I started reading the Univ. of Guelph eBook on Cheesemaking, and for those of you interested in exploring the scientific aspect of cheesemaking, it is an excellent resource....
https://www.uoguelph.ca/foodscience/book-page/cheese-making-technology-ebookOne of the topics is the standardization of milk so that you get the optimum balance between Protein and Fat for the type of cheese you are going to make.... You can find that section of the book at this link....
https://www.uoguelph.ca/foodscience/book-page/standardization-milk-cheese-makingI decided to look at what the Protein/Fat Ratio of various types of milk is, and how that relates to what I can purchase locally (our only grocery store stocks Dairyland products).... Here is a chart showing that data....
The two left hand data points are 1% low fat and 2% Dairyland milk, then the 3.25% Homogenized, and all the data points to the right of that are for various breeds of cows, plus goat, water buffalo and sheep's milk.... the latter two way over on the right.... The dotted blue line is a "trendline" drawn by MS Excel through all those points.... The horizontal red and black lines are the maximum and minimum P/F Ratios found in the chart at the link above from Univ. Guelph....
You can see in that link that various cheeses may use quite different fat contents to produce the optimum balance for that cheese.... For instance a Parmesan might want a P/F Ratio of 2.02, which works out to about 1.75% BF, while an Edam should be made from a milk with a P/F Ratio of 1.50, which is about 2.25% BF..... A Cheddar, according to the Univ. Guelph chart should start with a milk with a P/F of 0.91, which is pretty close to regular 3.25% Homogenized milk, while a Cheshire should have the butterfat content enhanced to a P/F Ratio of 0.79, which would be a milk with about 4% BF....
I found this to be quite the revelation, compared to the simple instructions you find in recipes to start with "whole milk".... I am already blending my own milk starting from skim or 2% and adding 18% coffee cream, but with this new knowledge I will be able to tailor the amount of cream I add to the cheese I am going to make.... The start of this process is understanding the Protein/Fat Ratios of the Dairyland Milks & Creams I can get, so I plotted those out on a similar chart, which is shown below....
It is my intention to build a spreadsheet that will allow me to choose either skim or 2% milk as a starting point, and have it calculate the volume of cream I need to add to get the optimum P/F Ratio for the cheese I am going to make.... When I get that done, I will add to this thread....
Bob