What is Cheese
There are
hundreds of types of cheese produced all over the world. Different styles and flavors of cheese are the result of using milk from various mammals or with different
butterfat contents, employing particular species of bacteria and molds, and varying the length of aging and other processing treatments. Other factors include animal diet and the addition of flavoring agents such as
herbs,
spices, or
wood smoke. Whether the milk is
pasteurized may also affect the flavor. The yellow to red coloring of many cheeses is a result of adding
annatto. Cheeses are eaten both on their own and cooked as part of various dishes; most cheeses melt when heated.
For a few cheeses, the milk is curdled by adding
acids such as
vinegar or
lemon juice. Most cheeses, however, are acidified to a lesser degree by bacteria, which turn
milk sugars into
lactic acid, followed by the addition of rennet to complete the curdling. Rennet is an
enzyme mixture traditionally obtained from the stomach lining of young
cattle, but now also laboratory produced. Vegetarian alternatives to rennet are available; most are produced by fermentation of the
fungus Mucor miehei, but others have been extracted from various species of the
Cynara thistle family.