which option gives you better cheese?
“I don't believe raw milk makes better or worse cheese than pasturized, but you do need to treat them differently.”
Cheese is made by leveraging living organisms to do what you want them to. You want particular enzymes and yeasts and fungi to act together to turn milk into something that remains edible over time.
With pasteurized milk all the active living things have been neutralised so you have to start from scratch by introducing stuff. Raw milk has lots of living things going on, so when you are making a cheese those existing things might be a bonus or they might be competition for what you are wanting to see happen.
This is wonderful and fun and interesting. Trust me!
Don't think adding stuff is bad or corrupting, in terms of natural cheesemaking, the additives can be as simple as probiotic yoghurt or cultured buttermilk (more on that in another blog). All you are doing is adding the organisms that are the good guys - there are SO MANY good guys to choose from (and they all influence your final cheese in different ways). When you leave it up to the Gods its like making sour dough from scratch in your kitchen - if your kitchen has good yeasts going on, you will have delicious bread, if your kitchen doesn't you can end up with a sour heavy doorstop of a loaf.