I am now fascinated with the process, I am a newbie in duh woods, and havin one heck of a good time experimentin
Ditto! I enjoy the process as well as the successes...it's really nice getting a good result that is tasty, and the challenge to improve your process and the outcome is a huge part of it as well.
But if you have a culture mix that seems to do what you want, why not stay with it? Case in point, at varying times I like Kazu (LL, LC, LD, LH) and MA4001 (LL, LC, LD, ST). I really like Alp D (LL, LC, LD, ST, LH, LBL) and PLA (Brevibacterium linens, Arthrobacter nicotianae, Debaryomyces hanseii, Geotrichum candidum...2 forms of linens, a yeast, and Geo).
There are occasions when I feel like simple, less complicated is called for. Then I just go with a single strain like Aroma B.
-Boofer-
Boofer...I agree with you. I have plenty of SuCasu left so I will be using that for some time with my italian makes. At the same time I see the advantage to having the basic components, so to speak, and be able to use them with more flexibility. The downside is that I have no idea what the proportions are in SuCasu, and as Sailor put it there are differences in strains as well.
I too like the Alp D and Kazu. My best cheddars to date (havent opened many) seem to have been from the kazu tree.
Good news is, I have lots of time to make up my mind which way to go