Cheese Lab Conclusion

Cheese Lab Conclusion

By Akshat Patwardhan

Period 6

In this lab we asked the question, “What are the optimal conditions and curdling agents for making cheese?”. We found that chymosin, when hot and acidic, is the best condition and agent for making cheese. When we tested the evidence we found that the chymosin created curdles in 5 minutes. Even though the renin and buttermilk curdled in the same amount of time when acidic, chymosin beat both of them when it was basic. Chymosin curdled in 20 minutes when it was basic and buttermilk and renin did not even register during the 35 minute period. Also, chymosin and renin both tied on the times for the hot temperature test, which was 5 minutes, and the cold temperature test, which did not curdle in the time allotted, so the basic test was the factor that made chymosin the most optimal curdling agent to make cheese. This data supports our claim because this shows that the warm and acidic environments are the most effective when trying to make curdles.

While the data shows that chymosin is the best curdling agent, there could have been some errors. One error could be that the times of when the curdling agents made curdles could have been inaccurate because of the fact that we had to check for curdles every 5 minutes. The problem is what if the curdles formed in between the 5 minutes and we did not notice. This proves that the timings of when the different agents curdled could be inaccurate. This would affect the data because then the data with the timings would be off and then we would not know which curdling agent really was the fastest. Another error would be the number of layers the person was wearing while trying to make the curdles. This could be a problem because when we put the test tubes in our armpits to warm them, some people were wearing more layers than others. When you put on more layers, there is a possibility that the environment would be warmer than a person who is just wearing a t shirt. The effect of the number of layers a person wears would be that one test tube would be in a warmer atmosphere than the other test tubes causing the test tube in the warmer environment to have a better time because the enzyme will work faster to create curdles. Due to these errors, in future experiments I would recommend that everyone would wear the same amount of layers and that the timings of when to check for curdles would be shorter. For example, everyone should be wearing 2 layers and they should check for curdles every minute.

This lab was done to demonstrate and learn about the optimal conditions and curdling agents of making cheese. Also we learned about the different types of enzymes that make the cheese making process go faster, along with the conditions in which they work best in. Through this lab, we learned the concept of denaturing, the pH scale and its significance, and lastly we reinforced the idea of activation energy and how enzymes affect it. Based on my experience from this lab, I could apply the knowledge I have gotten from this experiment and use it for future experiments by putting the enzymes in the environment that suits them the best so that they can perform to their full potential.

	Time to Curdle(Minutes)
Curdling Agent:	Chymosin	Rennin	Buttermilk	Milk (Control)
Acid	5	5	5
Base	20
ph Control	15	10
Cold
Hot	5	5
Temp Control	10	10