The given diagram illustrates the process of making cheese from raw milk.
The process of cheese making starts with raw milk. While traditional cheese makers would perform coagulation on the raw milk as their first step due to the high quality of milk, most commerical cheese making utilizes a few intermediate steps. The milk is pasteurized and then sent over for standardization and filtration. In the process of coagulation, fermenting microorganisms and an enzyme known as rennet is added to obtain curds and whey.
The curds are further cut into smaller pieces and is cooked while being stirred continuously. Once the curds are adequately cooked, the whey is drained and the curds advance to the milling station wherein they are ground finely and salted to provide that typical savoury flavour. This is where one would stop if the goal was to produce fresh cheeses like cottage and cream cheese.
To make aged cheeses, the salted cheese mixture is poured into molds and pressed to form a cohesive cheese brick. The wheels of cheese are then shelved to age and ripen. This is done for the cheese to develop more complex flavours. Once ripened, the cheese is ready to be cut into and enjoyed with your favourite dish.
