Difference between revisions of "Cheese making"

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In parallel with the synthetic biology work, we are experimenting with cheeses made from powdered purified casein, and using vegan oils to replace milkfat. This page documents our cheese-making efforts.
In parallel with the synthetic biology work, we are experimenting with cheeses made from powdered purified casein, and using vegan oils to replace milkfat. This page documents our cheese-making efforts.


= Electric cheese cave =
= Experiments =


Most hard cheeses that are the least bit interesting need to be aged at colder than room temperature and high humidity. We've built a wifi-enabled cheese cave out of modified wine chiller.
* [[Cheese making/Experiment 1|Experiment 1]]
: Making normal non-vegan cheese and several partially vegan cheeses.
: Time: 1 pm on Sunday April 20th
: Location: 2429 Adeline St. Oakland, CA.


The cheese cave is based around a "Haier 18-Bottle Thermal Electric Wine Tower" that we found for $40 on craigslist. This is an upright wine chiller that uses two large peltier modules with heatsinks and fans to chill the bottles.
* [[Cheese making/Experiment 2|Experiment 2]]
: Making non-vegan cheese starting from micellar casein powder
: Time: 9 pm on Monday July 28th
: Location: Omni, Oakland, CA.


== Arduino and sensor ==
* [[Cheese making/Experiment 3|Experiment 3]]
: Making non-vegan cheese starting from
** micellar casein powder
** ghee
** lactose
** salts
: Time: multiple days, starting Monday March 9th, 2015
: Location: Omni, Oakland, CA.


The temperature and humidity are read every second using a [http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardPro 3.3 volt Arduino Pro] and a [https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8257 SHT15 sensor breakout board from Sparkfun].
= Books and resources =


The arduino is powered by 3.3v coming from the wifi router and communicates with the router using TTL serial.
*The Joy of Cheesemaking
:This is a really great book for cheese makers who want both practical step by step instructions and a decent amount of theory. What really makes it shine is its inclusion of specific instructions for dealing with e.g. lactic acid bacteria from different suppliers and extremely clear instructions that include helpful tables an illustrations. This book is targeted at home cheese makers.
:We have it in epub only (no pdf). Juul has a physical copy.


The sensor communicates with the Arduino using 2-wire.
*American Farmstead Cheese: The Complete Guide to Making and Selling Artisan Cheeses
:This is a really nice theoretical and practical summary that goes into just enough detail for an interested citizen scientist without overwhelming the reader. It does not contain recipes or practical step by step instructions so it must be supplemented by e.g. The Joy of Cheesemaking, but it has much more detail on the science of cheesemaking. This book is targeted at small scale cheese producers.
:We have it in epub only (no pdf). Juul ordered a physical copy but it has yet to arrive.


== Wifi router ==
*Cheese: Chemistry, Physics and Microbiology
:This is the cheese science textbook. Probably not your first stop if you're looking for an overview of cheesemaking, but goes into much more detail than American Farmstead Cheese.
:We have it in pdf. No physical copy.


A Linksys/Cisco WRT160NL router was flashed with [https://openwrt.org/ OpenWRT] version 12.09 Attitude Adjustment. OpenWRT was configured to use an external usb flash drive as its root partition ([http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/extroot extroot]). Avahi was installed and the hostname set to ''cheese'', such that any mDNS compatible operating systems are able to access the router through the domain name ''cheese.local''.
*Process of Producing Synthetic Cheese
:An imitation or synthetic cheese product is produced by reacting an acid precipitated casein with a basic calcium salt to produce a calcium caseinate solution, adding acid to adjust the pH of the calcium :caseinate solution, forming a curd of the calcium caseinate by treatment with a coagulating enzyme and admixing the curd with an edible oil or fat, a non-toxic emulsifying agent and acid to produce a :cheese-like product having a taste, texture and flavor similar to natural dairy cheese.
[https://www.google.com/patents/US4197322 Patent US4197322]


A simple web server was written in lua to read the temperature and humidity from the Arduino and display it on a web page such that the status of the cheese cave can be monitored by accessing http://cheese.local in a web browser.
= Online cheese cave =


== Physical modifications ==
Most hard cheeses that are the least bit interesting need to be aged at colder than room temperature and high humidity.


The wine shelves were cut to make them flatter and a sushi mats was places on each shelf.
We've built a wifi-enabled humidity and temperature controlled logging cheese cave out of a modified wine chiller: [[Vegan cheese/Cheese cave|Cheese cave]].


Wires were run into the chiller by un-mounting the bottom peltier module, cutting a small amount of insulation away, running the wire through and re-mounting the peltier module. One 110 vac power cord was run for the humidifier and a communications cord was run for the temperature/humidity sensor.
= Cheese press =


== ToDo ==
* [http://imgur.com/a/HTxUs Photos]


*Allow changing humidity set-point from the web app
The design should be mostly self-explanatory from the photos. The press has to be attached to a table somehow so it doesn't tilt, then a weight is attached to the end of the lever-arm (e.g. a bucked of water).
*Allow changing temperature set-point from the web app
*Write step-by-step guide for replicating the electric cheese cave


== OpenWRT configuration ==
The cylinder is made made from a mostly non-tapered food-safe tupperware-type container. 100% non-tapered  containers would be preferable but are hard to find. If you find a good source for food safe cylindrical plastic or stainless steel in appropriate dimensions then definitely let us know.


The following assumes some knowledge of networks and *nix command line.
A sushi-mat should be placed under the cylinder and the curds should be wrapped in cheese-cloth and placed in the cylinder.


Go to [http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/start the OpenWRT table of hardware] and find the wiki page for your router. It will tell you how to flash it with OpenWRT. You should use a wifi router that has the following minimum specs:
The white disk that presses the curds is cut from a plastic cutting-board.


*Atheros chipset
The striped piece of wood is a cheap bamboo cutting board. Screws and metal likely to get in contact with water (near the bottom) are all stainless steel.
*32 MB ram
*4 MB flash
*USB
*Supported by OpenWRT


After flashing, telnet into the router using:
= Rennet =


telnet 192.168.1.1
We're using microbioally produced pure chymosin. It's what industry uses for most cheeses and it's also the most effective and preferable rennet for most hard cheeses.  


Set the root password:
We've purchased [http://www.chr-hansen.com/products/product-areas/enzymes/our-products/coagulants/chy-maxr.html Chr Hansen CHY-MAX] from [http://www.thecheesemaker.com/products/Chymosin-%28ChyMax-Extra%29-Liquid-Rennet.html The Cheese Maker online store].


passwd
This is getting a bit close to its expiration date and Chr Hansen has [http://thecheesemaker.com/content/CHY-MAX_M.pdf a new and better second-generation chymosin] called CHY-MAX M. Which is also available from The Cheese maker. Perhaps we should order it.


Now exit the telnet session and log in with ssh instead:
= Milk-fat / Oil =


ssh root@192.168.1.1
For non-vegan comparison experiments we can use ghee, but for actual vegan cheese we need a milk-fat substitute, or [[alternative fats]].
It may be hard to find a suitable vegan substitute. What are the important properties?
We can probably assume that melting point (stability at room temperature) is an important factor. It may also be that interaction with caseins is important for micelle formation. This should be easy to test though.


=== Wifi setup ===
= Lactose =


We'll set up the router to connect to your existing wifi access point as a client (you could also connect it using wired ethernet if you prefer, which should not require any configuration, provided your router has a wan port).
The Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) used in cheese making and ripening live off residual lactose in the cheese. Since there are no good vegan sources for lactose, we will need a replacement.  


Edit the "config wifi-iface" section in /etc/config/wireless (using vi) too look like this:
LAB can grow on other sugars, but we do not know if their expression profile or growth rate will be different or whether this will affect the taste of the cheese. We can do two things:


  config wifi-iface
*Make cheese with lactose-free milk vs. lactose-free milk with lactose added back in.
      option device  radio0
*Research to understand LAB and its use in cheese better.
      option ifname  wlan0
      option network  wifi
      option mode    sta
      option ssid    myaccesspoint
      option encryption none


Replacing myaccesspoint with your wifi access point name. If the access point is password protected you will have to [http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/uci/wireless#wifi.networks specify the encryption method and password].
We know that most of the standard bacterial cultures used in cheese making can also grow on other types of sugar than lactose. Lactose is a disaccharide of galactose and glucose, so just replacing the lactose with its monosaccharides would be a good starting point. We could also replace the glucose with a glucose dimer such as maltose or even trehalose to slow down its bacterial utilization a bit.


In the same file, remove the following line:
There’s plenty of sugars to choose from - see our page on [[alternative sugars]] - so we have no doubt we can feed the desired cheese-making “flora and fauna” with a combination that is much better human-digestible than lactose. Finding a combination that results in the same flavor profile as lactose may take some experimenting.


      option disabled 1
Our top priority for this first phase of the project is to produce the cheese proteins themselves though – that’s the core of the cheese. Everything beyond that falls more under recipe development.


Now edit /etc/config/network, adding the following section to the end of the file:


  config interface 'wifi'
For the non-vegan control, we can buy [http://www.amazon.com/Foods-Lactose-100-Pure-Ounce/dp/B001EO688Y powdered lactose]. We can also easily get [http://www.lactaid.com/ lactose free milk], but I'm fairly sure it still has some lactose. We may be able to break down most of the remaining lactose by adding [http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/lactaid-fast-act-fast-act-lactase-enzyme-supplement/ID=prod1418537-product a lactase enzyme supplement].
        option ifname 'wlan0'
        option proto 'dhcp'


If you're planning on using the router on a network that uses 192.168.1.x IP addresses, then you should change the line "option ipaddr '192.168.1.1'" to e.g:
= Casein =


option ipaddr '192.168.2.1'
There is a protein supplement product available that is advertised as [http://www.nutrabio.com/Products/casein.htm 100% micellar casein] at $28 for two pounds. It claims to be 100% non-denatured micellar casein with no additives. It's not molecular/lab grade, but it may be the best we can get.
:I have already bought this product [[User:Juul|Juul]] ([[User talk:Juul|talk]]) 12:31, 8 April 2014 (PDT)


If you change this, then you'll have to use this new ip addr connecting to your node with ssh in the future.
[http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/product/sigma/c0406?lang=en&region=US Sigma-aldrich sells kappa-casein] but it's only >=70% pure and costs $600 for 1 gram.
 
Now reboot the router. When it finishes booting, ssh back into it and check if the internet is working:
 
ping sudomesh.org
 
=== USB extroot ===
 
Now you can set up extroot to use a flash drive as your root partition. Take a usb flash drive, and plug it into a normal linux system (e.g. debian). It should show up as e.g. /dev/sdb (you can check using dmesg). First unmount it in case it's mounted:
 
sudo umount /dev/sdb1
 
Now change the flash disk partition type to linux:
 
sudo fdisk /dev/sdb
 
At the fdisk menu, hit:
  t <enter>
  83 <enter>
  w <enter>
  ctrl+c
 
Format the flash drive as ext4:
 
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1
 
Now plug the usb flash drive into your router and ssh into the router. The rest of the commands in this section take place on your router.
 
Install the required packages for extroot:
 
opkg update
opkg install blkid block-mount kmod-fs-ext4 kmod-lib-crc16kmod-nls-base kmod-scsi-core kmod-usb-core kmod-usb ohci kmod-usb-storage libblkid libuuid swap-utils
 
Change the section "config mount" in /etc/config/fstab to look like this:
 
  config mount
        option target  /
        option device  /dev/sda1
        option fstype  ext4
        option options  rw,sync
        option enabled  1
        option enabled_fsck 0
 
Now mount the usb drive and copy the filesystem:
 
mkdir /tmp/mnt
mount /dev/sda1 /tmp/mnt
cd /
cp -a bin etc lib rom root sbin usr var www /tmp/mnt/
cd /tmp/mnt
mkdir dev mnt overlay proc sys tmp
sync
cd /
umount /tmp/mnt
 
If the following command gives any output after rebooting, then you are now using extroot:
 
mount | grep sda1
 
=== Avahi (mDNS) ===
 
To set up mDNS, first install avahi-daemon:
 
opkg update
opkg install avahi-daemon
 
Make it work without d-bus by adding this line to the [server] section of /etc/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf:
 
enable-dbus=no
 
Make it auto-start on boot:
 
/etc/init.d/avahi-daemon enable
 
Change your hostname to something relevant by editing the hostname option in /etc/config/system (maybe set it to cheese so you can use cheese.local to access the cheese cave).
 
Start avahi:
 
/etc/init.d/avahi-daemon start
 
== Wiring notes ==
 
Communications cables between sensor, router and arduino take place over old [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS/2_port PS/2 cables] that have been cut and soldered onto the different devices. These cables are shielded, easy to get for free, and the plugs make it easy to disconnect and reconnect components.
 
From router:
 
*RX: Brown
*TX: Orange
*3.3v: Green
*GND: Ground (shield)

Latest revision as of 03:53, 18 July 2023

In parallel with the synthetic biology work, we are experimenting with cheeses made from powdered purified casein, and using vegan oils to replace milkfat. This page documents our cheese-making efforts.

Experiments

Making normal non-vegan cheese and several partially vegan cheeses.
Time: 1 pm on Sunday April 20th
Location: 2429 Adeline St. Oakland, CA.
Making non-vegan cheese starting from micellar casein powder
Time: 9 pm on Monday July 28th
Location: Omni, Oakland, CA.
Making non-vegan cheese starting from
    • micellar casein powder
    • ghee
    • lactose
    • salts
Time: multiple days, starting Monday March 9th, 2015
Location: Omni, Oakland, CA.

Books and resources

  • The Joy of Cheesemaking
This is a really great book for cheese makers who want both practical step by step instructions and a decent amount of theory. What really makes it shine is its inclusion of specific instructions for dealing with e.g. lactic acid bacteria from different suppliers and extremely clear instructions that include helpful tables an illustrations. This book is targeted at home cheese makers.
We have it in epub only (no pdf). Juul has a physical copy.
  • American Farmstead Cheese: The Complete Guide to Making and Selling Artisan Cheeses
This is a really nice theoretical and practical summary that goes into just enough detail for an interested citizen scientist without overwhelming the reader. It does not contain recipes or practical step by step instructions so it must be supplemented by e.g. The Joy of Cheesemaking, but it has much more detail on the science of cheesemaking. This book is targeted at small scale cheese producers.
We have it in epub only (no pdf). Juul ordered a physical copy but it has yet to arrive.
  • Cheese: Chemistry, Physics and Microbiology
This is the cheese science textbook. Probably not your first stop if you're looking for an overview of cheesemaking, but goes into much more detail than American Farmstead Cheese.
We have it in pdf. No physical copy.
  • Process of Producing Synthetic Cheese
An imitation or synthetic cheese product is produced by reacting an acid precipitated casein with a basic calcium salt to produce a calcium caseinate solution, adding acid to adjust the pH of the calcium :caseinate solution, forming a curd of the calcium caseinate by treatment with a coagulating enzyme and admixing the curd with an edible oil or fat, a non-toxic emulsifying agent and acid to produce a :cheese-like product having a taste, texture and flavor similar to natural dairy cheese.

Patent US4197322

Online cheese cave

Most hard cheeses that are the least bit interesting need to be aged at colder than room temperature and high humidity.

We've built a wifi-enabled humidity and temperature controlled logging cheese cave out of a modified wine chiller: Cheese cave.

Cheese press

The design should be mostly self-explanatory from the photos. The press has to be attached to a table somehow so it doesn't tilt, then a weight is attached to the end of the lever-arm (e.g. a bucked of water).

The cylinder is made made from a mostly non-tapered food-safe tupperware-type container. 100% non-tapered containers would be preferable but are hard to find. If you find a good source for food safe cylindrical plastic or stainless steel in appropriate dimensions then definitely let us know.

A sushi-mat should be placed under the cylinder and the curds should be wrapped in cheese-cloth and placed in the cylinder.

The white disk that presses the curds is cut from a plastic cutting-board.

The striped piece of wood is a cheap bamboo cutting board. Screws and metal likely to get in contact with water (near the bottom) are all stainless steel.

Rennet

We're using microbioally produced pure chymosin. It's what industry uses for most cheeses and it's also the most effective and preferable rennet for most hard cheeses.

We've purchased Chr Hansen CHY-MAX from The Cheese Maker online store.

This is getting a bit close to its expiration date and Chr Hansen has a new and better second-generation chymosin called CHY-MAX M. Which is also available from The Cheese maker. Perhaps we should order it.

Milk-fat / Oil

For non-vegan comparison experiments we can use ghee, but for actual vegan cheese we need a milk-fat substitute, or alternative fats. It may be hard to find a suitable vegan substitute. What are the important properties? We can probably assume that melting point (stability at room temperature) is an important factor. It may also be that interaction with caseins is important for micelle formation. This should be easy to test though.

Lactose

The Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) used in cheese making and ripening live off residual lactose in the cheese. Since there are no good vegan sources for lactose, we will need a replacement.

LAB can grow on other sugars, but we do not know if their expression profile or growth rate will be different or whether this will affect the taste of the cheese. We can do two things:

  • Make cheese with lactose-free milk vs. lactose-free milk with lactose added back in.
  • Research to understand LAB and its use in cheese better.

We know that most of the standard bacterial cultures used in cheese making can also grow on other types of sugar than lactose. Lactose is a disaccharide of galactose and glucose, so just replacing the lactose with its monosaccharides would be a good starting point. We could also replace the glucose with a glucose dimer such as maltose or even trehalose to slow down its bacterial utilization a bit.

There’s plenty of sugars to choose from - see our page on alternative sugars - so we have no doubt we can feed the desired cheese-making “flora and fauna” with a combination that is much better human-digestible than lactose. Finding a combination that results in the same flavor profile as lactose may take some experimenting.

Our top priority for this first phase of the project is to produce the cheese proteins themselves though – that’s the core of the cheese. Everything beyond that falls more under recipe development.


For the non-vegan control, we can buy powdered lactose. We can also easily get lactose free milk, but I'm fairly sure it still has some lactose. We may be able to break down most of the remaining lactose by adding a lactase enzyme supplement.

Casein

There is a protein supplement product available that is advertised as 100% micellar casein at $28 for two pounds. It claims to be 100% non-denatured micellar casein with no additives. It's not molecular/lab grade, but it may be the best we can get.

I have already bought this product Juul (talk) 12:31, 8 April 2014 (PDT)

Sigma-aldrich sells kappa-casein but it's only >=70% pure and costs $600 for 1 gram.