Do we need bacterial cultures to make cheese?

Our answer is definitely yes.

Some types of cheese will come out without the addition of any additional bacterial cultures. We will write about why they are worth including in your home cheesemaking. In addition, you will learn why the production of many types of cheese would be downright impossible without their involvement.

Starter cultures

Primary cultures allow the milk to mature by slightly acidifying it. By adding such a ready-made culture mix, we gain greater assurance of the multiplication of good bacteria in the milk. The blends contain appropriately selected groups of lactic bacteria to achieve the taste and aroma for a particular type of cheese. The selection of lactic bacterial species for the cheese cultures is made with a view to the characteristics that the final product should meet.

For example, for the production of Swiss-type cheese such as Emmental, we will use bacteria that like high temperatures.

Dutch-type cheese, on the other hand, uses lactic bacteria starters capable of fermenting citrate, responsible for the appearance of holes in our cheese.

For smear-type cheese, we will use bacterial cultures that allow the appropriate smear structure of which the cheese is composed to form.

The presence of different species of micro-organisms translates into the creation of different flavour and aroma characteristics of the cheese, which are the result of the different metabolic capacities of the different groups of micro-organisms used in the culture mixtures.

There are three types of starter cultures on sale

• Mesophilic. Temperature operating range 20-30ºC
• Thermophilic. Temperature operating range 40-60 ºC
• Meso-thermophilic. Temperature operating range 20-60 ºC

Which one to choose?

This is always determined by the type of cheese we want to make.

Producers make it much easier for us to decide by creating ready-made varietal blends dedicated to a particular type of cheese, e.g. Gouda, Camembert, Feta, Caciotta or Caprino Fresco .

It is worth mentioning that ready-made mixtures for making yoghurt, cottage cheese or kefir are also on sale.

To sum up:

1. Bacterial cultures allow the target cheese product to be achieved.
2. They protect our cheese products from the proliferation of unwanted microorganisms leading to cheese spoilage.
3. They make homemade cheesemaking easier for novice cheesemakers.