227 Fauxmage

Cheesy and Fondue learn about non-dairy cheese. We talk about ancient fermented tofu. We find out about alternates to milk like rice, mealworms, seaweed and AI produced casein. And of course, we tell a very cheesy joke!

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Why is cheddar the most dangerous of all the cheeses? Because it is very sharp!

Show Notes

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-rice-based-cheese-possibility.html

https://www.soyinfocenter.com/HSS/fermented%20_tofu1.php

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11322691/

https://www.rimping.com/blog/7505/vegan-cheese-history

https://phys.org/news/2023-10-ancient-technology-plant-based-cheese.html

https://modernfarmer.com/2023/08/the-future-of-cheese/

https://www.dairyreporter.com/Article/2023/06/27/how-climax-foods-ai-produced-casein-could-spell-a-new-frontier-for-plant-based-cheese/

https://vegnews.com/climax-foods-plant-based-casein

https://www.treelinecheese.com

https://rebelcheese.com/collections/shop-all-products?srsltid=AfmBOopyG-R_OZUsMxtK7s_4WDmmGqGVQ57xR5Q2gsWTGRQBnCnv0A_C&page=2

https://thevreamery.com/?srsltid=AfmBOooSzjZa-wBB6ytddJzacS9ISgLjFFzDFoYvRnqlVG-2mGDgCl7_

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Just Cheesy th podcastpresented by Just Cheesy Productions.
Hi there. I'm your host, Fondue.
I'm Chidi.
In this week's episode, we'regoing to learn all about non dairy
cheese.
Really?
We're talking ancientfermented tofu. We're going to learn
about alternatives to milklike rice, mealworms, seaweed, and

(00:24):
AI produced casein. And ofcourse, no episode would be complete
without a very cheesy joke.
I love a joke.
Stay tuned for episodes. Fullhomage. See what I did there on Just
Cheesy the podcast we're gonnastart in ancient China. Now, the
Chinese didn't really developa tradition of dairying.
They didn't?
So no cow's milk, no goat'smilk, no cheese? Not in the dairy

(00:46):
sense back in the ancientdays. But their nomadic neighbors
to the north, the Mongols,well, they were very skilled cheese
makers. But the Chinese at thetime regarded the Mongols as barbarians.
Oh, no.
And they even had a term fortheir goat cheese.
Oh, no.
I believe it's pronounced Furu.
Sure.
And while that may not be theright pronunciation, probably not.

(01:06):
It roughly translates tospoiled milk. And it was not meant
as a compliment.
No.
But according tosoyinfocenter.com centuries later,
the Chinese learned how tomake a similar fine cheese from soy
milk or tofu.
Really?
And that disparaging term thatthey once used, well, it came back
to refer to their own product.And that name, well, it remains with

(01:28):
them to this day. Now, thisproduct is ancient, and when we say
ancient, we're talking 15 to1600 B.C.
holy cow.
It's made from soybeans, rice,wine, salt, and sesame oil or vinegar.
They say it offers a saltytaste with a soft, creamy, yet firm
texture. And according toRimping.com, it's usually consumed

(01:50):
with congee or porridge.Written records of Furu date back
to the wei dynasty
no whey
around 200 to 265 AD andaccording to Wikipedia, it has a
spreadable creamy consistencyand a pronounced flavor.
Sounds like cream cheese.
Yeah, pretty much. It sounds alot like cream cheese.
Yeah.
Let's fast forward into themodern era. We've gotten extraordinarily

(02:11):
creative about what will turninto cheese. According to Rimping.com,
1910 shows us the firstofficial production of vegan cheese.
And it began in France. Li YueYing was a student in France.
Okay.
He researched a lot of milkalternatives. He even produced soy
cheese that mimicked favoritecheeses like Gruyere, Roquefort,

(02:32):
and Camembert.
Yummy.
In the 1940s the first vegancheese recipe was published in the
A home guide to everything forthe home.
That was a unique name.

(03:32):
Yeah, right. The recipe itselfwas for a cheese spread with ingredients
including soy, flour, yeastand water. It says here the attempts
to produce vegan cheese wasbased on the concept of fermented
tofu. And that companiescontinued to evolve it. Sure, but
at the time, the products werenot very similar to regular cheese.
They say sometimes it tastedlike plastic or wax. It wasn't until

(03:55):
the 1980s that dedicated vegancheese brands began to show up, such
as Tofu Tofutti, follow yourheart or Soy Maj. Tofutti is not
a sponsor, but if it were, thead would go right here. And they
say that vegan cheese was avery expensive product, sometimes
twice the price of regular cheese.
Holy cow.
But that didn't stop types ofvegan cheese to be produced such

(04:18):
as mozzarella and cheddar. The21st century began to give us alternatives
to soy like nuts and seeds.Cashews became the dominant nut base
because of their naturallycreamy texture. And researchers found
that almonds, macadamia nutsand walnuts each lend different properties.
Walnuts for firmer texturesand cashews for the spreadable stuff.

(04:38):
A lot of scientists arelooking into how to transform protein
rich plants like peas andbeans into a new generation of non
dairy cheeses.
They are.
And of course they're lookingto keep a lot of the same properties,
the physical properties ofcheese. One big challenge is that
plant proteins behavedifferently than milk proteins.
They do.
So to meet the challenge, theysometimes add cornstarch or coconut

(05:00):
oil to harden plant cheeses.And of course, they add a lot of
flavorants to make them tasteslike cheese. Of course, believe it
or not, one of the most usedingredients in the commercial non
dairy cheese industry is thehumble pea.
Like a little green one.
That's right, the pea.Researchers at the University of
Copenhagen found that usingbacterial fermentation on yellow
pea protein actually reducedits beanie flavor and helped to develop

(05:24):
something closer to a dairylike aroma. And most recently, they're
talking about rice. That'sright, rice based cheese. In an article
from March of this year,Fizz.org talks about rice as a surprising
source to make ahypoallergenic alternative to cheese.
You see, a lot of people can'teat cheese because they're allergic

(05:44):
to dairy. But there's alsopeople that are allergic to nuts
or gluten. And rice isoffering an alternative. The University
of Arkansas found that proteinbyproducts from white rice Processing
the material that wouldotherwise be discarded can be used
to make a hypoallergeniccheese alternative with 12% protein
content, which is actuallyunusually high for plant based cheese.

(06:06):
And if you like the idea ofhaving all of of these alternative
cheeses, there's a greatwebsite called the vreamery.com it's
an actual resource for vegancheese and charcuterie. They've got
meats and seafood, they've gotcheese and dairy and pantry and treats.
And man, this thing does notdisappoint. They've got a vegan Swiss
cheese, they've got a caveaged blue cheese. There's even vegan

(06:32):
salmon and smoked bacon. Andthese are all pretty typical. But
you know what gets reallystrange? Researchers studying more
sustainable cheese productionlooked at mealworm larva flour as
a partial replacement fordairy protein and cheese. According
to modernfarmer.com the goalwas to reduce the environmental footprint
while maintaining structureand flavor. Mealworm larva flour

(06:57):
for cheese. Oh, there was alsoseaweed. They tested about seven
different species and only onewas quick to coagulate the cheese.
They used it to make twodifferent types of cheeses and aged
cheese similar to cheddar anda fresh one more like ricotta. Say
the cheddar was a little bittoo bitter, but the quality of the
ricotta was quite good. Butthey also say you won't see seaweed

(07:20):
ricotta in stores just yet.That more research is needed to show
that seaweed enzyme cheese canproduce a product on par with other
cheeses. And maybe thestrangest entry on the list. Well,
it's a company called ClimaxFoods. It's using artificial intelligence
to identify plant proteinsthat behave like casein, the protein
that gives dairy cheese itsstructure and melt. A Harvard trained

(07:44):
astronaut, astrophysicist andformer thought leader at Google and
SpaceX says that climax Foodsis creating an even more efficient
approach. They dubbed this theprecision formula. VegNews.com talks
about how they combine datascience, machine learning together
with human intuition todevelop new precise formulas for
vegan cheese. In fact, in 2023they announced that they partnered

(08:07):
with 150 year old French dairygiant Bell Group, you know, the baby
Bell people, to reformulatesome of their most iconic cheese
products using this newtechnology. Who knew that Chat and
Claude would get involved invegan cheese?
I'm ready for a joke fondue.
Okay, what did the non dairycheese say to the dairy cheese?

(08:28):
I have no clue.
I don't need milk to be Gouda.
Oh get it.
I don't need milk. To beGouda. Oh, come on. That one was
actually cute.
Sure.
And a little bit cheesy.Thanks for listening to Just Cheesy
the podcast episode fomod.
Thank you.
Don't forget to help us out.Yes, we really need the help. Can

(08:50):
you please subscribe anywherethat you listen to us? Please make
sure to download and like,whatever you can. Yeah, that would
surely help us out
and stay cheesy, everybody.