The quality of indigenous sheep milk and its paneer and cheese

Abstract

Indian sheep produce small quantity of milk to meet their offspring requirement and contribute little to human nutrition. Major portion of sheep milk is consumed as fluid milk and in certain areas convert into ghee and dahi. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the quality of sheep milk and cheese and paneer prepared from it. Sheep milk was collected from experimental animals of Animal Nutrition Division. The pH, titratable acidity and specific density of sheep was 6.13, 0.20 and 1.01 respectively. Sheep milk contained 16.70 % total solids, 5.22% proteins, 7.26% fat, 3.09% lactose and 1.12 % total ash. Effect of two acidulants: acetic and citric acid was evaluated in paneer. The yield of paneer was significantly higher (P<0.05) in paneer made by acetic acid (0.048%) than citric acid (2.00%). The moisture and fat content of T1 paneer (2% citric acid) was 46.17 and 17.86 and that of T2 paneer (0.048% acetic acid) was 45.08 and 18.11 % respectively. The yield of paneer was 23.25 and 28.25% for T1 and T2. The sensory attributes of the paneer were numerically higher for T2. Texture profile indicated that, hardness, gumminess and chewiness were significantly lower in T2 samples. Mozzarella cheese was prepared from sheep milk and evaluated. The yield of mozzarella cheese was 10%. The moisture and dry matter content of mozzarella cheese was 55.90 and 44.10%. The sensory attributes were acceptable. The findings of the study indicated that, sheep milk is nutrient dense and could be processed into value added products. The paneer made by using acetic acid, gave higher yields and desirable soft texture.