JP2012050361A - Natural cheese - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide new natural cheese excellent in the flavor and texture as the flavor characteristic of natural cheese, formed by adding lactobacillus and milk clotting enzyme to milk, heating and stirring the milk after clotting, loading a card with reduced water content by removing whey into a mold, and aging via a step of adding salt, is gently formed in the aging, and the flavor and texture is greatly changed according to conditions for aging in a long period of time.SOLUTION: The natural cheese excellent in the flavor and texture can be obtained by containing 100-1,000 ppm of butyric acid and 50-300 ppm of caproic acid as aromatic components, or containing at least 150 ppm of free fatty acid content, 200-500 ppm of acetoin, at least 1 ppm of hexanal and 1-20 ppm of diacetyl as aromatic components.

Description

  The present invention relates to a novel natural cheese and a method for producing the same.

  Natural cheese has a wide variety of flavors, textures, and textures depending on the production process, and factors such as milk quality, milk processing methods, lactic acid bacteria, enzymes, bacteria, mold, and aging conditions are factors that contribute to flavor development. Listed as big. In recent years, with the widespread use of natural cheese, natural cheeses with various flavors and textures have come to the market. For example, hard natural cheeses such as gouda cheese, cheddar cheese, grana cheese, and parmesan cheese have characteristic flavors due to lactic acid bacteria, proteins due to the action of enzymes, and flavor components produced by lipolysis and aromatic components during ripening. .

These natural cheeses are prepared by adding lactic acid bacteria and milk coagulation enzyme to milk, coagulating, heating and stirring, filling a curd that has been reduced in water content by eliminating whey, and aging through a salting step. Natural cheese-specific flavor is slowly formed during ripening, and the flavor and texture change greatly depending on long-term aging conditions.
As a ripening method of hard natural cheese, a Linded method in which wax or resin is applied or coated on the surface of natural cheese or a Lindless method in which vacuum packaging with a film is used is known as a typical method. The Linded method is used as a method in which lactic acid bacteria and enzymes act more greatly than the Lindless method, and the cheese flavor is further enhanced.
A method has been proposed to improve the flavor and texture by devising the ripening conditions of natural cheese. For example, mold cheese is ripened under oxygen deficiency and has a different flavor from normal ripening (under aerobic). A cheese manufacturing method (Patent Document 1), in which small-sized natural cheese is packaged under oxygen deficiency and secondary processing such as pulverization after ripening is not required. Yes.
In recent years, consumption of natural cheese in Japan has been on an increasing trend, but it is still about 1/10 of that in Europe. This is due to the fact that natural cheese has a long history in Europe, and many natural cheeses have been developed to suit the tastes of the European people.

Japanese Patent No. 3370815 JP-A-9-107881

  This invention makes it a subject to provide the natural cheese which suited Japanese taste.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present inventors have conducted intensive research. In order to obtain natural cheese that has high palatability for the Japanese, the fragrance component content and the like are included in a specific range. It came.

That is, the present invention includes the following aspects.
(1) Natural cheese containing 100 to 1000 ppm of butyric acid and 50 to 300 ppm of caproic acid as aroma components.
(2) Natural cheese characterized by containing free fatty acid content of 150 ppm or more, acetoin 200 to 500 ppm, hexanal 1 ppm or more, and diacetyl 1 to 20 ppm as aroma components.
(3) The natural cheese according to (1) or (2), wherein the saturated fatty acid content is 55 to 65%.
(4) The natural cheese according to (3), wherein the free amino acid content is 500 to 2000 mg / 100 g, and the glutamic acid content is 100 to 400 mg / 100 g.
(5) The natural cheese according to (4), wherein the salt content is 1.7% to 1.9% and the pH is 5.4 to 5.7.

  The natural cheese of the present invention has a preferred flavor and texture not found in the past, and is highly palatable to the Japanese.

In the natural cheese of the present invention, a general method for producing natural cheese can be applied as it is. However, in the present invention, 100 to 1000 ppm of butyric acid and 50 to 300 ppm of caproic acid are contained as aroma components, or 200 to 500 ppm of acetoin, 1 ppm or more of hexanal and 1 to 20 ppm of diacetyl are contained as aroma components. adjust. The adjustment of the aroma component, aging period and, can be done by selecting the type of lactic acid bacteria to be used, for example, Lactococcus as lactic acid bacteria lactis subsp. Lactis, Lactococcuslactis subsp. Cremoris, Lactococcus lactis subsp. Lactis biovar diacetylactis, Leuconostoc By using mesenteroides subsp. mesenteroides , Streptococcusthermophilus , Lactobacillus delbruecki subsp. bulgaricus , butyric acid can be contained at 100 to 1000 ppm and caproic acid at 50 to 300 ppm.

  The present invention is also characterized in that the saturated fatty acid content is 55 to 65% of the total fatty acid content. This can be adjusted by selectively using raw milk having a saturated fatty acid content of 55 to 65% of the total fatty acid content in raw milk used as a raw material for natural cheese.

  In addition, it is possible to obtain a good flavor by setting the free amino acid content to 500 to 2000 mg / 100 g and the glutamic acid content to 100 to 400 mg / 100 g. Is possible. The lactic acid bacteria that can be used in the present invention are not particularly limited as long as they are lactic acid bacteria that are generally used in cheese production. However, in order to adjust the aroma component and free amino acid content, it is necessary to take measures such as shortening the aging period if the enzyme activity is strong, and increasing the aging period if the enzyme activity is weak.

  In the present invention, a more preferable flavor can be obtained by setting the salt content to 1.7 to 1.9% and the pH to 5.4 to 5.7, but these can be adjusted by the salting concentration or the aging temperature. Good.

  In the present invention, by adjusting values such as the aroma component content and the saturated fatty acid content in a specific range as described above, a novel natural cheese suitable for Japanese taste can be produced.

  Examples of the present invention will be described in detail below, and comparative examples will be shown to clarify the effects of the present invention. However, an Example is one of the aspects of this invention, and this invention is not limited to an Example.

(Manufacture of cheddar cheese 1)
Several kinds of cheddar cheese were produced using raw milk having a saturated fatty acid content of 55 to 65% of the total fatty acid content, adjusted so that the fat percentage in the cheese was 20 to 40%. That is, the raw milk with adjusted fat percentage was sterilized at 75 ° C. for 15 seconds, cooled to 30 ° C., and 0.01% calcium chloride was added. Next, 15 units of commercially available lactic acid bacteria starter ( Lactococcus lactis subsp. Lactis , Lactococcuslactis subsp. Cremoris ): 100 units of these raw material milk and a lactic acid bacteria starter for flavor improvement were added. And placed in a cheese vat with a jacket. After 30 minutes to 1 hour, 3 g of calf rennet (HR: manufactured by Christian Hansen) was added and allowed to stand still. The milk was coagulated, and after about 30 minutes, the cheese curd was cut into a 6-8 mm cube and stirred, and whey was allowed to flow out of the cheese curd while gently stirring. In order to promote whey spill, the curd and whey mixture was warmed to 38 ° C. with 1 ° C./3 minutes heating. Two hours after the start of stirring, when the titrated acidity of whey reached 0.2%, curd and whey were separated to obtain curd grains. The card was transferred to a continuous acid generation and matting process called a cheddaring process, and the cards were turned upside down and stacked to form a block. This was performed until the titrated acidity of the exuded whey reached 0.8%. The card after cheddaring was finely cut into 20 mm cubes, and the card grain was salted so that the salt content in the product was 1.7 to 1.9%, and then packed and pressed. Thereafter, aging is performed for about 7 months in an aging chamber set at 10 ° C. so that the pH after aging is 5.4 to 5.7, and the desired aging cheddar cheese (Example products 1-1 to 1-1) -4) was obtained. Moreover, the ripening period was appropriately adjusted by the same method to obtain cheddar cheese (Comparative Example Products 1-1 to 1-4).

[Test Example 1]
Table 1 shows the fatty acid composition, salt content, pH, free amino acids, aroma components, and sensory evaluation results for the obtained hard natural cheese. The fatty acid composition was measured by gas chromatography (6890N manufactured by Agilent) using SP-2560 (manufactured by Superco) as the column after extracting lipids from cheese and converting it to fatty acid methyl ester by the BF3-methanol method. . The detector used was FID. Salinity was measured by the Forhardt method. The pH was measured with a glass electrode after 40 mL of water was added to 12 g of cheese and mixed and pulverized sufficiently. Free amino acids were measured with an amino acid analyzer. The aromatic component was measured by a gas chromatography-mass spectrometer after concentrating the aromatic component of natural cheese by a solid phase microextraction (SPME method). In the above method, 50/30 μm divinylbenzene / carboxene / polydimethylsiloxane was used as the fiber. The quantitative determination of the aroma component was calculated by the internal standard method. The reagent used as the internal standard was 2-methyl-2-butenal (Sigma Aldrich). 1 g of the ground sample and the internal standard were placed in a 20 mL vial, filled with nitrogen gas, and sealed with a silicon septum and an aluminum cap. The aromatic component was volatilized in the container for 10 minutes at 37 ° C., and 50/30 μm divinylbenzene / carboxene / polydimethylsiloxane fiber was exposed and adsorbed for 60 minutes.
The fiber in which the aromatic component was concentrated and adsorbed was inserted into the inlet of gas chromatography (GC6890N manufactured by Agilent Technologies) and the fiber was exposed to desorb the adsorbed aromatic component. The column was a capillary column (DB-5 inner diameter 0.32 mm, length 60 m, liquid phase thickness 0.32 μm; manufactured by J & B), and carrier gas used was nitrogen and helium. The mass spectrometer (MSD5973 made by Agilent Technologies) was used, and ionization was performed by EI method (electron ionization method). The area area was calculated from the obtained total ion chromatogram, and quantitative calculation was performed. The results are shown in Table 2.

(sensory evaluation)
The test method was performed by 73 panelists, “texture (hardness)”, “acidity”, “umami”, “strength of aftertaste” of Example products 1-1 to 1-4 and Comparative products 1-1 to 1-4. The average score was calculated based on a 7-point evaluation. The scale given to the panel is shown in Table 1. In addition, as “comprehensive evaluation”, ◎ (preferred), ○ (slightly preferable), △ (slightly unfavorable), and × (not preferable) were evaluated, and the evaluation with the largest number of people was defined as “comprehensive evaluation”. . The results are shown in Table 3.

  From the results of Table 2 and Table 3, all of the Example products 1-1 to 1-4 satisfied the requirements defined in the present invention in all of the salt concentration, hardness, pH, fatty acid content, and amino acid content. Moreover, in the sensory evaluation, the example products 1-1 to 1-4 showed good results in all items compared to the comparative example products 1-1 to 1-4. From this, it was clarified that natural cheese with high palatability was obtained by setting the aroma component content, the free amino acid content, etc. within a specific range.

(Manufacture of cheddar cheese 2)
Several kinds of cheddar cheese were produced using raw milk having a saturated fatty acid content of 55 to 65% of the total fatty acid content, adjusted so that the fat percentage in the cheese was 20 to 40%. That is, the raw milk with adjusted fat percentage was sterilized at 75 ° C. for 15 seconds, then cooled to 30 ° C., and 0.01% calcium chloride was added. Next, 15 units of commercially available lactic acid bacteria starter ( Lactococcus lactis subsp. Lactis , Lactococcuslactis subsp. Cremoris ): 100 units of these raw material milk and a lactic acid bacteria starter for flavor improvement were added. And placed in a cheese vat with a jacket. After 30 minutes to 1 hour, 3 g of calf rennet (HR: manufactured by Christian Hansen) was added and allowed to stand still. The milk was coagulated, and after about 30 minutes, the cheese curd was cut into a 6-8 mm cube and stirred, and whey was allowed to flow out of the cheese curd while gently stirring. In order to promote whey spill, the curd and whey mixture was warmed to 38 ° C. with 1 ° C./3 minutes heating. Two hours after the start of stirring, when the titrated acidity of whey reached 0.2%, curd and whey were separated to obtain curd grains. The card was transferred to a continuous acid generation and matting process called a cheddaring process, and the cards were turned upside down and stacked to form a block. This was performed until the titrated acidity of the exuded whey reached 0.8%. The card after cheddaring was finely cut into 20 mm cubes, and the card grain was salted so that the salt content in the product was 1.7 to 1.9%, and then packed and pressed. Thereafter, aging is performed for about 7 months in an aging chamber set at 10 ° C. so that the pH after aging is 5.4 to 5.7, and the desired aging cheddar cheese (Example products 2-1 to 2). -4) was obtained. Moreover, the ripening period was appropriately adjusted by the same method to obtain cheddar cheese (Comparative Example Products 2-1 to 2-4).

[Test Example 2]
Each parameter and sensory evaluation were performed in the same manner as in Test Example 1. The results are shown in Table 4 and Table 5.

  From the results of Table 4 and Table 5, all of the Example products 2-1 to 2-4 satisfied the requirements defined in the present invention in all of the salt concentration, hardness, pH, fatty acid content, and amino acid content. Moreover, in the sensory evaluation, the example products 2-1 to 2-4 showed good results in all items compared to the comparative example products 2-1 to 2-4. From this, it was clarified that natural cheese with high palatability was obtained by setting the aroma component content, the free amino acid content, etc. within a specific range.

(Manufacture of Gouda cheese)
The raw material milk adjusted to a fat content of 2.8% by weight was sterilized with a plate type sterilizer at 75 ° C. for 15 seconds, and then cooled to 30 ° C. Lactic acid bacteria starter ( Lactococcus lactis subsp. Lactis , Lactococcus lactis subsp. Cremoris , Lactococcus lactis subsp. Lactis biovar diacetylactis , Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. Mesenteroides , manufactured by Christian Hansen) Add and place in a jacketed cheese vat. After 1 hour, 3 g of calf rennet (HR: Christian Hansen) was added and allowed to stand still. When about 30 minutes passed, milk coagulation occurred, and after 5 minutes from the start of coagulation, the cheese curd was cut into 10 mm cubes using a cheese knife. After cutting, the whey was poured out from the cheese curd while gently stirring. In order to promote the whey spill, the curd and whey mixture was heated to 38 ° C. with 1 ° C./2 minutes heating. Two hours after the start of stirring, the curd and whey were separated, and the entire curd was placed in a 10 kg capacity cheese mold and pressed for 2 hours with a load of 140 kg using a vertical press. After pressing, it was immersed in 20% saline (10 ° C.) for 48 hours for salting, and after salting, it was aged in a 10 ° C. aging cabinet to obtain Gouda cheese.

Claims (5)

  Natural cheese characterized by containing 100 to 1000 ppm of butyric acid and 50 to 300 ppm of caproic acid as aroma components.   Natural cheese characterized by containing 150 ppm or more of free fatty acid content, 200 to 500 ppm of acetoin, 1 ppm or more of hexanal, and 1 to 20 ppm of diacetyl as aroma components.   The natural cheese according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the saturated fatty acid content is 55 to 65%.   4. The natural cheese according to claim 3, wherein the free amino acid content is 500 to 2000 mg / 100 g and the glutamic acid content is 100 to 400 mg / 100 g.   The natural cheese according to claim 4, wherein the salt content is 1.7% to 1.9% and the pH is 5.4 to 5.7.