Author Topic: Sugars - Using In Cheese Making  (Read 3383 times)

Cheese Head

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Sugars - Using In Cheese Making
« on: January 11, 2010, 10:53:11 AM »
I'm making a small batch of chocolate flavoured American style Neufchatel (light cream cheese) using store bought past & homogenized chocolate flavoured cow's milk. This is a primarily lactic acid cheese with small amount of rennet.

That milk has several additives, the biggest being corn syrup & sugar. Anyone know the impact of using these or other sugars in the milk on cheese making?

Sailor Con Queso

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Re: Sugars - Using In Cheese Making
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2010, 04:57:08 PM »
Yeast will have a tendency to ferment any available sugars. I would use these as fresh cheese and not let them age. FYI - I do freeze Neufchatel, but the consistency does change a little. Thaw slowly in the refrigerator to minimize this.

wharris

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Re: Sugars - Using In Cheese Making
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2010, 05:08:09 PM »
Adding sugar?
Hmmm,  i wonder what the chances are of some spontaneous alcoholic fermentation?

I guess that depends on how long you allow the yeast to live. 

FRANCOIS

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Re: Sugars - Using In Cheese Making
« Reply #3 on: January 11, 2010, 07:17:50 PM »
Your starters should convert most available sugar (be it lactose or corn syrup) into lactic acid for that cheese.  I wouldn't worry about it.  You may get some weird flavors though.

Cheese Head

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Re: Sugars - Using In Cheese Making
« Reply #4 on: January 12, 2010, 12:02:21 AM »
Thanks all!

I've just updated this cheese making record in the link above, if you look you can see that I got a good lactic curd after only ~ 12 hours when I checked early this morning. Which is quick especially for the slightly cooler room temperature as winter here now.

Maybe the lactic culture propagates faster with all those extra sugars?

linuxboy

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Re: Sugars - Using In Cheese Making
« Reply #5 on: January 12, 2010, 04:26:24 AM »
Hi John,

Yes, amount of sugar present, any sugar, influences acid production. Another side effect of consuming different sugars than lactose by lactic acid bacteria is that the capsule may be thicker, influencing ropiness, which makes milk seem thicker than it is. A capsule in a bacterium is made up of sugar polymers, and its makeup changes with the sugars consumed.

Cheese Head

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Re: Sugars - Using In Cheese Making
« Reply #6 on: January 12, 2010, 12:12:43 PM »
linuxboy, thanks.

I did seem to get a quicker/stronger lactic curd than with plain milk (still softer than a rennet curd). Also, resultant cheese is very slightly grainy (not visible in the picture in the linked pot above) and still sweet, maybe I should have let it hang for longer before refrigerating and making the bacteria dormant to allow more of the sugars to be consumed.