Post
by Brebis » Sat Jan 12, 2019 2:04 pm
Sorry @windwalkingwolf, I didn’t mean to freak you out! There are several other brands that use a different organism (R. meihei) which are true vegetarian rennets as they don’t use calf DNA in the initial development of the organisms as the Chy-Max or the earlier versions that used e.coli did. We use one called Fromase that is non-gmo and uses R. meihei. Cry Max is the most popular as it’s the cheapest.
Next criticism of modern cheese-pasteurization. There are fewer and fewer cheeses that use raw or heat-treated milk. Until recently, a good portion of the cheddars were heat treated. Heat treated cheese is heated to 65C for 17sec vs. 72C for 17sec and is technically considered raw milk cheese and must conform to the 60 day rule. That means it can’t be sold before 60 days and must have controls in place to keep it from being shipped out or in contact with pasteurized cheese. So,, most places just decided it was more efficient to ditch the raw and heat treated versions altogether. Even heat treated cheese had enough natural bacteria in it to add to the flavour and texture of the final cheese. Most modern cheddar cultures are made up of only 2-3 basic bacterial cultures aimed for speed and consistency.
There are good reasons to pasteurize certain cheeses-milk quality and poor hygiene practices, but a carefully made raw milk cheese is incredibly safe. The amazing diversity of organisms that are in raw milk add so much to the complexity of cheese but are actually protective as well. Competition and the production of lactic acid to lower the pH by certain bacteria plus the addition of salt render most cheese inhospitable to pathogens especially cheeses like cheddar and other hard cheeses.
A good cheesemaker can make excellent cheese out of pasteurized milk with the knowledge of the various cultures now available to repopulate the milk almost to its raw state. This takes skill and a sense of adventure that most modern dairies don’t have.
So, best to search out small Artisan cheesemakers and those rare raw milk cheeses!
7
Retired dairy shepherd and cheesemaker and former keeper of a menagerie of chickens and Pencilled Turkeys, now owned by three cats and a border collie x Australian shepherd who keeps me fit and on my toes!
