Hello, I'd like to understand how the cheese process works, the chemistry behind it and the procedure that's involved. I will be applying cheese techniques to a different thing entirely. In fact, I will be applying them to something called "curd soap". This is soap that is made in the traditional way with oils and sodium hydroxide, then made into a curd by adding salt and water. Natural glycerin and nigre (the natural contaminants within the oils) are released and sink to the bottom of the pot, leaving pure curd soap that floats to the top. The small curds (granules) of soap solidifies into a cake, and is left to dry. The excess salt exudes out from the soap cake as the water slowly comes to the surface to evaporate. When this is dry, the soap cake develops salt crystals on the surface, that looks just like a wheel of aged cheese.
My goal is to see how cheese cultures can affect the curd soap. I'd like to apply cheese making methodology to the soap like, like introducing Brevibacterium to this soap cake in the way cheese makers use it, but I need to know how and why it is used. I want to make a cake wheel of stinky curd soap.
Can someone guide me in the right area in this forum to help me understand the ways of stinky cheese making?
I'm wondering if I should add the Brevibacterium to the soap cake or just coat the surface with the bacteria and brine solution over the course of days in a controlled environment . I know this is unusual, but your help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all so much.
I don't think you will have any luck growing the b linens on soap or adding cultures to fats or soaps. I say this because the cultures and b linens are used in cheese making to digest the milk or cheese by feeding on it. This won't happen with your soap I don't think.
If you wanted your soap to smell like stinky cheese I think you will be better off somehow extracting the odor from a cheese and adding it to your soap in that way
If you want to understand cheese pick up Caldwell's book "mastering artisan cheesemaking"
An interesting idea but I would not be confident of getting anywhere with it. As far as I can see, the only thing which your soap-making has in common with cheese making is the word "curd".
A couple of specific problems which would scupper the idea and which relate to the chemistry, are:
- B Linens acts to soften washed rind cheeses by digesting the proteins in the curds. I doubt whether there would be proteins in your soap.
- Cheese curds are acidic (low pH) whereas your soap would be a base (high pH). That is likely to be a hostile environment for B Linens.
Having said that, I congratulate you on an original and inventive idea.