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Milk and cheese
Also searched as: dairy, cream, yoghurt, cheese, butter
In short: Milk is water with fat droplets, protein and milk sugar. Depending on what you do with these parts, you get cream, butter, yoghurt or cheese.
Picture it
Like a construction kit with three parts: fat, protein, sugar. Each dairy product uses a different part.
What happens
Cream is the separated fat and can be whipped. Bacteria sour milk sugar into lactic acid, which thickens the protein: yoghurt. Rennet or acid makes the protein curdle: cheese.
Why it matters
Explains why cream turns to butter, why milk catches on the bottom of the pan and why some cheeses melt and others do not.
Rules of thumb
- Do not let milk boil hard; it catches and boils over.
- Whip cream well chilled.
- For melting, grate cheese finely and do not let it get too hot.
Related entries
Sources
- Harold McGee: On Food and Cooking (2004), Kapitel Milch, Zucker, Schokolade