Hi Everyone :)
With the success of my last Cheddar, I made some more! But this time I tried a different bacterial culture. Check out the difference in colour! Isn't that amazing? The cheeses that I made in July are still quite pale compared to the one I made last weekend!
I used this culture: MA4002. It's a new one for me. It's a blend of mesophilic and thermophilic cultures. Simply put, a mesophilic culture is used for cheeses that don't require any cooking time above 102 F or so; the mesophilic culture ripens at its best at lower temperatures.
Thermophilic cultures can withstand higher heat and ripen better at higher heat. A mix of the two is supposed to stabilize a softer cheese and slow down the ripening process. The ripening process gives the cheese its taste and texture. I read that the ripening process also affects acidity and the final result of the cheese's flavour - so we'll see if using this culture leads to a milder Cheddar. There is already a visual difference, I can't wait to see if there is a taste difference!
I also made a Farmhouse Cheddar cheese. It's made similarly to the aged Cheddar, but the method after draining the curds is different to give it a more moist texture. NONE of my photos turned out during the process of making this because the shutter on my phone's camera had some kind of crud on it - for lack of a better word! Lesson: wipe your phone and camera shutter before taking photos!!! This is supposed to be ready to eat after one month of aging, so if it turns out well, I'll make it again and do a photo tutorial to post with the recipe!
