Process for making a cheese

A method for manufacturing a fresh or ripened cheese from a cheese-making dairy mixture, wherein

• the cheese-making dairy mixture contains:
• on the one hand, one or several dairy fractions selected from the retentates of a microfiltration of a pasteurized skimmed milk, the retentates of an ultrafiltration of a whole milk or of a pasteurized skimmed milk or the retentates of an ultrafiltration of a microfiltration permeate of a pasteurized skimmed milk, and
• on the other hand cream,
• and wherein the method comprises the following steps:
• (I) preparing the cheese-making dairy mixture by
• (Ii) heat treating the dairy fraction(s) and cream, respectively, at a temperature of 65-120° C., for 30-900 seconds;
• (Iii) mixing heat-treated dairy fraction(s) and heat-treated cream to obtain a dairy mixture;
• and
• (Iiii) standardizing the heated dairy mixture by adjusting protein content of the mixture to 3-10% (w/w) relative to the mixture and adjusting fat content of the mixture to 3-10% (w/w) relative to the mixture to obtain the cheese-making dairy mixture;
• or
• (Ii′) mixing of the dairy fraction(s) and cream to obtain a dairy mixture;
• (Iii′) heat treating the dairy mixture at a temperature of 65-120° C., for 30-900 seconds;
• and
• (Iiii′) standardizing the heated dairy mixture by adjusting protein content of the mixture to 3-10% (w/w) relative to the mixture and adjusting fat content of the mixture to 3-10% (w/w) relative to the mixture to obtain a standardized dairy mixture to obtain the cheese-making dairy mixture;
• (II) curdling the cheese-making dairy mixture obtained after step (I) to obtain a curd;
• after step (II), before step (III), heat-treating all or part of the curd;
• (III) draining the curd by at least one ultrafiltration and then homogenizing;
• (IV) cooling the drained curd;
• (V) salting and molding, or molding and salting;
• and
• (VI) optionally ripening.