Casein

    Casein has a wide variety of uses, from being a major component of cheese, to use as a food additive. In pure form, it is an amorphous white solid, tasteless and odourless, while its commercial type is yellowish with a pleasing odour. Cow’s milk contains about 3 percent casein.

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    Description

    Casein is usually made from skim milk (rarely from buttermilk), by one of three methods: naturally soured casein curdles when enough lactic acid develops from fermentation of milk sugar by the ever present bacterium Streptococcus lactisi; acid casein is precipitated by adding dilute hydrochloric acid or sulfuric acid; for rennet casein, warm skim milk is set with rennet extract until the calcium paracaseinate clots, after which the clot is cut into small pieces to allow the whey to drain. In all three methods the whey is drawn off, the curd washed with water, drained or pressed, dried in warm air, ground, and packed for sale. Rennet casein retains much of the calcium phosphate from the milk.

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