Microstructure of Harzer-Like Cheese

Abstract

Abstract:Harzer-like cheese was made from cow's, buffalo's, reconstituted milk and skim milk retentate. Submicroscopic structure and sensory evaluation during ripening were studied. The obtained results show that in the early stage of ripening period, the protein network of cow's skim milk cheese appeared as a large casein fibers, while in buffalo's milk, cheese was less dense, with open network, casein micelles in reconstituted milk cheese were coalesce and retentate cheese was more compact than other cheeses. After 8 weeks of the ripening period, the extent of hydrolysis of casein in cheese, casein micelle cow's skim milk cheese fused, formed homogeneous structure. The microstructure of buffalo's milk cheese was compact with few gaps. Reconstituted milk cheese casein particles counseled together in sheets but retentate cheese had coarser protein network.Finally the disintegration of the casein occurs much faster in cow's skim milk cheese, with more extensions of aggregated casein micelle than in the other cheeses, and was of good sensory quality.