
Wooden Boards for Cheese Aging: Reviewing the Science
Wooden boards are widely used for aging cheese in Europe and America. While their use has an established track record for utility and safety, it has also been the subject of debate. Food safety regulations on both sides of the Atlantic require food contact surfaces to be sanitizable, and wooden boards are rough and porous, and therefore difficult to disinfect. [click to view the full story]

Techniques: Raw Milk Microbiology Guide
In 2012, a consortium of French scientists published a practical guide to raw milk microbiology aimed at farmhouse cheesemakers interested in fostering the natural microbial diversity of their milk. They show that healthy and stable microbial communities contribute to cheese safety (as evidenced by some of the research into the microbial biofilms on wooden boards used for aging Reblochon), and are also crucial to cheese flavour. [click to view the full story]

Biodiversity of the bacterial flora on the surface of a smear cheese
Brennan et al., Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 2002, 68(2): 820-830. What organisms grow on the surface of a semi-soft, pasteurized washed rind cheese during the course of its development? How does inoculation with a commercial strain of Brevibacterium linens affect the development of the rind microbial community? This paper sheds some light on these very pertinent questions. [click to view the full story]

Profile: Julie Cheyney – Maker of St Jude Cheese
Julie Cheyney makes a raw-milk lactic cow’s milk cheese called St Jude in Hampshire, UK. Before starting to make St Jude, Julie was on the team that developed Tunworth, a Camembert-style cheese that won Supreme Champion at the British Cheese Awards in 2006. We spoke with her about making raw milk cheese and the microbes that play a role in the process.
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