I don’t understand since to my knowledge they’re very similar compounds. Is something removed from the milk during the cheesemaking process that affects how it acts as it ages? Milk tends to go bad within a month but cheese can be aged for several years without becoming dangerous to consume.
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Cheese is not just old milk. Milk goes through many steps in the process to turn it into cheese. Aging is just one step. First, bacteria are added to the milk to start producing lactic acid to acidify the milk. Unlike old milk that has gone bad, these are not random bacteria, but specific bacterial strains that are chosen on purpose because they don’t make us sick *and* they have the desired effects on the milk. This bacteria also has the effect of “crowding out” bad bacteria. Next, an enzyme called rennet is added to the milk to make it solidify. When the milk solidifies, it separates into curds and whey. Next, the curds and whey are separated, and the curds are cut into various sizes depending on the type of cheese you are making. Next, salt is added (salt helps preserve the cheese and inhibits bacterial growth), and then the cheese is shaped. Then finally, it is ripened (aged) in very specific conditions and things like temperature and humidity are constantly monitored to ensure ideal ripening. During the aging process, some cheese have mold added, some are brined, some are aged for a long time, and some for not long at all.
So you see, cheese is not just leaving out milk until it gets old. It’s a long process with many steps to get from milk to cheese, and several of the steps inhibit spoilage.
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