Our Year 8 Science students have made their own Camembert cheese in the classroom in a small scale operation, so as a comparison, Steve Billington introduced students to the large scale cheese making processes of Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory and Saputo Australia. Students learnt that at the Saputo site in Allansford, the cheese making plant runs for 20 hours, has 60 vat fills with 2 million litres of milk used to produce over 200 tonnes of cheese. Steve described the cheese production process from milk reception from farms, the milk separation process, skim milk ultrafiltration, to pasteurisation. Starter cultures are added to cheese making vats to set the milk, then rennet to make the milk coagulate before it is stirred prior to entering the cheddar machine. The curd is milled, salted, mellowed and transferred to block formers then checked and sealed, tested, cooled, palletised and stored to mature before distribution. Steve then generously provided samples of Colby, Tasty and Vintage Cheer cheese so students could taste the difference in the maturation process. It was interesting to note, that despite the volume differences and mechanisation, many of the techniques were similar to those undertaken by our students to produce their own cheese. Comments are closed.
|
Archives
April 2024
|