Cheese from donkey milk was never produced by traditional way. Research suggests that asinine milk by bovine chymosin form a very weak gel compared to the gel formed from bovine milk and with out curd formation.  Encyclopedia of Dairy Sciences 2nd edition reported that no cheese is made from donkey milk, due to its particular caseinic composition that makes inefficient the traditional rennet coagulation. However, the author has recently discovered that pure camel chymosin is able to clot effectively the casein micelles of donkey milk. This investigation is aimed at experimental manufacturing of donkey cheese through pure camel chymosin. A total of five experiments were included in the present investigation. Before making cheese, the raw donkey milk samples were analyzed for their physico-chemical composition in order to better evaluate the successive properties of fresh donkey cheese. Cheese making using pure camel chymosin gave a yield of about 3.32% of fresh donkey cheese, however relative to the content of protein and fat of donkey milk. The fresh cheese after 12 h in molds, had a good content in total solids (35.65%). The low pH in cheese, after 30 min from the production (pHat 30 min 5.34), shows the efficient activity of starter cultures in asses' milk, and allows a good protection against pathogens agents. This application represents an informative step for further trials and could be useful for industrial scale cheese processing of donkey milk. More research is needed to study the mechanism of enzymatic coagulation in equid species and if donkey cheese can be addressed, such donkey milk, as alternative food for people suffering from food allergies.

 

Key words: Donkey milk, camel chymosin, donkey cheese, milk clotting enzyme.