(4 units) Spring quarter, Alternative Years
Course goals: The course is designed to introduce and discuss issues related to compositional and physico-chemical aspects of milk and their implications on cheese making.
Course Format: Course consists of 2 weekly lectures, 2 hours each, and 4 cheese introduction, discussion and tasting evening sessions. The student’s knowledge assessment will be based on a midterm, a final, a term-paper and the presentation of the term-paper. Details instructions about the term-paper and its presentation will be provided.
Restrictions: The course is a graduate-level course that is also offered to senior undergraduate students with an appropriate background in biochemistry and microbiology and with the instructor’s consent.
Topical Outline:
- enzymatic, microbiological and physical aspects of cheese making
- cheese as a biological composite
- the architectural features of cheese curd
- cheese curd as a specifically-designed platform for the manifestation of desired biochemical, chemical, microbiological and physical interactions
- the biological and physical design of cheese quality attributes
- The biochemical, microbiological and physical aspects of cheese aging and the development of cheese quality attributes
- During the 4 evening sessions: Cheeses from all over the world will be introduced, tasted, and discussed to highlight specific aspects that are unique to the specific cheeses and are relevant to the course topics.