Why does some cheese melt smoothly but others get crunchy?
In: Other
It’s about the moisture content. More moisture in a cheese means there’s more room for the milk proteins and they aren’t so dense, which is what makes them meltier.
There are a lot of variables but the two biggest are that there are 2 ways that cheese is made.
1. Enzyme (rennet is used to make the curds) made cheese (i.e. mozzarella, swiss, etc), which will melt gooey.
2. Acid based (some type of acid is made to change the PH of the milk or whey and denatures the proteins which wrap around the fat molecules to make the curds) cheeses (i.e. feta, cottage cheese, ricotta, queso blanco, etc) which will soften with heat, but not melt.
So the acid based cheeses will never get melty and gooey, but the rennet based ones will, though the additional variables which will contribute to how the rennet based cheeses will soften and pull are how much moisture content they have, fat %, how they are aged, and few other ones.
Latest Answers