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Name: Mary C.
Status: Educator
Age: 50s
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: December 2002
Question:
I have a student who is making cheese for a science project. He has used regular milk, heating it, etc. and come up with a type of "farmers cheese". His question of me is. How is the bacteria used in the making of cheese? What role does it play? Can you give him a chemical reaction that shows the type of interaction that changes milk into cheese? All he has been able to find are recipes to make cheese. He wants to understand the biochemistry involved.


Replies:
A google search turned up this site with a simple explanation:

http://www3.telus.net/everydaychemistry/cheese.html

and this one which is a course outline but includes a bibliography

http://www.after.edu.au/msc/subjects/dairy.html

This one has considerable detail on milk microbiology, including a section on starter cultures

http://www.foodsci.uoguelph.ca/dairyedu/micro.html

J. Elliott


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