How Does Milk Affect Milk

How Do Different Acidic Substances Effect the Mass of the Curd Formed?

Purpose The purpose of the experiment was to discover which acidic substances increase or decrease the mass of curd formed with said substances. Background Information Milk is a nutrient-rich liquid found in the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for all newborn mammals, and is made up of water, lactose, proteins, and minerals. Curds are a solid dairy product achieved by the curdling, or coagulation, of milk. Historically, curds are most often used in the production of cheese. Curds are achieved by the denaturing of proteins in milk, particularly caseins, which is a protein group that helps with the development of children and young
The denaturing is done simply by the lowering of the pH of the milk by the addition of acid. Adding acid to the milk essentially unravels the proteins which leads them to band together into small clumps (Lawandi, Kitchn). These small clumps are the formed curds. The milk that does not clump together is the whey. Acids used in the curdling of milk have to be edible, as the goal of milk coagulation is to achieve a product that you can eat. This lowers the amount of possible acids you can use substantially. The most common acids used are vinegar, citrus juice, and buttermilk. Professional cheesemakers also use rennet, an enzyme found in the stomachs of mammals that naturally curdles milk (NE Cheesemaking Supply Co.). In this project, vinegar, lemon juice, and buttermilk will be used to compare the masses of curds with different pHs.
Hypothesis
If I use lemon juice, which has a pH of 2, then the curds will have a larger mass than if I added vinegar, which has a pH of 2.4 and buttermilk, which has pH of
This can be concluded by looking at the data and seeing that 2/3 times, lemon juice was superior to vinegar and buttermilk. The one fault with this data collection was Trial 1, in which lemon juice resulted in a curd with a mass of 1.3g, and vinegar had 2.1g. This outlier can be explained by citing small issues with the experiment, such as unequal measurements of acids and different stirring times.

Conclusion
The collected data shows that lemon juice results in the curds with the highest mass, therefore supporting the hypothesis. In trials two and three, lemon juice resulted in curds with masses of 3.2g and 4.05g, while vinegar and buttermilk resulted in curds with masses of 2g, 2.3g, .5g, and 1.1g. Trial one seems to have been tampered with or contaminated because of unequal measurements, stirring time, and draining time, because in this trial vinegar was the acid that provided the largest curds. The superiority of lemon juice in milk curdling can be explained by looking at the proteins in milk, and how acidity affects them. Adding acidic substances to milk denatures the proteins called caseins, causing them to rip apart and bond together in a phenomenon called coagulation. Logically, the higher the pH the more the caseins denature and rip apart, resulting in more separate pieces that can coagulate to form milk curds. This study answers the