Curdle Conclusion

In this experiment we wanted to find the optimal conditions and curdling agents for making cheese.  We found that the best curdling agents  were acidic and hot with the enzyme chymosin. When the milk/enzyme solution was cold or basic, or when the enzyme added was buttermilk or none,  then it did not curdle at all.  When the curdling agent was acid, both chymosin and rennin took 5 minutes to curdle. When the curdling agent was Hot, chymosin took 5 minutes to curdle and rennin took 10 minutes.  When the curdling agent was basic or cold, neither chymosin or rennin curdled.  Research shows that enzymes speed up the milk curdling process, by helping to break apart the substrate caesin. In other words, more product in less time.  This data supports our claim because we found that by using the enzymes chymosin and rennin we speed up the reaction, allowing us to test it or make more curdles, before the untouched milk is even done with the first reaction.

While our hypothesis was supported by our data, there could have been errors due to the enzyme/milk not being checked at exactly the right time. Instead of 5 minutes, it could have been checked at 5:15 or 4:55. This could have changed our findings because the milk could have curdled at exactly 5 minutes and if we checked it before then we could come to the conclusion that it wasn’t curdled and wait another 5 minutes.  Also, we could have inaccurately measured the enzyme. If we put too much we could have sped up the process, and too little we could have slowed it down, thus warping the timed results. Due to these errors, in future labs I would recommend that we have three people dropping the enzyme in, and three more people putting the solution in each temperature setting. By doing this it would make the setup not only faster but also more accurately timed. When one person measured and dropped each enzyme in, each solution was put into its temperature setting at different times, and thus producing inaccurate results. We could have also been standing right next to each temperature setting so that right as the clock hit 5:00 minutes we could have checked the enzyme/ milk solution and made our results much more accurate.

This lab was done to demonstrate the effects of enzymes such as chymosin and rennin on the time it takes to curdle milk, or make cheese. In a larger sense, this lab showed the effect of enzymes on their substrate, and what their product is. It showed just how much enzymes speed up reactions.  From this lab I learned the full extent of the enzyme’s work, and which conditions (temperature and pH) they work best in,  which helps me understand the concept of how they work and why the conditions affect them. Based on my experience from this lab, I now am fully convinced that I could make cheese using rennin or chymosin, by using my knowledge of their prime conditions and about the cheese making process.