CigarsLover Magazine I 2023

TASTE
Cheese, on the contrary, is perceived by the vast majority
of consumers as a cheap supermarket product, maybe
only useful (and sometimes even indispensable) to prepare
various dishes, some of which are very popular (two
among all the others: pizza and lasagna). And nothing
else. However, there are very valid reasons that should be
taken into account to re-evaluate this food, even to elevate
it to the prestige that other foods have long boasted.
Before analyzing the reasons why cheese should have a
greater and more important place in the "taste" modern
world, we will quickly review crucial production aspects,
useful to present and support our thesis.
Almost all cheeses in the world are produced with only
three basic ingredients, which are milk, salt and rennet.
In addition to this basic recipe there is also the crucial
knowledge and experience of professionals who developed
in the years the dairy technology. Almost every country
in the world or geographical area has its own peculiar
products. In many of these geopolitical areas, actual regulations
have also been created, which detail every step
of production, from the type of feed allowed for dairy animals,
to the minimum and maximum seasoning / aging
of the finished product. Very often compliance with these
parameters involves the recognition of certain quality
certificate for the product: in the European Union, for
example, compliance with the regulatory prescriptions
results in the recognition of the Protected Designation
of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication
(PGI). This is enough to explain how much attention to
production processes is behind the scenes of dairy production.
The starting raw materials, as for both wine and cigars, of
course, can make the difference. There is milk and milk,
just as there is cow's milk and cow's milk, which is why
animals and their daily diet are also given strict rules and
major attention in the production regulations. In addition,
cheese can be obtained, mainly, from cow's, sheep's, goat's
and buffalo's milk. Therefore, starting from the raw
material and, even considering further upstream opportunities,
from the biodiversity of breeds and farms, there
is a remarkably wide range of possibilities.
Once the milk is collected and arrives at the dairy companies,
it is sterilized and brought to the most suitable temperatures
with respect to the final product to be made.
After a short "rest" stop (which allows the milk to spontaneously
trigger both partial acidification and hydration of
casein, facilitating the subsequent coagulation process,
whey (the equivalents of wine yeasts), consisting of generally
lactic bacteria, is added to the milk, an indispensable
step to obtain cheeses that start from pasteurized
milk. Subsequently, milk is added with rennet (a substance
either obtained from the gastric tissue of suckling calves
or sheep or goats or of microbial or vegetable origin),
which is the substance capable of triggering coagulation
(i.e. the gelling of milk). In this phase the casein molecules,
at a temperature between 25 ° and 30-35 ° C, create
chemical bonds between them (also called gelatinous
80 #1-2023 CigarsLover Magazine