Updated: 2023/01/15
Difference between processed cheese and natural cheese
Yellow, orange, white… It makes me happy to see cheese with various colors. As you know, cheese is a dairy product. Roughly speaking, it is made by coagulating or fermenting the milk of cows, goats, sheep, etc. and dehydrating it.
Cheese can be broadly divided into two categories: natural cheese and processed cheese. Natural cheese is made by adding lactic acid bacteria and enzymes to milk, solidifying it, dehydrating it, and further maturing it. There are more than 1,000 types of natural cheese in the world, depending on the type of milk and the microorganisms used. On the other hand, processed cheese, which is easily found at supermarkets, is a product made with natural cheese, but fermentation and aging were stopped. It has excellent storage stability and stable quality.
Experience cheese making in Switzerland
I participated in a cheese making experience in Switzerland in the past. First, milk was boiled in a cauldron like the one in Heidi, Girl of the Alps, and then mixed with a coagulant called rennet. Then the milk solidified and it was like tofu in the milky soup. The solid content was transferred to a wooden frame and pressed to remove liquid. The handmade experience for the tourists ended there, and the farmers managed the fermentation and aging after that, and I received the cheese after a few months. The steam rising from the cauldron, the smell of cheese, the size of the wooden crate of cheese, and the cows grazing in the cowshed in the back. It was really an exciting experience. Of course, the taste of the natural cheese I made was exceptional. Since then, I fell in love with natural cheese.
