Dynamics of soluble nitrogen compounds during the making of Kachkaval cheese

Za našu zemlju i njeno sirarstvo kačkavalj ima određeni ekonomski i veliki tehnološki značaj. Ekonomski značaj se ogleda, pored ostalog, i u tome što je to jedini naš tvrdi sir koji se stalno izvozi i kojim za sada možemo jedino da konkuriramo na stranom tržištu.The Dynamics of soluble Nitrogen compounds during the Making of Kachkaval Cheese. The Kachkaval cheese making consists of two nearly independent parts. 1. the obtening of the curd that is submitted to cheddaring and 2. the immersion of the acidified curd into hot water in order to obtain a ductile, plastic, dough like mass to which the desired forms may be given. The specificity of Kachkaval making led us to investigate the degree of protein changes and the losses of soluble nitrogen during the production of this cheese. The results obtained in these experiments reveal that during cheddaring the breakdown of proteins takes place with the appearance of fractions of soluble nitrogen (including aminoacids) which are characteristic for cheese ripening. The heat treatment of the curd causes a loss of soluble nitrogen as the result of washing out and partial coagulation of the heat coagulable proteins and this fact leads to the necessity of searching for new methods of heat treatment of the acidified curd. The changes of proteins during making of Kachkaval cheese must be regarded as very important when we have in mind that 4.45 % of the total proteins is in the form of soluble nitrogen and over 50 % in the form of the so called monocalciumparacaseinate, which is of primary importance in Kachkaval cheese making and for rheological properties of the product