# Where does cheese culture come from?



## FarmerJen (Oct 18, 2012)

I am vegetarian, so obviously I choose vegetable rennet for cheesemaking. But I'm a bit confused on cultures. I've searched online and have found information on everything to do with cultures... except for exactly WHERE they COME from! It's bacteria... but from where? Are there vegetarian and non-vegetarian cultures? Or are they all non-animal derived? 

I know I can make some cheeses without cultures... but I'd love to dive into the fancier cheeses, which all seem to need them. But I like to know what I'm eating. And I just can't find any info on how cultures are made.

Anybody know??


----------



## FarmerJen (Oct 18, 2012)

Anybody??


----------



## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

I have no idea. Maybe cheese culture fairies make it.


----------



## Curious (Feb 6, 2013)

Seeing as most cheeses were first made by letting the bacteria grow in different ways, maybe it's like yogurt...that the cheese makers always kept a little extra until they developed a certain bacteria. If you think about it it's very similar to how we breed animals...just with little tiny ones instead, and we're buying the "breeding stock" for our cheese. Does that make sense?

I don't know if that's right...but that's how I think of it. In any way, I'm pretty sure the bacterias are just from different cheeses that were developed over the years. They just take some of the culture and encourage it to grow before freeze drying it, I think.


----------



## FarmerJen (Oct 18, 2012)

Yeah, sounds like it's sort of like sourdough starter. Just wanted to make sure none of it was animal derived like normal rennet.


----------



## Curious (Feb 6, 2013)

Glad I could help some


----------



## FarmerInaDress (Mar 15, 2013)

Cheese cultures are bacterium that have been cultivated, usually in a lab these days. If you are worried about consuming animal-derived products, I would say that cheese cultures would be on par with the cultures and yeasts used to make beer, pickles, etc. Anything that ferments will have wild cultures in them. That is what breaks them down into the fermented product.


----------



## Curious (Feb 6, 2013)

That's what I figured, but the bacteria they use originally came from cheese. Right?


----------



## FarmerInaDress (Mar 15, 2013)

I would say it originally occurred in the wild and was adapted over time to our preferences, just like the process of domesticating wild animals into farm animals.


----------



## FarmerJen (Oct 18, 2012)

Cool. Good enough. Just wanted to make sure it wasn't nasty like rennet.


----------



## htotten (Jan 2, 2014)

I am in a similar situation and I found this site extremely helpful:
http://www.dairyscience.info/cheese-starters/49-cheese-starters.html


----------



## htotten (Jan 2, 2014)

I am in a similar situation and found this site extremely helpful:
http://www.dairyscience.info/cheese-starters/49-cheese-starters.html


----------

