Work Text:
1. Background
Cheesemaking is an important commercial activity (2.0e10 kg per annum) with a long (8 ~ky) history [1]. Improvements in cheesemaking carry opportunity for reduced costs, longer-lasting food preservation, improved nutrition and enhanced flavour. Cheese is naturally lactose-free and offers many of the nutritional benefits of other dairy products to lactose‐intolerant individuals. Soured milk has usage in milk-fibre (Azlon) production for textiles [2].
An early stage of the process is culturing milk with bacteria, which then transform lactose into lactic acid, gradually turning the milk sour. Different conditions (i.e strains of bacteria, temperature, atmosphere) result in faster or slower growth and differing final flavour profiles. This step is completed by the addition of animal rennet or fermentation-derived chymosin [1] to coagulate the product. In prior work, we find that the use of animal rennet is an originally Dwarfish practice [3]. There are many following stages before the final product; these are beyond the scope of this work.
In this work we examine a novel method for accelerated culturing, based on oral-historical testimonies. Anthropological information states that the Folk Under Hill [4] and practitioners of the Crafty Sciences [5] may instantaneously sour milk under certain circumstances. The economic advantages of accelerating the culturing step would be significant. This research focuses on a series of experiments in order to elicit this response, and study the resulting flavour profiles.