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Bacteriology of Butter Cultures: A Review¹

Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa

ABSTRACT

Previous to 1919² it commonly was believed that butter cultures are pure cultures of lactic acid streptococci, although there had been various suggestions that the desirable flavor of butter made from ripened cream is not produced by the lactic acid bacteria growing in the cream. In that year three laboratories established the basis for an understanding of the bacteriology of butter cultures by reporting almost simultaneously that such cultures normally include two distinct types of bacteria. The reports indicated that butter cultures contain flavor-producing organisms associated with the much more conspicuous lactic acid streptococci and that combined action of the two types gives the desired flavor to the cultures and to butter in which the cultures are used.

EARLY EVIDENCE OF ASSOCIATIVE ACTION IN BUTTER CULTURES

The 1919 studies, which showed that butter cultures are not pure cultures of lactic acid streptococci, are:

(a) Boekhout and Ott de Vries (23) isolated from sour milk and cream an organism which produced the characteristic and desirable butter culture aroma when grown with an organism of the Streptococcus lactis³ type.

¹ Journal Paper No. J-1073 of the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa. Project 127.

² Most of the papers reviewed appeared after January 1, 1919, but some earlier publications are included because of their importance to the general problem of butter cultures.

³ The name used for an organism often is the one now commonly accepted rather than the one employed in the publication being considered.