Courtesy of Fresno State Dairy Processing

Like wine tasting, cheese tasting is a part of culture. But culture is also a part of cheese.

That’s because steps in making Fresno State’s homegrown cheese involve adding culture, another word for bacteria, to the curdling milk to create the pungent flavor of the familiar dairy product.

The campus’ cheese is sold exclusively at the Farm Market, and is made at the nearby dairy processing plant under the supervision of Daniel Avila, 37, a manager of the plant and an instructional support technician.

The cheeses currently at the Farm Market are pepper jack, white cheddar and white cheddar with dill.

“Once we started putting cheese out in the Farm Market, people really liked it,” Avila said. “I think it’s just that, the more variety of dairy products that we have over there, the more people are willing to try something different.”

The whole cheese-making process starts with pasteurization. Pasteurization is the heating of milk, to at least 161 degrees Fahrenheit, to kill off harmful bacteria. Even after pasteurization some bacteria remain, which is why dairy products require proper refrigeration.

Non-pasteurized milk is also used to make cheese.

The milk, pasteurized or not, is pumped into a cheese vat. When Avila started making cheese at the campus in the 1990s, the old vat did not have hoses and needed to be filled manually by pouring milk from milk cans.

The milk is raised to a certain temperature before culture is added. Cheddar and monterey jack require a temperature of 90 F.

After this, rennet, a coagulant, is added. The rennet gelatinizes the cheese into a curdy state. The cheese is cut with a cheese harp, a hand held tool with several blades, to open it up and allow the moisture to air out.

During this time, the pH levels of the cheese are tracked to a desired level, depending on the type of cheese being made.

Once the cheese has curdled into its whey and is drained, it is salted and any seasonings, such as peppers or tomatoes, are added. It is then placed in a mold, to form bricks of cheese, or a hoop, to form a wheel of cheese.

The mold or the hoop is either pressed with a cheese press, or left to sit. The amount of pressure on the cheese will determine its malleability. Feta, a crumbly cheese, is only pressed under its own weight. Cheddar is more bendable and receives 40 to 50 pounds per square inch of pressure.

After the cheese is pressed, it is aged in a cooler at 45 F to 50 F. The age of the cheese will determine its sharpness in flavor. Mild cheddar takes four to five months, five to nine months for medium cheddar and nine to 12 months for sharp cheddar. Parmesan can take more than two years.

When the cheese has aged, it is stored in another cooler at 34 F to 35 F.

When it is ready to be sold, it is sliced, packaged and shipped off to the nearby Farm Market.

Brianna Wilson, 20, a dietetics major who works at the Farm Market, said the local community has received the cheese well, and white cheddar is their biggest seller.

“All of our dairy products are 10 times better than store-bought,â€Â Wilson said.