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After reading a comment made by Oddley (I think) regarding the taste of salamis which use starter culture but don't develop a white mould I'm not sure that I'm too bothered about using the stuff. I haven't got any but was toying with the idea of getting some.

I would like to encourage the "good" mould and seem to remember reading a couple of different ways you guys have gone about this. Sorry I can't remember whose techniques these were and I can't find the threads but I hope you'll be able to help me out.

One method was to include a small ammount of live yoghurt into the mix and the other was to make a "wash" from camembert rinds (I think).

If whoever tried these methods could give a bit more detail, ammounts etc. I'd be grateful. A fuller explaination of the "wash" technique would be helpful as I really have no idea how this was done.

One more thing if you don't mind. Hugh F-W in his River Cottage Book recipe uses acidophilus, which he says can be bought in chemists or health food shoops. Is this the same stuff as the starter culture? If not what is the difference and what are your opinions of the two products?

Thanks.

I don't believe the starter culture has anything to do with the white mould - that is seperate. From what I understand, the starter cultuer does two things:

1) Brings the PH level down during incubation. This helps keep out harmful bacteria

2) Adds flavour - depending on the type of culture used.

I think Oddleys comment was that the while mould helps mitigate some of the harshness of the starter culture flavour.

Please correct me if i'm wrong.

Yes you're right about Oddley's comment, I think, but I also took it to mean that if the white mould doesn't form the taste is a bit iffy and may be undesireable.

I thought the starter culture does affect the formation of the white mould as the lowering of the pH is what encourages it to grow.

Like yourself I could be wrong, I often am

Franco's starter culture is LS25 which is one form of the Lactobaccilus bacteria (Lactobaccilus Sake), Acidophilus is another strain of Lactobaccilus (Lactobaccilus Acidophilus).

Most species of this bacterium ferment glucose into lactose. Because of this these bacteria create an acidic environment which inhibits growth of many other bacterial species.

Penicillin kills Lactobaccilus inhibiting the productuin of lactic acid, and the white mould found on cheese such as Brie and Camembert is Penicillium Candidum.

So the starter culture is allowed to produce the acid for a while (24-48 hours) by keeping the salami warm then the temperature is reduced to slow down all bacterial production (including harmful ones) and to allow the salami to cure. As the curing phase progresses natural wild Penicillin moulds start to grow on the salami's surface further inhibiting the Lactobaccilus acid production. White mould is produced by Penicillium Candidum, blue green mould is produced by Penicillium Glaucum, neither of them are harmful to us.

To ensure a good growth of the most desireable Penicillin it is possible to infect the salami with a known culture either commercially bought or harvested from your own cheese.

To get the Penicillin from the cheese to the salami it is simply a matter of scraping some mould off the rind of a Brie or Camembert and mixing it with a little luke warm water. This can then be brushed over the salami after the starter culture has had it's 24-48 hour warm period.

All Yoghurts and cheeses contain Lactobaccilus and this is what gives them their flavour, so in theory they could be used instead of LS25 but I think the results may be too unpredictable to be worth it.

I've heard that you can also help induce the white spores during curing by hanging a ready made (Commercial or otherwise) salami along with the curing ones.