Comment on Real milk proteins, no cows: Engineered bacteria pave the way for vegan cheese and yogurt
themeatbridge@lemmy.world 6 days agoCasein is the primary protein in milk, and it has a ton of uses. Humans have been consuming animal milks for a very long time, and milk is a key ingredient in a lot of food. Baking, emulsifying, cooking, fermenting, it’s the casein that makes the milk magic.
Some people can be allergic to casein, but far more lack the digestive enzyme to break down lactose. Lactose is what the yeast and bacteria ferment with in cheese and yogurt, but casein is the protein that holds it all together. Conceivably, you could use a different sugar and still get something that sort of resembles cheese and yogurt, but you have a much harder time replacing the casein.
kayohtie@pawb.social 5 days ago
A local friend has the casein allergy. It sucks, cause there’s a lot of baked goods and food in general she can’t have. I struggle sometimes in baking becaus even butter contains it, and plant butters never quite perfectly match with real butter.
At least plant-based heavy cream works well enough. Lacks the dairy taste but it still works and whips nicely even in a cream whipper.