Cheese Lab Conclusion

In this lab we asked the question: What are the optimal conditions and curdling agents for making cheese? This experiment was conducted to take a closer look at different factors that affect the curdling  of milk (the curdling agent and the and the optimal conditions). My claim is that there were two factors that affected the process the most and they were heat and the acid. The solution to the problem was that both curdled the milk within a good 5-7 minutes faster than our other factors. My evidence gathered supports the claim because cow’s stomach is both hot and acidic. A cow’s stomach is the best place to curdle cheese. Cheese is made by coagulating milk to produce curds (solids) and whey (liquid). More of my evidence proves my claim because the hot and cold temperature took quite a while to curdle with chymosin or rennin, along with the regular milk that had no testing no agent.  In fact when the milk was tested with a cold condition it reached max time (35 mins) without curdling.

There were at least two major errors that took effect in this lab. The first error was that when testing the temperature for HOT, the water that the tubes of milk were put in were colder than the temperature WARM was supposed to be in. In fact, the milk that had the WARM condition curdled in 9 minutes, yet the HOT condition curdled in 20 minutes. So this messed with the results a little because the HOT condition was supposed to curdle faster than the warm condition. The second error that took effect on this lab was a little more hypothetical. In the bucket of ice that was used as the cold condition there was a lot of cold water and some ice. From time to time I had to add in extra ice into the bucket. That may have affected the temperature. Therefore, affecting the end results, the curdle.

There are two recommendations that I would give so that the errors above could either be removed or minimized. My first suggestion would be to check the temperature of the HOT condition and check the temperature of the WARM condition and make sure that the temperature of the HOT condition is hotter that the WARM condition. Regularly check both condition to make sure that the temperature stays consistent. The second recommendation would be to start of with a full bucket of ice and leave it to melt as time goes by without adding extra ice the bucket. This will keep the temperature more likely to become consistent, ending with more consistent results.

The purpose of this lab was to demonstrate how cheese is made. More specifically how cheese is curdled with a substrate and and enzyme. This labs relates to something in class because before the lab began Mr. Orre demonstrated on the board that in order for milk to curdle you must first have a substrate and mix it with an enzyme. In the lab we used this information given in class by using a substrate (EX. Casein) and a enzyme (EX. rennin). I can apply this knowledge in future experiment with enzymes and create the best environment for them to function.