How do they make different flavors of cheese if the only ingredient is milk?

Answer 1

Depends on what kind of cheese you're talking about.

The basis of most cheese is milk -- cow, goat, camel, or what have you. In the making of hard cheese, rennet (the lining of a calf's stomach) is added to the milk and the whole thing cooked until curds form. The curds are then put in a cheese press to remove the water, and once the mass is hardened, the cheese can be sold as such or further aged.

Soft cheese is soured milk that's cooked until the curds separate. They're drained over a period of several days and allowed to age, then placed over heat with a small amount of cream, salt, and often a lump of butter. The curds melt together with the other ingredients and are put in a container to cool. (Note: there are some soft cheese recipes that do involve eggs, but I don't have any more information or a recipe.)

Soy "cheese" can be made from tofu and other ingredients -- one of which is often casein. Casein is a dairy product, which means that it's not suitable for a strict vegan diet. You need to read the ingredients list carefully before buying if you're a vegan.

Hope that clears up some of the confusion without generating even more! ;-)

Other factors include animal diet and the addition of flavoring agents such as herbs, spices, or wood smoke. Whether the milk is pasteurized may also affect the flavor. The yellow to red coloring of many cheeses is a result of adding annatto. Cheeses are eaten both on their own and cooked as part of various dishes; most cheeses melt when heated.

For a few cheeses, the milk is curdled by adding acids such as vinegar or lemon juice. Most cheeses, however, are acidified to a lesser degree by bacteria, which turn milk sugars into lactic acid, followed by the addition of rennet to complete the curdling. Rennet is an enzyme mixture traditionally obtained from the stomach lining of young cattle, but now also laboratory produced.

Answer 2

The tastes of cheeses vary according to their rennet content (the thing that makes the cheese coagulate into curds), the type of animal the milk comes from, the cultures introduced (beneficial molds and bacterias), and the length and climate of aging. Some real cheese afficianados can actually taste what the animals the milk came from were eating!

Answer 3

here's an article all about it... http://pubs.acs.org/cen/ncw2004/8242sci1.html

here's a portion of it...

Cheese production begins with milk, about 10 lb to make a pound of cheese. For cheese made in the U.S., the milk must be heated briefly to kill unwanted bacteria.

A starter culture of desirable bacteria such as streptococci or lactobacilli is then added. The particular strain and the amount used are key factors in determining the final flavor of the cheese. The microorganisms consume lactose in the milk, converting it into lactic acid, citric acid, and other metabolic products. This step begins formation of flavor compounds including acetaldehyde, acetic acid, and diacetyl. It also reduces the pH of the milk, which is usually 6.6–6.8, to around 5.3 in finished cheese.

Answer 4

I believe this is done with the particular agent used to curdle the cheese (e.g., the first cheese was made accidentally with rennet [carrying around milk in a calf's stomach used as a sack]; there is also rennetless cheese, which is made by introducing a particular bacteria into the cheese).

Answer 5

The place where they age it may have different molds than other places - that accounts for the types of blue cheeses. They may make it from cow milk, goat milk, buffalo milk, sheep milk - that gives differences. They may age it for varying lengths of time (short = mild and long = sharp). They may add other seasonings to it (peppers for example). They may age it at different temperatures to modify the taste.

Answer 6

Well, for starters there are different kinds of milk such as cow, sheep, goat and buffalo which affect the flavor of cheese as well as where the animals graze (what they have to eat).

Answer 7

The taste differs depending on the age....but there are actually other additives in cheese that enhance the flavour.

Answer 8

aging it. try some black diamond cheese, they age it 4 years and its only $10 a pound. its extremely sharp

Answer 9

they put different herbs and spices in it as it ages..