THE SCIENCE

When we begain culture, we started with a question: how could we make microrganisms common, intentional ingredients in our cooking? To find the answer, we’ve had to undergo our own experiments and collaborations with research institutions to understand the complex chains of microbial interactions that produce flavor.

We’d like to share what we’ve done in the lab to bring culture to your kitchen. It starts by understanding some basics of how microbes produce flavors.

[Insert graphic]

Microorganisms need food to survive, just like us. They work differently on their own than they do when they have collaborators. And just as you may thrive when you’re in sunny, 70 degree weather on the beach, microorganisms have particular conditions that help them thrive as well. Let’s take a look at an example of what we mean, this time with more scientific terms.

“Lactic acid bacteria such as Lactococcus lactis and Lactobacillus are an important group of bacteria used in the dairy, fermented meat and fermented vegetable industries. These produce lactic acid as an end product from glucose but, depending on the subspecies of L. lactis or species of Lactobacillus, other end products contributing to flavour can arise such as ethanol, diacetyl and acetoin. In some products, specific species are used together to produce desirable product characteristics. In yogurt, Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus are inoculated together. Both produce lactic acid, but together this is improved in comparison to each alone as the Lactobacillus liberates valine through proteolysis, which stimulates growth of the streptococci, and the Streptococcus produces formate needed by the lactobacilli. Acetaldehyde and diacetyl are the important flavour volatiles produced giving the typical yogurt flavour, with the Lactobacillus being the primary producer of the former. The absence of an enzyme (alcohol dehydrogenase) in both species, which would convert the acetaldehyde to ethanol, means the final product is yogurt flavoured rather than being alcoholic!”

(A Matter Of Taste: Using Microbes To Influence Flavour Production, Microbes and Food, August 7, 2018)

Just as Lactococcus lactis and Lactobacillus work like a dream to produce yogurt when living in warm milk, we looked for other teams of microorganisms that produce specific flavors. We then experimented with the substrates and conditions that we placed them in, refining combinations of microorganisms and conditions until we found the mixes in your kits. Each of our kits comes with recipes and recommendations for usage. In those, you’ll see the conditions under which your microbial cultures will thrive, based on our most up-to-date research.