Getting To Know Your Cheesy Cheese

Getting To Know Your Cheesy Cheese

Cheese is really a very nutritious type of food that comes from milk of a cow, sheep, goat or buffalo. They may also be made from the milk of other mammals like reindeers, camels and yaks. It was around 4000 years ago that people learned to breed these animals, get their milk, process them and turned them into cheese.

Based on archaeological findings, cheese could not have been invented because even in prehistoric times, this type of food had already been evident. Experts conclude that this may have come up when people notice that milk left inside a container coagulate more when they’re hot.

Those who live in places where climate changes from season to season may have also noticed what effect the temperature had on milk – it tends to curdle even faster when it’s cold.

As of today, there are already hundreds of cheese varieties all around the world. This is because people have experimented on different milk sources, used different species of molds and bacteria and made the milk undergo various lengths in their aging process. Different people also use different ways to prepare cheese.

Aside from the things mentioned above, there are many other ways to categorize cheeses. Thus, cheese could not be classified into a single concept category because various other factors are to be considered – the type of milk, the curds, the fat content, the texture of cheese and so many others.

Still, there are certain classifications that are more popular than others are. One category for cheeses is the fresh cheese. Fresh cheeses are those that have undergone milk curdling and then drained. Because there isn’t much process involved, it has come to be called fresh cheese. Examples of cheeses that are under this category are the cottage cheese, chevre and cas.

Some would classify cheese depending on its firmness. They could either be soft, semi soft, hard or semi hard. However, this type of categorization may not be very exact because judgment on the firmness could vary from person to person.

For example, cheddar has been found to fall under the hard or the semi hard cheese category. They are made by cutting curd then heating it gently. Then, they are piled and stirred into forms until the finished product is seen.

Those whose curds are rinsed and then pressed may be among the milder cheeses, a good example of which is the Colby. Curds are washed to take away the acids in the cheese although the calcium may also be drained out. This is the process done in order to make the Edam and Gouda cheese, too.

Velveeta and yellow cheese are perfect examples for the processed cheese category. These kinds of cheeses are made by adding milk, salt, food coloring as well as other emulsifying agents to traditional cheese thus they are processed.