Previous column Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet, eating her curds and whey. From the curds we get cheese, and from the whey we get trouble. But that's next .
Lets start with the curds.
Curds are formed by using an enzyme called rennet to coagulate the milk protein casein. If you stop there you wind up with the soft cheeses, from cream cheese and cottage cheese to Neufchatel and farmer cheese. All have about half as much lactose as regular milk. The process of aging cheese hardens it and drives out the remaining whey, which is high in lactose. Even mild cheddar, aged 60 days, is noticeably low in lactose, while extra sharp cheddar, aged 12 months, may contain little or no lactose at all.