Production of Traditional Cheese Coagulant in Farmhouse and Coagulating Effect

Dilek Say¹* and Nuray Guzeler²

¹Vocational School of Pozanti, Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey
²Department of Food Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey.

Corresponding Author Email: dsay@cu.edu.tr

Milk-clotting enzymes are the primary active agents in the manufacture cheeses. Animal rennet, microbial coagulant and plant coagulant are used as milk coagulants in cheese making. However, alternative milk coagulants are investigated instead of animal enzymes due to slaughtering of young ruminant. Manufacturing of milk clotting enzyme in farmhouse have been employed successfully for many centuries in Mediterrenean region and Toros mountain villages of Turkey for the production of traditional Tulum cheese. Figs, raisins, white beans, chickpeas, carob, granulated sugar, salt, yoghurt and home-made rennet (sarkanak) are found in the content of this enzyme. This mixture is left at room temperature for 5-6 days. The enzyme is filtered from using cloth bag and added into milk for coagulation. In this research; chemical composition of cow’s milk, goat’s milk and ewe’s milk were determined and obtained enzymes from different manufacturers were investigated of clotting effects on cow’s milk, goat’s milk and ewe’s milk. Four different coagulants had a strong coagulating effect on raw and pasteurized ewe's milk. The highest milk clotting activity of all coagulant samples were seen in ewe's milk, followed by cow's milk and goat's milk.

Cow’s milk; goat’s milk; ewe’s milk; milk-clotting enzyme; cheese

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