Improvements in small scale artisanal cheesemaking via a novel mechanized appar...

• Author(s): Reis, Patrícia J. M. ; Malcata, F. Xavier
• Date: 2007
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/2833
• Origin: Veritati - Repositório Institucional da Universidade Católica Portuguesa
• Subject(s): Dairy foods; Technology; Traditional cheese; Ewe’s milk; Yield; Innovation
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

The current research effort consisted on design, building and testing of a customized apparatus – a closed cylindrical, double-jacketed cheese vat, with a 50 L-capacity, aimed at manufacturing Serra da Estrela cheese (or similar ewe’s milk cheeses), provided with knives that play a double role – stirring and cutting, a combined device for draining and pre-moulding, and a cleaning-in-place system. This novel apparatus makes it possible to semi-automate cheesemaking in small scale – including a continuous cycle of hands-free sequential coagulation, cutting, syneresis and moulding of cheeses. It was successfully applied to ewe’s milk cheese manufacture, and was able to reduce duration of the overall cycle – with concomitant standardization of the process, and a significant (P> 0.05) increase in cheese yield and fat recovery.