Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2009
1. Hard cheese of Cheddar, Derby and Manfis types was made from cows' milk and from buffaloes' milk. Buffaloes' milk curd of the Derby type was also milled at different acidities.
2. Initial acidity was higher and rate of acid development was greater in cows' milk and curd, whilst loss of fat in the whey was lower.
3. Cows' milk cheese contained more moisture, more total, soluble, and non-protein nitrogen, but less fat than buffaloes' milk cheese.
4. During ripening, the rate of acid development and protein degradation was greater in cows' milk cheese, whilst loss of moisture was usually smaller.
5. Buffaloes' milk cheese was inferior in grading quality to cows' milk cheese.
6. Attempts to improve the quality of buffaloes' milk cheese were made by altering the Derby cheese-making process as follows:
(a) ripening milk longer before renneting;
(b) modification of the milk casein/fat ratio;
(c) combining (a) and (b);
(d) modification of the casein/fat ratio plus scalding of the curd at a lower temperature and for a shorter time.
7. The last treatment (d) proved most effective and yielded cheese of very similar chemical composition and grading quality to that obtained from cows' milk.