Maribo cheese manufactured with concentrated milk: characteristics, maturation and yield

Research was carried out to study the feasibility of making maribo cheese using milk fortified by the addition of skim milk powder. A control (T-C) with 82 g l^-1 solids-non-fat (SNF) and 32 g l^-1 milk fat was included, along with three treatments with 11.7 (T-1), 14.6 (T-2) and 16.6 g l^-1 SNF (T-3) and standardization of the milk fat. Some chemical characteristics of the cheese milks and of the endproducts were studied and, in addition, cheese yield and the progress of maturation were monitored. It was observed that, as maturation proceeded in all treatments, there was a steady increase in the ripening index (soluble nitrogen/total nitrogen %), which indicates a progressive advance of proteolysis. Nevertheless, there were significant differences (p <.05) between the ripening indices of the control and the rest of the treatments. Furthermore, as the extent of maturation increased, α_sl-casein was degraded more than β-casein. The yield of cheese increased proportionally as the concentration of non-fat-solids in the milk increased.