Parm culture question

[BigCheese]

Hi everyone,

I have been away too long. A huge part of me wants to see everything I have missed, but a huger part wants me to do more than look at cheese for the next 3 days thereby accomplishing nothing. Dilemmas, eh?

I have not been cheesing because we were getting sub-par feed and barely had milk after supplying our shareholders. Got better fee now, production has rocketed, and now were looking at about 33 gallons extra per week. So tomorrow I am making a parm.

A few days ago I cracked a 9.5 month parm (don't give me that look, please). It has distinctive parm characteristics and is quite good, but a little mild. I know I did not add lipase, but I have had stronger parms here in the past. Anyway, my question is if I might benefit from a smidge more culture. and if so, TA61 or LH100, or both?

[Sailor Con Queso]

I would add more lipase.

[linuxboy]

Lipase, yes. Your bacterial concentrations in a parm are somewhat irrelevant so long as you add around 1% bulk equivalent. In a parm, the bacilli continue to grow and multiply even after its out of the brine.

[ArnaudForestier]

Your bacterial concentrations in a parm are somewhat irrelevant so long as you add around 1% bulk equivalent. In a parm, the bacilli continue to grow and multiply even after its out of the brine.

Is this because the wheels tend to be larger, the moisture lower, and so the salt gradient is more pronounced (diffusion time to equilibrium is more extended, allowing the thermophilic SLABs more time before lysis when compared with a smaller wheel, or a higher moisture content)?

[linuxboy]

That's just what most bacilli do. They're resilient buggers.

[BigCheese]

Thanks you two. You might recall from last year that I do not do lipase though because I am a vegetarian. So I will just take what I get. It is not bad by any means, and it was only 9 months. Will not add extra culture though.

[linuxboy]

Nitai, I meant vegetable source lipase. It's extracted from plants.

[ArnaudForestier]

That's just what most bacilli do. They're resilient buggers.

Oh, I thought you were saying there was something unique about parm, particularly, which made its glycolysis cycle with the thermo lb. strains more extended, when compared with other cheeses.

Can you explain a bit on the resilience of the bacilli?  I ask because - and mind you, first swath through the Fox text, so my recall is weak - my memory is that both meso cocci and thermo bacilli undergo their stationary and lysis cycles fairly quickly, post-manufacture.  I do seem to recall that s. thermo is more prone to lysis than LH, but basically thought all the SLABs died off pretty quickly, absent mitigating circumstances.

I had thought the reason for a slower lysis in parm, if it existed, would be due to a slower diffusion of surface NaCl to the interior, so the bacilli would have a relatively longer life-cycle, all other things being equal.