We are talking about the Alps here, after all. You should come here some time to understand the remoteness of the place.
Litmus may have existed a long time ago, but these folks sure didnt have it. This is a place where up to very recent times, houses were built without a single bit of iron. Because iron can't be found here, and there was no practical way for anyone but the very ich to carry it up the mountains.
How often do you make cheese? And what size?
The Alpine methods are really designed for the production of fairly large cheeses, and there are special considerations when making it smaller.
For example, if I would cut my curds so fine with a 10 gallon batch as I would with a 40 g batch, the small cheese would be much too hard.
There is so much that you have to watch when doing things all by traditional means that maybe you would not if you do it in a modern style. You have to observe everything from the maturity of the milk, the sourness of the culture, the color of the whey, the size and texture of the curd, and so on and so forth.
one more thing too, the cheese is wrapped in a cloth while it is in the press to retain heat. this helps the culture.
And the volks I learned from wash their cheese every day for the 1st 10 days with a salt brine containing a little white wine. The wine has bacterial and yeast cultures in it.