New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 239 



Table VI. — {Concluded.) 



(i) The process of cheese-ripening.— When cheese ripens, the 

 most prominent change taking place is in the nitrogen com- 

 pounds. The casein of milk is changed by the action of rennet- 

 enzymes into curd, chemically known as paracasein. In the 

 process of cheese-making, lactic acid is formed and this unites 

 with the paracasein, forming a compound known as paracasein 

 monolactate.i It is this compound that imparts to cheese-curd 

 the property of forming fine strings on a hot iron and it is the 

 formation of this paracasein monolactate that accounts for the 

 changes in appearance, plasticity and texture of cheese-curd 

 during the process of cheddaring. Moreover, there is reason to 

 believe that the changes that take place in the process of cheese- 



(1) Bull. No. 214, N. Y. Agr. Exp. Sta. (1902.) 



