Processed
Mesophilic Non-Gas
S tier
Mesophilic non-gas starters are Lactococcus blends that acidify cheddar, caerphilly, and many fresh cheeses without the citrate ferment that blows eyes. The paste stays blind and close. Flavour is lactic and clean rather than buttery-popcorn. Cheddar plants live on these O-type cultures, sometimes with a later adjunct for complexity. If you pitch an aromatic gas-former into a cheddar vat you will spend the year explaining slits and openness. These cultures still need the right cook and salt to finish acid. They will not stretch a mozzarella. Store like any dairy culture: frozen or dry, never on a warm shelf.
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History
Cheddar research selected non-gas mesophiles so the paste would stay close and sliceable.
O-type lactococcal blends became the industrial cheddar and stirred-curd default.
Defined non-gas cultures cut phage risk by rotating unrelated lactococcal strains.
Clothbound cheddar revival still relied on non-gas mesophiles, with adjuncts for flavour only.