Don’t move to pasteurization only because of my comment. I was trying to differentiate between “whole” milk and “raw” milk.
You will get “better” cheeses (in some respects) using raw milk. After all, pasteurization does compromise the raw milk making proteins, vitamins and milk sugars less available [Ricki Carrol’s Home Cheesemaking, page 14]. Pasteurization kills unwanted pathogens and bacteria, but kills the “good” bacteria, too, making it necessary to add starter cultures. Pasteurization also leads to a weaker curd development and necessitates the use of CaCl.
On the other hand, pasteurization will lead to a more consistent cheese making experience from batch-to-batch, since the milk is “normalized” through the process.
All my resources tell me that any danger from using non-pasteurized milk has passed after 60 days of aging the cheese. So, for hard cheeses that will be aged, pasteurization is less of a concern. But, for younger or soft cheeses, I’d definitely pasteurize the milk.
The choice, of course, is yours.
There is a good discussion of pasteurization in Margaret Morris’s book “The Cheesemaker’s Manual” starting around page 33.
To pasteurize milk, heat it in a double boiler to 145
