Composition for accelerating cheese aging
AssigneeMiles Laboratories, Inc.
InventorsJeffrey T. Barach, Larry L. Talbott
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Aging of cheese is accelerated by adding during cheesemaking a composition containing preserved, partially disrupted L. casei and/or L. lactis, and a dried lipase similar to kid or calf pre-gastric lipase. The L. casei or L. lactis has been preserved by freezing, freeze drying, spray drying or fluidized bed drying. Preferably, the L. casei is ATCC 39539 and the L. lactis is ATCC 39538. The composition may optionally contain a similarly preserved and partially disrupted L. plantarum, and/or a microbial neutral protease. The composition may be added to cheese milk before adding coagulant to coagulate the milk or to curd with salt before pressing.
Claims20
A composition for accelerating the aging process of cheese which consists essentially of:
- (a) a preparation of the lactic acid bacteria L. casei ATCC 39539 or L. lactis ATCC 39538 or a mixture thereof which has been preserved by freezing, freeze-drying, spray drying or fluidized bed drying and wherein at least 20% of the cells of the lactic acid bacteria preparation have been disrupted;
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- (b) a dried lipase which is an animal, plant or microbial lipase having a specificity similar to that of kid or calf pre-gastric lipase.
In the method of making cheese which involves adding a coagulant to milk to cause it to coagulate and separate into solid curd and liquid whey with salt being added to the curd in a subsequent step in the cheesemaking process after which the curd is pressed to remove excess whey and then allowed to age to form cheese, the improvement which comprises accelerating the aging of the curd to form cheese by the steps of:
- (a) adding to the milk before the addition of the coagulant or adding to the curd with salt before pressing, a composition which consists essentially of:
- i. a preparation of the lactic acid bacteria L. casei ATCC 39539 or L. lactis ATCC 39538 or a mixture thereof which has been preserved by freezing, freeze-drying, spray-drying or fluidized bed drying and wherein at least 20% of the cells of the lactic acid bacteria preparation have been disrupted;
- and
- ii. a dried lipase which is animal, plant or microbial lipase having a specificity similar to that of kid or calf pre-gastric lipase;
- and
- (b) allowing the curd to ripen at a temperature of from 36.degree. to 60.degree. F. to thereby obtain an aged cheese in a shortened period of time.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.