Cheese Dip Recipe 3: Hot Jalapeño Cheese Dip

This recipe makes about 8 servings or 2 cups.


Ingredients:

½ cup ( or about 4 ounces) shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese


1 cup (or about 8 ounces) Muenster cheese finely shredded


1 cans (4 ounces) chopped green chilies


1 cup mayonnaise


1 loaf of sourdough bread, round


1 can (about 4 ounces) diced jalapeño peppers finely diced.

Method:

Get the oven preheated to 375 degrees. Combine the jalapeño peppers, Muenster cheese, extra sharp cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, and green chilies into a bowl. Cut the top off of the sourdough bread, and hollow out the center to make a bread bowl. Reserve the bread trimmings and set aside to dip into. Place in the oven and bake for about thirty minutes or until melted and warmed thoroughly. Serve with bread for dipping while still warm. If extra bread is needed for dipping try getting some small sourdough bread rolls and using them also.

Alternative Cheeses:

Jalapeño Cheddar, sharp cheddar, Colby Jack, Gouda

What is Syneresis As It Pertains To Cheese?

There are some great items in the dairy group on the food pyramid. Yogurt is delicious, so is sour cream, but many people favor cheese. There is something is to be said for a food that millions of children refuse to have a meal with out. As a person who likes to make everything from scratch I've often wondered what goes into the process of curds and whey. What I've found is a lengthy, complicated process that consistently begs this food to be compared to wine. Both items seemed to dawn with earliest mankind and offer both the cheap, mundane types and those for connoisseurs.

Cheese was made as a way to make the nutrients in milk last longer and travel easier. It came about in a process of fermenting the milk in animal stomachs. The stomach contains an enzyme called rennet which helps with this process by making the proteins form together as curds and the liquid to siphon off as whey. What most people don't know about curds is that they aren't really a solid, but considered a solid gel. Though storing milk in bags made of animal stomachs is an outdated means, rennet is still needed in the multiple steps of cheese making.

Syneresis occurs during the main three steps used in making this food. These are: The growth of bacteria from the rennet causes the initial process of curds and whey. The separation of the liquid from the curds is called syneresis. The next step is using mechanical tools to stir the curd grains. The third step is simultaneous with the second, and it's a heat treatment to the curds.

Once these three major steps have been applied to milk, we have our cheese curds. The curds are then put into molds that can be made from wood, plastic or metal, and come in any number of shapes. Weight is used to press them into shape. The characteristics of the cheese are formed during the treatment and pressing stages, but the taste comes from its time ripening.

However delicate the flavor or variety is you can be sure there is a lengthy process involved with creating the product you enjoy with your crackers or veggies. The next time you're in the store considering which type may be best to bring home for your next dinner party, consider the years of tradition and the time involved in making even the most simple of cheeses.

Cheese Dip Recipe 2: Beefy Cheese Dip

This dip makes about 9 cups.


Ingredients:

1 bunch of green onions, finely chopped


1 pound sausage mild or spicy


1 pound lean ground beef


1 16 ounce jar of salsa


2 pounds shredded cheddar cheese


bag of tortilla chips

Method:

In a large skillet brown the sausage and burger over a medium heat until done. Drain well. In another large skillet mix the salsa, and green onions, and the cheese and cook over slow heat until well melted. If cheese isn't melting well, a tablespoon of melted butter in a quarter cup of milk can be added to the mixture to smooth it out. Add heat to the cheese mixture and simmer uncovered until ready to serve. Place in a Crockpot to keep warm while being served or waiting to be served. Serve with tortilla chips.

Alternative Cheeses:

Jalapeño Cheddar, Colby Jack, Extra Sharp Cheddar, Italian Cheddar Cheese Curds

What Enzymes Are Used As Catalysts in Making Cheese?

Enzymes are what make milk curdle or coagulate. So milk requires enzymes if it is to become some form of cheese whether it is made from the milk of sheep, goats, cows or buffalo. If it is natural enzymes then the rennet comes from one of a calf stomachs, they have four. Calves have this enzyme because they require it in order to be able to digest their mother’s milk.
When using the natural or animal rennet it is best from calves who have not yet been weaned. If they are older calves there will be no Chymosin but they will have more pepsin. This can’t be used in all types of cheeses. Of course just as there is calf rennet there is also kid goat and lamb rennet.

There are alternatives to natural rennet. One technical name for rennet is Chymosin. But rennet actually contains two enzymes one is Chymosin the other is Pepsin. The alternatives to the animal rennet are enzymes created from microbes or vegetable enzymes for the vegetarian cheese consumer. Microbial rennet is laboratory grown for vegetarians from mold, fungus or yeast.

Then there is the genetically modified rennet or GMO. A GMO is made in a laboratory from a derivative of animal rennet which means a chemical substance from a parent substance which may be animal. There are some European countries that ban GMO rennet for sale in their country but allow its use for cheeses shipped to countries that allow it in cheeses.

Many European countries continue to use natural enzymes in making their traditional cheeses. These are more expensive than man or laboratory created enzymes. Microbial rennet is from Mucor Miehei or also known as a microbial coagulant which is accepted and is actually an extract of a type of mold that is nontoxic and nonpathogenic to humans. So it is safe to consume products using this form of enzyme.

Besides animal rennet there are other sources of rennet. It can be from certain plants and called vegetable rennet but it is rare to find it in North America. Vegetable rennet comes from very specific plants which have certain enzymes that can curdle milk.

Then there is FPC or Fermentation Produced Chymosin rennet introduced in 1990. It is very inexpensive to produce and is used almost extensively in mass cheese production in the US. This particular rennet comes under a cloud as it may be considered a generically altered product.

What Are the Best cheeses for the Lactose Intolerant?

If you are lactose intolerant you are that person who gets bloating, the runs and or cramps when they consume lactose and then your body can’t break it down. Lactose is the natural sugar present in milk and lactose when consumed is broken down by the lactose enzyme. If you are one of the millions of people who can’t tolerate and digest lactose it goes right to your large intestine and then turns into something that bacteria just loves. This is not an allergy to milk which is something different.

Different types of cheeses have different levels of lactose. There are some that have only trace levels of lactose and there are others that have quite a lot of lactose in them. The cheeses that have a small or trace amount of lactose are the ones that someone who is lactose intolerant may be able to eat. These are the ones such as parmesan, cheddar or Swiss which are naturally aged generally have less than 0.5 grams of lactose. Then during the processing most of the lactose is drained off with the remaining changing to lactic acid during the aging process. So this is the type of cheeses someone who is lactose intolerant may be able to consume without some bad reactions.

Generally if a cheese label says the sugar content is zero then there will be approximately one half gram per ounce of lactose in it. There are some brands of processed cheese that are actually lactose free too. The ones which have less than five grams of lactose are generally the ones that are not aged such as the fresh and not ripened ones like mozzarella or ricotta which contain more lactose than the aged cheeses.

The alternate is choosing ones that are created from soy beans or almonds. Soy cheeses will taste slightly nutty and also may be slightly sweet like a soy mozzarella. So someone who is lactose intolerant may in fact be able to consume specific ones. If in doubt as to how much lactose is in the product you must read the entire label. If there are any questions then you can always contact the maker of the product either by telephone or they may have an email address on the packaging. Because so many millions of people have a lactose intolerance it is a condition that is widely talked about and acknowledged so there are choices available.