Mother cultures

[bbracken677]

I am considering making a small mother culture to use when I make my camemberts....I will be using MM100 as well as LM57 and MD89, should I make a small mother culture of each?
Should I make a single mother culture of all 3, or should I just make the MM100 and add the other 2 once the make is up to temp as normally done?

[Tiarella]

Hmmmm, I don't know anything about LM57. and MD89.  Why do you use those?  What do they add?  just checked out some of my Brie today and it's a bit more like Camembert, at least some of the wheels.  One batch of the 3 had small holes in it.  Taste was fine.  Bloom was good and quick on all of these.....but they didn't get flipped much because they were in someone else's extra fridge and I didn't want to ask them to "scrub up" and flip every day.

[bbracken677]

The MD and LM will add more buttery flavor.  It was recommended by another Cheeseforum member, and made total sense to me, since my Cams will be of the triple cream variety, so I am looking for a creamy, buttery flavor and texture ala St. Andre' triple cream  :)
I will begin my make tomorrow, and will not be going the mother culture route this time.

[Tiarella]

Thanks for answering.  Are MD and LM abbreviations for something that might help me know how to find it at a cheese website? 

[bbracken677]

Not really sure what the initials stand for, but you can google the items for information...I got the MD89 and LM57 from this site:

http://www.dairyconnection.com/commerce/catalog.jsp?catId=10

I noticed I called the cams I will be making triple cheese...I meant triple cream  :)

[bbracken677]

The MD89, and perhaps the LM57 would seem appropriate to use for a butterkase, dont you think?

[FRANCOIS]

You can grow all three together but I prefer not to.  Most of our commercial starter plants grow mixes together for certain cheese types, while others grow them individually if there is only 2 or 3.  I prefer the consistency of growing them individually.

[Tiarella]

Thanks for the link.  I notice the notes I pasted below and wonder if you know what they mean.  I can make a guess but it would just be a guess.  I'll google it but maybe you already know? phage protected?????


NOTE: MA 4001 and MA 4002 are a phage-protection series and are used in rotation by larger-scale cheesemakers. Either one may be used by the home cheesemaker for identical results.
Note that MM100 and MM101 are a bacteriophage rotation, and thus are interchangable.

[bbracken677]

If I had to hazard a guess (am not in the cheese industry) .... I would say that the cultures listed are used in rotation to prevent a contamination of sorts. Phage is the infection of bacteria by a virus. I presume that phage protected would be bacteria that has been protected from viral infection, and that the rotation would be to prevent a resistant virus from developing that could infect the bacteria?
Not really something the home cheesemaker would need to worry about, but probably something that a commercial entity would need to be concerned about.

[Tiarella]

Hmmmm, interesting!  Thanks for answering.