JPH0687736B2 - Aged hard cheese and method for producing the same - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an aged hard cheese having excellent stringing properties and capable of holding the stringing properties for a long time without deterioration, and a method for producing the same.

[Prior Art] In recent years, westernization of eating habits has further advanced, and Japanese tastes are changing accordingly, and demand for natural cheese tends to increase year by year. Among them, the gouda type cheese is considered to be most suitable for the Japanese because it has a unique mild flavor. Cheese similar to this type includes Edam cheese, Samsoe cheese, Cheddar cheese and the like.

The above-mentioned cheeses are natural cheeses classified as aged hard cheeses, and the following typical production methods are known.

 Raw milk processing step: The raw milk is sterilized and then cooled.

Lactic acid fermentation step: Lactic acid fermentation is performed by adding a desired lactic acid bacterium starter according to the type of cheese.

Renneting step: Calcium and rennet are added to coagulate milk to produce curd.

Cutting process: The curd is cut into a desired size according to the type of cheese to make curd.

Cooking process: Heat and remove the whey discharged from the curd grains. Usually, it is divided into 3 times.

Matting process: The curd particles from which the whey has been discharged are deposited on the vat, and the whey is further discharged.

Mold filling step: Whey is discharged, and the curd that has shrunk is crushed, packed in a desired mold and pressed under the required pressure to mold cheese.

Aging step: The green cheese (raw cheese) obtained in the above steps is aged under predetermined conditions to impart a cheese-specific flavor and texture.

Although several modified methods are known for the above series of steps,
In the process of manufacturing cheese for many years, it is almost decided by the type of cheese. This is because specific manufacturing conditions are required to impart a unique scent, texture and taste. In particular, the cooking temperature condition is important because the reaction due to fermentation has a great influence on the structure and chemical structure of cheese, and is controlled relatively rigorously (pH, acidity, etc. are known as management indices). . In addition, in Gouda cheese, a salting step is provided after the mold filling step, and the cheese is immersed in saline.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in these types of cheese, it is recognized that the threading property gradually deteriorates with the progress of ripening, and especially when the aging period exceeds 4 to 5 months. There is a problem that the deterioration of sex is markedly shown.

On the other hand, examples of cheeses that can maintain stringiness for a relatively long time include Emmental cheese and Gruyere cheese. However, since these cheeses have a peculiar scent and have a strong habit, they have not yet fully satisfied the tastes of ordinary Japanese people.

Here, the thread drawability generally means the degree of thread drawability when cheese is heated and melted and stretched like cheese used for pizza.

By the way, regarding the expression mechanism of the stringiness in natural cheese, at present, little research is progressing, and it is expected that the raw materials used, manufacturing conditions, etc. are expected, but there are many unclear points, There is no known research report on the improvement of stringiness of gouda type natural cheese. As mentioned above, gouda-type natural cheese is suitable for Japanese tastes, and considering the cooking structure used for cooking, it improves the stringiness of natural cheese centering on gouda-type cheese and its characteristics. If the product can be retained for a long period of time, its commercial value is expected to increase greatly.

The present invention, in view of the circumstances of the above-mentioned prior art, the stringiness of aged hard cheese typified by Gouda cheese for a long period of time, it is possible to maintain a good state of stringability cheese and it is produced. It provides a way to do it.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The inventors of the present invention have diligently studied the relationship between the production conditions of the aged hard cheese and the stringiness of the obtained cheese, and particularly, the temperature condition in the cooking step is the cheese structure. The present inventors have completed the present invention by discovering that effective changes can be brought only to the protein network structure that is involved in stringiness.

That is, by adjusting the temperature of the card in the cooking step in the above-mentioned manufacturing process within a specific range,
Even if the ripening of the cheese progresses, it is possible to maintain the stringiness in a good state for a long period of time.

Therefore, the present invention is, firstly, a production method for improving the threading property, wherein in the production of an aged hard cheese, the temperature reached in the cooking step is heated to a range of 43 to 55 ° C. And a method for producing an aged hard cheese having improved stringiness.

Cheese with improved stringiness has unique properties, and secondly, the present invention provides a soluble nitrogen maturity index (soluble nitrogen maturity index or STN / TN: soluble nitrogen / total nitrogen x 100).
Is at least 15 to 25%, and is a mature hard cheese having a stringiness of 40 cm or more, and a non-protein nitrogen maturity index (non-protein nitrogen maturity index or NPN /
TN is a recently aged hard cheese having a stringiness of 40 cm or more in the range of at least 10 to 20% of (non-protein nitrogen / total nitrogen x 100). The cheese of the present invention is characteristic in that it has almost the same aroma, texture, taste and other physical properties as conventional cheeses of the same kind except that the stringiness is effectively improved.

Here, the threading property is evaluated according to the following method.

(Stringiness test) Sample cheese is sampled in a 20 g petri dish and heated and melted at about 90 ° C for 1 minute. Next, this cheese is pulled up at a speed of 10 cm / s by a stringiness measuring machine and the length (cm) of the stringiness of the cheese is measured.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail.

First, the target cheese in the present invention is an aged hard cheese (hereinafter referred to as "cheese" unless otherwise specified).
That is, it is a hard cheese such as Gouda, Edam, Cheddar, Maribo, Samsaw having a water content of 40% or less, and does not include mold-aged cheese such as rock hole and blue. This is because, in the mold-aged cheese, proteolysis is considerably progressed, and the structural property due to the protein is almost completely destroyed, and the stringiness is usually not a problem. The difference in the types of aged hard cheeses is due to the difference in the raw material surface and the form of cheese during the manufacturing process, rather than the essential difference in the manufacturing conditions. For example, Gouda and Edam differ in the amount of raw milk fat, the size of curd grains in the cutting process, the shape of the mold in the molding process, the pressure, and the salting treatment.In Gouda and Edam, lactic acid bacteria are used as a starter, but Gruere. And Emmental differ in that they also use propionic acid bacteria. In addition, although there are differences in the amount of rennet added, the basic manufacturing conditions are the same. However, in the present invention, it is industrially significant to apply it to a coder type in consideration of the preference of general consumers.

Therefore, the production method of the present invention is basically a raw material milk treatment step, a lactic acid fermentation step, a renneting step, a cutting step, a cooking step, a matting step,
It includes a mold filling step and an aging step. These steps are almost common in ripened hard cheese, although there are differences in the detailed conditions in each step. The feature of the present invention lies in that the heating temperature condition of the cooking step is set higher than the normal range among the above-mentioned steps, and the other steps can be carried out based on a conventional method.

Next, in order to facilitate understanding of the present invention, conditions of a cooking process that is usually performed will be described by taking Gouda and Edam as an example.

The first stage to the third stage is divided into 3 heating steps.
This is because about 1/3 of the whey is removed after each step for the efficiency of whey discharge.

In any case, curd particles that have been solidified and cut with rennet are not heated above a predetermined temperature to prevent inhibition of lactic acid fermentation, and even cheeses other than the above cheddar cheese (40 ° C), Samsaw cheese ( 37 ℃).
If the lactic acid bacterium starter is affected by temperature and the activity decreases, the pH of the cheese becomes high immediately after production because the acid production does not proceed, and this is because the heating temperature in the cooking step (hereinafter referred to as "cooking temperature") is high. It becomes remarkable. pH
In high cheese, the amount of ionic calcium is small and the heat melting property is reduced, so the physical properties during heating of cheese are affected. Furthermore, higher cooking temperatures tend to make cheese harder. From such a viewpoint, the cooking temperature was never set to 40 ° C. or higher in the production of hard cheese. By the way, the cooking temperature is increased up to around 55 ℃ for ultra-hard cheeses such as parmesan, and up to 70-80 ℃ for special dry cheeses. The content of these cheeses is low, the hardness is significantly increased, and the manufacturing method itself is fundamentally different from that of hard cheeses, so it is not possible to make a general comparison, but generally when the cooking temperature rises, the syneresis of curd grains is accelerated. And the dehydration from the card progresses,
It is generally known to have the effect of increasing the hardness of cheese.

On the other hand, stringiness is studied exclusively from the viewpoint of time-dependent change of cheese, and it is a well known matter that the network structure of peptide chains is broken and the stringiness is deteriorated as ripening progresses. Therefore, even if it is expected that the stringiness is related to some structural property of the cheese tissue, it was not clear what factor is specifically involved.

The present inventors have found that the cooking temperature, that is, the temperature in the process of discharging whey from curd grains, not only affects the hardness of cheese, but also has a great influence on the stringiness. The following is a summary of the effects on the cheese texture produced by raising the cooking temperature.

1. Patially network-structured peculiar dense structure of paracaseinate cross-linking structure
Take Ca-paracaseinate in cheese). This structure is substantially related to the stringiness and is not the same as the structure that determines the hardness of cheese. That is, the structure related to stringiness is denser than the structure related to hardness is denser. Generally, hard cheese has a small amount of water, but the cheese of the present invention shows almost no difference from ordinary cheese in general analysis.

2.In the cheese having the above structural morphology, even if it undergoes proteolysis during ripening, the decomposition does not progress almost on average like ordinary cheese tissue, and a considerable amount of a relatively high molecular fraction remains. As a result, sufficient stringiness is maintained even with the same maturity.

It has been found that the above-mentioned unique Ca-paracaseinate crosslinked structure is not formed at a cooking temperature of 38 ° C or lower, which is usually practiced, and does not manifest as an effective effect unless it is 43 ° C or higher. That is, at a cooking temperature of 43 ° C. or higher, the entanglement of molecules proceeds to such an extent that the ability to retain the stringiness is exhibited. On the other hand, considering the deactivation of the starter, defective binding of the curd at the time of pressing, and significant delay in aging, the appropriate cooking temperature range is 55 ° C or lower. From the viewpoint of producing similar cheeses and greatly improving the stringiness, the temperature range of 43 to 55 ° C has critical significance. However, since the effect of improving the threading property can be obtained even in the temperature range which exceeds the conventional cooking temperature of 40 ° C, it is possible to adjust the temperature in the range of 40 to 55 ° C depending on the case.

As described above, it has been known that the cooking temperature does not significantly affect the physical properties related to other palatability and qualitatively changes the structural form of cheese that is related to the stringiness and determines it. I didn't.
According to the present invention, it becomes possible to control the stringiness by the cooking temperature. When heated at the conventional temperature of 38 ℃,
Since the above-mentioned strong structural morphology is not formed, the structure is gradually destroyed by the progress of aging. Accordingly, the threading property is significantly deteriorated.

When the cooking temperature is actually changed in the production of gouda cheese, the string life of shelf life is 38 months at 38 ° C., but it can be extended to 12 months at 55 ° C., for example.

Here, it should be noted that in order to form the dense crosslinked structure of the paracaseinate by increasing the heating temperature during the cheese manufacturing process, it must be performed during the cooking process. That is, it is necessary to apply a predetermined heating to the cut card grains formed of rennet, and the structure is constructed in the process of discharging whey in the card grains. In addition, adjusting the cooking temperature is effective for producing a dense structure related to the stringiness of the heating conditions.

The cooking process according to the present invention can be carried out as follows.

Carry out up to the cutting process according to the type of cheese based on the conventional technique, and then the curd grains of the specified size are first kept at a relatively constant temperature (~ 30 ° C) for several minutes to several tens of minutes. Gently stir for a while, remove a portion of whey (about 1/3 amount), and start heating. Heating may be performed by adding hot water little by little while stirring, or by passing steam through a jacket. Cooking is done gently to prevent crushing of curd grains, but usually 1 ° C depending on the target temperature
/ It is recommended to perform the heating at a constant heating rate of about 3 minutes. Cooking usually takes about 90 minutes. The whey may be removed twice during cooking, or at the end once.
The whey removal amount may be the same as usual.

The final card obtained from the cooking process according to the invention is virtually identical in appearance to the card obtained according to the prior art. That is, when the cooking temperature is high, dehydration from the surface of the curd particles is promoted, but at the same time, the acid generation rate is delayed, and as a result, a large difference in water value does not occur. The size of the curd grain is almost the same.

On the other hand, the difference in cooking temperature conditions also affects the pH and heat meltability of cheese. When a starter whose activity decreases at high temperature is used, the pH of the cheese will differ depending on the cooking temperature immediately after the production, and the higher the temperature, the higher the pH of the cheese immediately after the production. Then, the temperature gradually decreases, and after about one week, the difference due to the temperature almost disappears, and thereafter, the pH becomes almost constant and becomes stable. Higher cooking temperatures lead to higher pH, which is due to a decrease in the activity of the starter, which leads to insufficient Ca desorption from Ca-paracaseinate. The heat-melting property is related to a change in pH. The heat-melting property is poor until about one week after the pH becomes stable, but it rapidly improves when the pH becomes stable. That is,
The heat-melting property of cheese has a correlation with the amount of ionic calcium in the cheese, and the calcium deviates from Ca-paracaseinate as the pH of the cheese decreases and stabilizes about one week after the production. When the amount of ionic calcium increases, and when the amount of ionic calcium increases to some extent, the heat melting property of cheese becomes good. This is why the cheese has a high heat-melting property and becomes stable after one month or more after the production.

By the way, the heat meltability is a prerequisite for exhibiting the thread drawability, and good thread drawability cannot be obtained unless the heat meltability is improved to some extent or more. Therefore, the cheese immediately after production has a low heat-melting property and thus cannot sufficiently exhibit stringiness. Therefore, if the cooking temperature is increased, the heat melting property of the cheese after production may be slightly reduced. However, this is not an essential issue. This is because it will be improved naturally over time, and considering the charf life of cheese, the necessary time will not be a problem in product value. In the past, cooking temperature control was specified only from the viewpoint of hardness of cheese, heat melting property, activity of starter, etc., and the viewpoint of stringiness was not taken into consideration at all, so an increase in cooking temperature has only a negative effect. It was thought to be a thing.

However, the low thermal meltability immediately after the above production is relatively low.
It can be improved by selecting and using a thermophilic bacterium starter that exhibits sufficient activity even at a high temperature of about 55 ° C. By using a thermophilic bacterium starter, even if the cooking temperature is high, the pH immediately after production is low and stable at an early stage. Therefore, the heat-melting property is also improved, and good stringing property is exhibited. As a bacterial species used for such a lactic acid bacterium starter, Str. Thermophililus which has high temperature resistance
Lact.casei, Lact.bulgarius, Lact.helve, especially for high temperature cooking, such as Str.durance that can grow even at high temperatures
ticum etc. can be mentioned. However, even without using a thermophilic starter, Str.cremoris, Str.lactis, Str.diac
A cheese having a sufficient ability to retain stringiness can be produced even by a commonly used mesophilic starter such as etilactis.

Changes in the Ca-paracaseinate crosslinked structure during the cooking process can also be affected by the fat percentage of the raw milk. That is, when the fat percentage decreases, the densification of the structural morphology proceeds further even under the same heating conditions. The preferred fat percentage of raw milk is 3.0%
It is the following.

Next, the cheese obtained by the above-mentioned manufacturing method will be described.

The characteristics of these cheeses are that the soluble nitrogen maturity index is at least 15 to 25%, the threading property is 40 cm or more, and the non-protein nitrogen maturity index is at least 10 to 20%. The sex is 40 cm or more.

Here, when the STN / TN is at least 15 to 25%, the threading property is 40 cm or more, and within the range, the threading property is 40 cm or more regardless of whether the threading property tends to increase or decrease. However, in cheese with a higher cooking temperature, the thread-forming property at STN / TN of 25% is higher than that at 15%. STN / TN of conventional cheese is 15
%, Even if the threading property is 40 cm or more, the threading property decreases sharply as STN / TN increases.
In the range of%, the thread pulling property of 40 cm cannot be maintained. On the other hand, in the cheese of the present invention, even if STN / TN is in the range of 20 to 25%, the threading property is kept good and it can hold 60 cm or more. Therefore, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the threading property is 60 cm or more in the STN / TN range of 20 to 25%.

STN / TN was set at 15 to 25% because the maturity in this range accounts for the maturation process, the distribution process and the shuffle life, and is important from the viewpoint of the taste of the consumer, and it is important to determine the ability to maintain the stringiness in this range. This is because it has significance. Further, the reason for setting the thread-pulling property to 40 cm or more is that it is judged to be a level required by the taste of a general consumer group.

The fact that the thread-pulling property is 40 cm or more in the range of NPN / TN of at least 10 to 20% is synonymous with the above-mentioned STN / TN. Similarly, in a preferred embodiment, the threading property is 60 cm or more in the NPN / TN range of 12 to 17%.

NPN / TN of 10 to 20% is synonymous with STN / TN of 15 to 25%.

Conventional cheese develops changes in texture and flavor such as enzymatic chemical, bacteriological and organic chemical reactions upon aging,
Degradation of protein that becomes the structural property of cheese during ripening progresses to a low molecular weight with the increase of the amount of soluble nitrogen and non-protein nitrogen, and as a result, the structural morphology involved in stringiness is destroyed,
Threading property deteriorates. The cheese of the present invention has a structure involved in stringiness, that is, the Ca-paracaseinate crosslinked structure is dense, so that the pattern of proteolysis during ripening does not proceed uniformly, and a relatively high molecular weight As a result that a considerable amount remains, it exhibits excellent resistance to deterioration of the threading property and the ability to retain the threading property is greatly improved. This contrasts with the conventional cheese, which does not have a peculiar structural morphology, so that the proteolysis proceeds relatively uniformly and the structural disintegration is rapid.

Furthermore, the characteristic of the cheese of the present invention is the flavor,
Properties other than stringiness, such as texture, are not substantially different from those of conventional cheeses, which means that there is no difference in substance change during the ripening process of flavor brewing. That is, there is no noticeable difference in the change of the amount of soluble nitrogen and the like, and it is affected by various enzymes and the like like conventional cheese. When the tissue structure involved in the hardness of cheese is significantly different, the dispersion state of water is also different, resulting in a difference in substance change in the flavor brewing process, in contrast to the fact that cheeses with the same flavor and texture cannot be produced. Make up.

Here, when the compositional structure of cheese is divided into three parts, one related to hardness, one related to stringiness, and one related to heat melting property, the one related to hardness is the texture of cheese. The factors involved in the compactness (correlation with water content) of itself and the heat-melting property are related to the amount of ionic calcium in cheese (correlation with pH), whereas the stringiness is paracasei mediated by calcium. The difference is that it is directly related to the compactness of the nate crosslinked structure. (Cheese that melts poorly can be said to be a problem before stringing.) Heat meltability is a necessary condition for developing stringiness, but it is not synonymous and even cheeses that have no difference in heat meltability can be stringed. May occur, and in particular, after the heat-melting property required for expression of the thread-drawing property is removed, the thread-drawing property changes regardless of the value of the heat-melting property. In addition, even with hard cheese, if the protein decomposition occurs relatively uniformly, the threading property deteriorates quickly.

As described above, when the cooking temperature is increased, the heat meltability immediately after production is not good. This is not an essential problem because there is no problem if the amount of ionic calcium is insufficient and the pH decreases over time and the amount of ionic calcium increases. The thread drawability is related to the heat melting property, and the thread drawability immediately after the production may be insufficient, but such a decrease in the thread drawability is only observed in conventional cheese. Even conventional cheese has poor heat meltability immediately after production. However, in conventional cheese, the threading property begins to deteriorate after the heat melting property is improved with the lapse of time. In the cheese of the present invention, even after the heat melting property is improved, the threading property is not deteriorated and the excellent threading property is retained.

The cheese of the present invention does not differ from conventional cheese in general analysis values such as water content. There is only a difference in the structural properties due to the Ca-paracaseinate crosslinked structure. The existence of this specific structure can be known by measuring the threading property value at the same soluble nitrogen content (%). In the cheese of the present invention, even if the values of both soluble nitrogen and non-protein nitrogen are the same as those of conventional cheese, the threading property is effectively large.

[Examples] Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference to Examples.

Example 1 Gouda cheese was produced in the following manner.

After sterilizing and cooling 150kg of milk (Fat = 2.8% and 2.0%) with adjusted fat percentage (raw milk processing step), when it reaches 30 ° C, BD-
CH01 (Hansen) Starter (Str.Cremoris, Str.Lac
(Tis etc.) 1%, heat for about 60 minutes (lactic acid fermentation process), add veal rennet (HR) 0.003% and let stand for about 30 minutes (rennetting process), cutting (size of curd grain) Was processed from adzuki bean to soybean grains (cutting step) and the following cooking step was performed.

・ Start heating after removing 1/3 amount of whey ・ Achieved temperature: 3 types of 38 ℃, 43 ℃, 55 ℃ ・ Warming speed: 1 ℃ / 3 minutes ・ Warming time: 90 minutes ・ End of heating After that, the remaining whey was removed, followed by pressing (0.35 Kg / cm ² ) (molding step) to obtain a cheese molded product. This was immersed in a 23% NaCl aqueous solution for 2 hours to make it a Lindless type and aged. Aging conditions are temperature 10
The temperature and humidity were 75 to 85%.

The results are shown in Tables 1 to 3 and FIG. Each value is obtained as follows.

(Stringiness test) Sample cheese is sampled in a 20 g petri dish and heated and melted at about 90 ° C for 1 minute. Next, this cheese was pulled up at a speed of 10 cm / s by a stringiness measuring machine and the length (cm) of the stringiness of the cheese was measured (an average of 5 times was taken as the length).

(Heat Meltability Test) Sample (cheese cut into cubes of 15 mm on a side was heated and melted for 2 minutes and 30 seconds with an oven toaster (230 ° C.), and the size (mm) of the cheese after heat melting was measured.

(Measurement of cheese maturity) (1) Sample solution: 10 g of cheese is sampled, 40 ml of 0.5N sodium citrate and 40 ml of distilled water are added thereto, and the mixture is ground in a homoblender for 5 minutes, then transferred to a volumetric flask and water is added to 200 ml.
The volume is fixed.

(2) Total nitrogen (TN): 10 ml of a sample was sampled and measured by the Kjeldahl method.

(3) Soluble nitrogen (STN): 1 ml of 1.41N hydrochloric acid in 100 ml of sample solution
After adding 0 ml and mixing, the volume was adjusted to 125 ml with distilled water. The produced protein precipitate was filtered, and 10 ml of the filtrate was collected and measured by the Kjeldahl method.

(4) Non-protein nitrogen (NPN): 24% in 20 ml of the filtrate of (3)
20 ml of trichloroacetic acid was added, and the mixture was allowed to stand for 30 minutes and filtered, and the resulting filtrate was collected and measured by the Kjeldahl method.

As shown in Table 1, those with the cooking temperature raised to 43 ° C and 55 ° C and those with the fat content reduced to 2.0% have good thread-pulling ability and have a long thread-pulling shelf life. I understand. By changing the cooking temperature conditions and the fat percentage in this way, a large difference occurs in the change in the thread-forming property according to the aging period, and basically by increasing the cooking temperature, the thread-forming property of the cheese is maintained for a long period of time. It was possible.

On the other hand, although the threading property changes depending on the maturity as shown in FIG. 1 and Table 1, by increasing the cooking temperature, good threading property could be maintained even when aging progressed. Specifically, when cheese is heated in the range of 43 to 55 ℃ when defined by the maturity index STN / TN, even if STN / TN is 15% or more, it is 40
It shows a good value of cm or more and another maturity index NPN /
Even if specified by TN, cheese heated in the range of 43 to 55 ° C
Even when NPN / TN was 10% or more, a good value of 40 cm or more was shown in the stringiness test.

The results of pH and heat melting property are shown in Tables 2 and 3. Immediately after the production, the pH increased as the cooking temperature increased to 43 ℃ and 55 ℃, but after about 1 to 2 weeks, the pH approached the value similar to that at 38 ℃, and then gradually increased. However, it was constant and stable at about pH 5.4. The heat meltability was insufficient immediately after production, but improved from about 1 week later, and remained stable and good level after 2 weeks or more. or,
No significant difference was found in the general analysis due to the difference in cooking temperature (Table 4), and there was no difference in flavor and texture, and all were recognized as delicious gouda cheese.

Example 2 Defatted cheese was produced in the following manner.

Skim milk (Fat = 0.1%) 150Kg using skim milk as raw material milk
When sterilized and cooled to a temperature of 30 ° C (raw milk treatment process), BD-CH01 (Hansen) starter (Str.Cremori
s, Str.Lactis etc.) is added 1%, and after preheating for 60 minutes (lactic acid fermentation process), 0.003% of calf rennet (HR) is added and allowed to stand for about 30 minutes (rennetting process). After the formation, cutting (the size of curd grains is from Azuki to soybean grains) (cutting process) was performed, and the following cooking process was carried out.

・ Start heating after removing 1/3 amount of whey ・ Achieved temperature: 3 types of 38 ℃, 43 ℃, 55 ℃ ・ Warming speed: 1 ℃ / 3 minutes ・ Warming time: 90 minutes ・ End of heating After that, the remaining whey was removed, followed by squeezing for 2 hours to perform a mold filling step to obtain a cheese molded product. This was immersed in a 23% NaCl aqueous solution for 2 hours to make it a Lindless type and aged. As a result, the results as shown in Table 5 were obtained regarding the stringiness. Cooking temperature is 43 ℃, 5
The higher the temperature was 5 ° C., the longer the stringy shelf life was, and the cheese with an appropriate tissue hardness could be made. This was a delicious cheese with no change in cheese flavor or texture.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to control the threading property by adjusting the cooking temperature, and appropriately produce an aged hard cheese having an appropriate threading property in accordance with the taste of the consumer group. It becomes possible to do.

Furthermore, the obtained cheese has a flavor and texture similar to those of conventional cheese, in addition to being excellent in stringiness retaining ability, and the technique of the present invention is very useful in the cheese industry. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a graph showing the relationship between ripening and stringiness of the cheese obtained in Example 1 of the present invention, where (a) is STN / TN as maturity, and (b) is ripening. NPN / as a degree
Shown is the TN.

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A soluble nitrogen maturity index (soluble nitrogen / total nitrogen × 100) obtained by controlling the temperature reached in the cooking step in the production of aged hard cheese to be in the temperature range of higher than 40 ° C. and lower than 55 ° C. Aged hard cheese having a stringiness of 40 cm or more in at least 15 to 25%. 2. A non-protein nitrogen maturity index (non-protein nitrogen / total nitrogen) obtained by controlling the temperature reached in the cooking step in the production of aged hard cheese to be in the temperature range of more than 40 ° C. and less than 55 ° C. Aged hard cheese having a stringiness of 40 cm or more in the range of (x100) of at least 10 to 20%. 3. A soluble nitrogen maturity index of at least 20-25%
The aged hard cheese according to claim 1, which has a stringiness of 60 cm or more in the range. 4. A non-protein nitrogen maturity index of at least 12 to 17
% In the range of 60% or more and the threading property is 60 cm or more.
Aged hard cheese according to. 5. The aged hard cheese according to any one of claims 1 to 4, which is classified as Gouda cheese. 6. A method for producing an aged hard cheese with improved stringiness, which is characterized in that in the production of an aged hard cheese, the temperature reached in the cooking step is heated to a range of 43 to 55 ° C. . 7. A raw material milk having a fat percentage of 3% or less is used.
The method for producing an aged hard cheese according to 1. 8. The method for producing an aged hard cheese according to claim 6, which is classified as Gouda cheese. 9. The method for producing an aged hard cheese according to claim 6, wherein the lactic acid bacterium starter used is a thermophilic bacterium starter.