Ripening slurries

Flavor has been reported to develop very rapidly (1 week) in slurries containing 40% solids. Such systems have been used to screen exogenous enzymes. Fast-ripening slurries could be useful in the preparation of cheese sauces, cheese flavoring, processed cheeses, etc. Enzyme-modified cheeses, which can be regarded as being based on the slurry principle, are used commercially as ingredients in processed cheese and cheese products. 

The blanket of alk-ceU leaving the slurry press is shredded, and if necessary cooled, before being conveyed to mercerizing (the ripening or aging process). 

Sood, V.K. and Kosikowski, F.V., Ripening changes and flavor development in microbial enzyme treated cheddar cheese slurry, J. Food Set, AA, 1690, 1979. 

Rabie A.M. (1989) Acceleration of blue cheese ripening by cheese slurry and extracellular enzymes of Penicillium roqueforti. Lait., 69, 305-314. 

VFA analysis is important in the ripening control of cheeses, particularly of hard cheeses. HSGC offers a rapid route to check for the presence of unwanted Clostridia species. These bacteria ferment lactic acid and are capable of forming large amounts of gas and butyric acid, which spoils the cheese. An elegant way of sample preparation for final HSGC analysis was devised by Osl (1988). A cheese slurry is made it is then refrigerated in order to crystallize the fat, filtered to remove the solidified fat and diluted with ethanol. To this ethanolic solution concentrated sulphuric acid is added as well as valeric acid as an internal standard this solution is then thermo-statted for 1 h at 80°C, and the ethyl esters formed are sampled from the HS. 

From the pulpers, the slurry is pumped into the presses, where the alkali cellulose (AC) is pressed to achieve about 50 % dry content. After delibration, the slurry is fed into the preripening systems. Once there, the AC is pre-ripened to gain an average degree of polymerisation and an even viscosity. The pre-ripening process can be accelerated by adding a catalyst (e.g. cobalt chloride). 

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