Whey of Life: Culture Wars

Happy new year cheeseheads! Now that the holidays are over and I’ve had some time to reflect and contemplate, I’m psyched for 2008! Last year, I made my resolution to get an apprenticeship making cheese by the years end. Having fulfilled my 2007 resolution, I’m looking to focus on quality and productivity as my resolution for 2008. To me, these two things are dependent on each other and require striking a delicate balance. Yet, there is an evil force lurking in my cheese room that stands to destroy my resolution. Bacteriophage is just like that donut, or in our case, piece of cheese, that could break our resolve. Bacteriophage are viruses that infect bacteria and if your wondering how this has anything to do with your diet, let me explain it this way. Cheese makers use bacteria (the good kind) to culture milk and thus make cheese. The good bacteria (culture) are introduced to the milk, feed off lactose, convert it to lactic acid, lowering the PH and subsequently, creating an inhospitable atmosphere for bad bacteria. Turning lactose into lactic acid requires the utilization of metabolism, which is precisely the process that bacteriophage attacks. In effect, bacteriophage renders culture unable to do it’s job. Unfortunately, I often can’t see bacteriophage at work until it’s too late. It’s like that one donut every week that seems harmless until I try to put on my bathing suit for the summer. Seriously folks, bacteriophage will attack my acidifying starter culture and cause my Goudas to blow up like beach balls. This is not pretty. How to cope? I have to anticipate what the bacteriophage’s plan of attack is and counter-attack by rotating different strains of acidifying culture. So, to keep my resolution of quality and productivity alive, I have to stay one-step ahead of the “phage” by essentially engaging in biological warfare. More from the front lines soon…