I guess what I'm not fully grokking is why are they combined in the ways they are? What do they do in the company of each other that is good/bad/necessary? To illustrate this point, here are some examples according to Dairy Connection:
MA Type B: For use in soft goat cheeses, cottage cheeses, sour cream, cultured butter, fermented buttermilk and fresh cheeses, use
* (LL) Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis
* (LLC) Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris
* (LLD) Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis biovar diacetylactis
* (LMC) Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. cremoris
Flora Danica: Used for specialty cheeses, sour cream and cultured butter:
Goats milk cheese, Havarti, Baby Swiss, Gouda, Edam, Blue, use
* (LL) Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis
* (LLC) Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris
* (LLD) Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis biovar diacetylactis
* (LMC) Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. cremoris
They are the same list!
LH Series Thermo: Used in combination with TA culture for hard cheese, Italian types and Swiss.
Contains:
* (LH) Lactobacillus helveticus
* (LBL) Lactobacillus lactis
This is supposed to be thermophilic, but Lacrobacillus lactis is included in meso cultures as well. What does that mean? If U of Guelph says (and they do) that helveticus can be beneficial for cheddar, does that actually mean that LH series Thermophilic is actually, well, mesophilic?
Does it even matter? I have no idea. I just wish I could get my hands on individual strains with temperature growth charts and a general description of 'what they do' for each strain. Then I would probably go on to make even worse cheese than I do now, but it would at least help answer some questions I have