25O PRACTICAL DAIRY BACTERIOLOGY 



is affected also by the type of lactic starter; for some acid 

 organisms, when used for starters in the cheese, produce dif- 

 ferent flavors in the final product from those produced by 

 others. All that can be safely stated at the present time is, that 

 while the digestion is due to the mold, the flavors are the result 

 of the action of other organisms, probably bacteria aided by 

 Oidium lactis, and that various types of undesired flavors are 

 due to the over-growth of Oidium or some other mischievous 

 bacteria. 



The manufacture of these cheeses in Europe has been carried 

 on only by empirical methods ; for the micro-organisms present 

 in European dairies appear to be the ones that are needed to 

 produce the desired ripening of the Camembert cheese. All 

 that the cheese makers need is to make their cheeses according 

 to a regular rule and expose them to the organisms that are 

 natural to their dairies. Sometimes, even in Europe, these 

 methods do not produce a sufficient inoculation of the white 

 mold, and the cheese suffers in consequence, and when the same 

 methods were tried in America the proper mold never appeared. 

 In earlier years, when our cheese makers tried to adopt the same 

 method of cheese-making, they produced a different type of 

 cheese. The molds which grew upon the surfaces of such 

 cheeses in our dairies were not the white mold, but either a blue 

 mold or the Oidium lactis, and these produced very different 

 results from the white species, spoiling the cheeses. Hence it 

 was found necessary to prevent their growth. But in doing 

 this, and not knowing that he needed to substitute the white 

 mold, the cheese maker produced a type of cheeses different 

 from the real Camembert, with bacteria and yeasts on its surface 

 instead of molds. To be sure he called them Camembert, but 

 they were really nearer a Limburger cheese, and no one who 

 knew the imported product would fail to see a great difference 

 between them. The real Camembert was mild and delicate ; the 

 American type strong and tasted of incipient putrefaction. 



