Culture Magazine: Cheese IQ
Culture Magazine has an interesting read on adjunct cultures, looking into the question of whether the native microbial inhabitants of raw milk can be isolated, and then reintroduced into the milk after pasteurization, in order to retain the unique characteristics of terroir and milk source. A study was undertaken in Australia, a country with even stricter raw milk laws than those of the US (the first raw milk cheeses have only recently gone into production down under, thanks in large part to the tireless advocacy of Will Studd). Via Culture:
Cheese IQ: No Taste Like Home
Sonia Cousins | April 7, 2016
Raw milk from healthy animals is teeming with microbes. These yeasts, molds, and bacteria make up a microbiological fingerprint that distinguishes the milk of one herd from that of another. In raw-milk cheesemaking, indigenous microbes remain. However, milk loses its microbiological character during pasteurization.
Skilled cheesemakers can create layered flavors in pasteurized-milk products. But what if the microbial complexity could be reintroduced into this milk? Would resulting cheeses have distinct, location-specific characteristics? And might the enhanced flavors add market value to the cheeses?
Recently a group of cheesemakers from the Australian Specialist Cheesemakers’ Association (ASCA) completed a project to find out…a team of cheesemongers, judges, and sensory experts conducted a blind tasting in late October 2015 to answer the pressing question: Do indigenous microbes improve cheese flavor?
“Undoubtedly, yes,” says ASCA committee member Miranda Sharp. “We were overwhelmed by how distinctly different the cheeses tasted. While the regular cheeses were excellent, the ones made with the adjunct cultures had far more complexity and depth.”
The cheeses were put to the test at a public tasting, too. “In every case, cheeses made with the indigenous cultures were preferred by the public,” Sharp says.
Now the Australian cheesemakers are faced with serious questions: Will these novel cultures create a regulatory minefield? And will consumers pay more for cheese made with them? (Producers who adopt this cheesemaking method will need to outsource some of the scientific work, and additional costs in seeking commercial approval are likely. Inevitably, these costs will be passed on to consumers.)
(Photos ©2016 Culturecheesemag.com)
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