk into Cheese
Milk is one of the oldest sources of nutritious foods modern mankind used in their diet, and cheese as an extension of milk also served as one of the earliest examples of food processing our ancestors used even before the time of recorded history. This was possible because raw materials that are needed for creation of the cheese can be found in nature easily, enabling anyone both long ago and today in modern kitchens to create cheese without much trouble.
List of Cheese Ingredients
- Milk – Of course, the most important raw material in every cheese is milk. It usually comes from milk of cows, sheep and goats, but some regions and recipes demand use of more exotic milk types that are collected from horses, buffalos, water buffalos, moose or reindeers.
- Lactic acid – Important for kick-starting the process of milk curdling.
- Rennet – Powerful enzyme complex that enables quicker transformation of milk curdling into cheese gel that can be later on processed or left for ripening. Rennet can be extracted from many plants, including melon, safflower, artichokes and fig leaves.
- Cheese bacteria – Some cheese recipes demand encouragement of bacterial growth that transforms internal structure of the cheese. This can be done sometimes by simply raising the temperature, but also adding unpasteurized milk and many more unique ways.
- Flavor additives – Basic flavor of the cheese is gained by the work of bacteria, but some other additives can be introduced either in base cheese mix or by washing cheese gel in flavored water. Other flavor ingredients can be onions, paprika, pepper, chives, various seeds, raisins, mushrooms, bacon, sage and more. Cheese can also be smoked, which can heavily impact its flavor and texture.
- Color additives – Most cheeses are naturally white, but the most widely seen color of the cheeseis orange-yellow. This color is achieved by adding extract of annatto, coloring made from extract of carrot juice or tropical tree.
- Fillers – Exact texture and flavor of the cheese can be adjusted by adding various fillers into its recipe. Such additives can be whey, cream, milk-fat, salt, vegetable oil and more.
- Industrial additives – Gelatin, gums, thickeners, sweeteners, emulsifiers and preservatives.