Lipase Systems Used in the Manufacture of Italian Cheese. I. General Characteristics

In the traditional method of manufacturing Provolone and Romano cheese crude rennet pastes are used. The importance of these pastes to characteristic flavor development in the cheese has been demonstrated in recent work, and this effect has been attributed to lipase supplied by these products (4, 9). Since these crude rennet pastes are generally considered unacceptable because of their impurity, 'cheesemakers in this country have utilized a variety of other enzyme products. The success of these products in duplicating the characteristic flavor which results from the use of rennet pastes has been shown to depend upon the presence of fat-splitting enzyme systems (4). More specifically, evidence has been obtained which indicates that tile importance of rennet pastes and other enzyme products is related to the production of free butyric acid resulting from lipase action (5). Limited evidence has revealed that some lipases, such as pancreatic, cannot be utilized successfully in the manufacture of Italian cheese (4).