Okay, My Head Is Spinning

[linuxboy]

Is there a way of making and or memorizing these strains down to make it a BIt easier to compute what does exactly WHAT for WHICH function of cheese?

Yes, by the type of culture for meso. The types are:

- O type. These are cultures that do not produce CO2. They have Lactococcus lactis ssp lactis  and ssp cremoris. Use in cheddar, cottage cheese, etc.
- L type. Some CO2. Have Lactococcus lactis ssp lactis and ssp cremoris as well as Leuconostoc. Use in soft cheese like brie, and maasdamer, edam, gouda, etc.
- D type: for butter. These are like the O type, but they have ssp lactis biovar. diacetylactis, for buttery aroma and flavor formation.
- LD type: Like the L, but more hole formation from CO2. This is your classic FD-type culture. Use in fresh cheese, gouda, etc.

Think of them as blends. Because when you think about the strains, the American Type Culture Collection (repository of bacterial strains) has hundreds of mesophilic lactic bacterial strains, with various properties and flavor formation. It will take you a long time to figure out the strains for each Lactococcus variants. Lactococcus alone has the lactis ssp, and within that varieties. It gets complex. Suggest to now think about it too much unless you want to get into the academic aspects.

For thermo, it's easier. You have basically 3 cultures, and many strains in each one.