morning guys, finally a morning when i can get caught up on whats happening.
Ch most of the cheese recipies start out the same but from what i can understand a few very small changes/techniques have profound outcomes on the final flavours of the cheese. a couple come to mind, PH standing out in my opinion. others being washed curd as in Gouda, washed rinds and so on. i'm quite sure that the natural bacteria/yeasts found in your locality has some sort of effect on the final outcome of the cheese. i remember a few years ago when i made a starter for sour dough bread using local whole grains of wheat, it turned out fairly strong, good but strong. i really do believe all these little things add up to the big differences in the final cheese.
the other thing that i believe is a large factor is the pasturage that the animal has to graze on. a heard grazing in alpine meadows will forage on totally different grasses that an animal that forages on the plains for instance. the milk will be two completely different qualities or compounds or whatever they may be called. i think the type of animal itself has a lot to do with final outcome of the product. that is why we have so many differnt names of cheeses, so many differnt areas of the world produce there own specific style/type. for instance just look at mozz from regular cattle types compared to buffalo mozz, no comparison.
just a few of my thoughts anyway
reg