Purpose
The purpose of the experiment conducted was to observe the effects of increased amounts of acid on the mass of yielded milk curds.
Background Information Curd formation, or coagulation, is the process in which milk the proteins in milk clump together in the presence of an acid. (Leaf TV) Within milk there are fats and proteins, such as casein and whey protein.
Hypothesis If the amount of acid increases, then the mass of the milk curds will increase as well.
Materials
• 600 mL of 2% fat milk at room temperature
• 50 mL of Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 50 mL beaker
• 10 250mL beakers
• 1 2mL pipette
• An electronic balance
• 5 Glass stir rods …show more content…
120 mL of milk was poured into five of the 250 mL beakers.
2. The beakers were labeled one through five.
3. Beaker one was set aside to be the control.
4. 50 mL of apple cider vinegar was poured into the 50 mL beaker
5. The 2 mL pipette was filled with apple cider vinegar.
6. The control beaker had 5 drops of apple cider vinegar added to it. From there, the number of drops added to each beaker increased by 5. (Beaker two had 10 drops, beaker three had 15 and so forth.)
7. Using one stir rod per beaker, the milk and acid was stirred for 30 seconds
8. A timer was set for five minutes to let the milk curds form.
9. The mass of the cheesecloths was collected and recorded
10. The remaining five beakers had cheesecloths secured onto the top by rubber bands.
11. At the end of the five minutes every beaker was poured through cheesecloth into an empty beaker. (Should go without saying each beaker had its own empty counterpart.)
12. One at a time, the mass of the cheese curds was recorded. The mass of the cheesecloths was subtracted from this recording.
Data …show more content…
As the number of drops increased, so did the mass of the milk curds. As can be seen in both table and graph one, when 25 drops were added the mass was less than the mass at 20 drops. This may be due to an incomplete curd formation as a result of lazy time keeping.
Conclusion
The observed effect of increasing amounts of acid on the mass of milk curds supports the stated hypothesis. The reason for this is in part to simple chemical reactions. As the amount of one reactant, in this case the amount of acid, increases, assuming there is an abundance of the second reactant (the proteins in the milk), then more product will be produced. Simply put, with the more acid you add to the milk, the greater the mass of the produced milk curds will be. (To a point) The collected data shows throughout all three trials that as the number of drops increased so did the mass of milk curds. As in trial one, when the drops changed from 10 to 15, for example, the mass of the milk curds increased by 0.8 grams. This happened across the other two trials, as in trial two the mass increased by 0.9 grams (still from 10 to 15 drops) and in trial three the mass increased by 1.1grams. In short, from research and data, the more acid added to milk will yield milk curds of greater and greater