How do they make different flavors of cheese if the only ingredient is milk?
Depends on what kind of cheese you’re talking about. The basis of most cheese is milk — cow, goat, camel, or what have you. In the making of hard cheese, rennet (the lining of a calf’s stomach) is added to the milk and the whole thing cooked until curds form. The curds are then put in a cheese press to remove the water, and once the mass is hardened, the cheese can be sold as such or further aged. Soft cheese is soured milk that’s cooked until the curds separate. They’re drained over a period of several days and allowed to age, then placed over heat with a small amount of cream, salt, and often a lump of butter. The curds melt together with the other ingredients and are put in a container to cool. (Note: there are some soft cheese recipes that do involve eggs, but I don’t have any more information or a recipe.) Soy “cheese” can be made from tofu and other ingredients — one of which is often casein. Casein is a dairy product, which means that it’s not suitable for a strict vegan diet.
