Cheese & Dairy
Profile: Cecilia Garmendia – Scientist and Cheesemaker
Artisanal cheesemaking and science may appear to have little in common. “Not so!” according to Cecilia Garmendia who has translated her Ph.D. to cheesemaking and business ownership.
A Visual Guide to the Microbiology of Washed-rind Cheeses
Ever wonder what is living in your favorite stinky cheese? Our new visual guide provides an overview of the microbial diversity of washed-rind cheeses. Print it out. Hang it up. Impress your friends with your new cheese microbiology knowledge.
Microbial strains versus species —why small differences matter in fermented foods
By Megan Biango-Daniels with editing assistance from Megan Martin
Many cheesemakers credit strains of microbes that are specific to their caves with providing terroir, flavors, or appearances that cannot be replicated. This so-called microbial terroir is the unique taste imparted by microbes that make these foods. But what are microbial strains and how do they differ from species? [click to view the full story]
The curious case of the purple cheese rind
When you buy an aged cheese at the store, you expect it to have a specific appearance. Camembert should be white and fuzzy. Limburger should be orange and sticky. Cheese makers work hard to manage aesthetics, but sometimes unplanned colors or textures cause cheese defects. In the past few years, cheese rinds around the world have started turning an unusual purple color. In this Science Digested, I’ll explain how my lab discovered the microbial cause of this purple rind defect.
Book Profile: Reinventing the Wheel: Milk, Microbes, and the Fight for Real Cheese
Reinventing the Wheel: Milk, Microbes, and the Fight for Real Cheese is a book that, like MicrobialFoods.org itself, was directly inspired by time spent collaborating with Benjamin Wolfe at the Dutton Lab in early 2014. Returning to London with a new appreciation for the power of microbial communities in shaping the flavors of the food that we eat, I was eager to start a conversation within the cheese industry. I wanted to see more cheesemakers enhance the flavor of their cheeses by encouraging healthy microbial communities native to their farms to play an active role in the cheesemaking process. [click to view the full story]
A Visual Guide to the Microbiology of Natural Rind Cheese
Ever wonder what is living in that undulating crust on your favorite blue cheese or clothbound Cheddar? Our new visual guide provides an overview of the microbial diversity of natural rind cheeses. Print it out. Hang it up. Impress your friends with your new cheese microbiology knowledge.
What causes cheese to turn pink?
Various attributes of a cheese, including both flavor and appearance, contribute to the final quality of the product. During the production of some cheeses, microbial processes can cause strange quality defects, often with colorful outcomes. Researchers in University College in Cork, Ireland identified the microbial culprit behind a notorious pink cheese defect. In this Science Digested, Adam Shutes from the Boston Cheese Cellar explains what they found.
Cheese mites, gophers of cheese rinds
Next time you buy a piece of cheese with a mottled natural rind, such as a clothbound Cheddar or Tomme de Savoie, take a close look at the rind with a magnifying glass. If you look long enough, you will see tiny pieces of the rind are moving! These specks are microscopic arachnids known as cheese mites. Gophers of the cheese world, these tiny mites can both impart flavors as well as cause headaches for cheese producers.
Geotrichum candidum: A yeast holding on to its moldy past
Have you ever noticed those goat’s milk cheeses with the wrinkly surface at the cheese shop? They look like a fuzzy white brain or a dusty grey coral and they smell like sweet, buttery flatulence. Those aesthetics and aromas come from the growth of the fungus Geotrichum candidum. Using in-depth genomic sequencing, French scientists recently unlocked the evolutionary history of this important cheese microbe and revealed a fungus with an identity crisis.
