Manufacturing Outlines and Applications of Selected Cheese Varieties 289moisture content is 46% or less by weight.
Muenster cheese for manufacturing conforms
to the defi nition and standard of identity for
Muenster cheese except that the dairy ingre-
dients are not required to be pasteurized. It
can be used for process cheese formulation.
Muenster Cheese Process: The process
resembles that of brick cheese manufacture,
except that no smear treatment is applied and
adjustments are made to raise the moisture
content. Milk is pasteurized and tempered
to 32.2 ° C (90 ° F) in a cheese vat. Starter
consisting of Streptoccus thermophilus and
Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus
is added at the 0.5% to 1% level. Rennet (at
the level of 2 to 3 oz/1,000 lb of milk) is
diluted and added soon after. After 30 minutes
of setting, the coagulum is cut with 0.95 - cm
(3/8 - inch) wire knives and heating is started
after 5 minutes. The rate of heating is initially
slow to avoid case - hardening of the curd. The
cooking is complete when the temperature
reaches 40 ° C to 41 ° C (103 ° F to 106 ° F). The
pH of the curd - whey mixture should be 6.57
(TA of whey 0.10% to 0.105%). The whey is
drained until the curd level is visible.
The vat contents are pumped to hoops on
the draining table, and the hoops are turned
after 20 minutes. The second and third turning
of hoops is done after an hour each. After the
third turn, the pH of the whey should be 5.75
(TA of 0.35% to 0.45%). When the pH
reaches 5.50 (TA of 0.55% to 0.65%), the
cheese wheels or bricks are removed from
the molds and immersed in a cold 22% brine
for 24 hours. They may be coated with
annatto to give them a yellow appearance.
They are wrapped in fi lm and ripened for
three to six weeks.Unripened Fresh Cheeses
In most cheeses, the curd formation is carried
out with or without fermentation by the
application of coagulating enzymes isolated
from various biological sources. However,
certain cheese varieties do not use enzymes.
Milk coagulation is characterized by an acidLactococcus culture and 0.25% Streptococcus
thermophilus (Nath, 1993 ). When the TA
reaches 0.18%, rennet (170 ml/1,000 kg of
milk) diluted with 10 volumes of water to set
the coagulum in 30 minutes. The coagulum
is cut with 0.62 - inch (1/4 - inch) knives. Next,
the curd - whey mixture is heated gradually to
achieve a vat temperature of 36 ° C (97 ° F).
The whey is drained to leave an inch over the
curd surface and water at 36 ° C (97 ° F) is
added to replenish the drained whey volume.
After fi ve minutes, the whey - water mixture
is drained to the level of the curd.
The curd - whey - water mixture is pumped
to rectangular hoops, which are covered and
turned after one hour; 5 - lb weight is then
applied. The hoops are turned three more
times at one - hour intervals. The room tem-
perature should be 21 ° C to 24 ° C (70 ° F to
75 ° F). The weight is removed after the fourth
turn. The loaves of cheese are removed from
the hoops and fl oated in a brine tank at 10 ° C
(50 ° F) for 24 hours. Dry salt is sprinkled on
the surface of loaves, turning them after 16
hours. The pH of cheese after one day should
be 5.2 to 5.3. The salted loaves are ripened
at 15.6 ° C (60 ° F) with 90% humidity.
Cheese cloth containing B. linens smear
is then applied to the surfaces of cheese
loaves. Each day the loaves are turned and
hand rubbed with 5% salt water. The cheese
loaves are ripened for fi ve to 10 days, depend-
ing on the desired intensity of fl avor. The
smear is washed off and the loaves are dried
in the ripening room. They are packaged in
plastic fi lm and sealed. Further ripening is
carried out at 4.4 ° C (40 ° F) for four to eight
weeks. If desired, the pungency of cheese
fl avor can be enhanced by skipping the wash
treatment.
Muenster Cheese
In Europe, Muenster (or Munster) is a
surface - ripened cheese. However, in the
United States, Muenster cheese involves no
smear ripening. It is a semi - soft cheese with
a minimum of 50% fat in dry matter and the