Culturing directly from cheese.

[Joey Jo Jo]

Can you not culture bacteria from cheese you have bought in the shop by shredding it and creating a mother in skim milk?

You should be able to since the cultures are still active am I right?>

[Sailor Con Queso]

...and you will culture the unwanted bacteria and molds as well.

[hoeklijn]

Yes, it is possible, but as Sailor pointed out, it is risky. Work very sterile and use a piece of cheese from the inside. Depending on the type of cheese, put the sample in 32C skimmed milk for mesofile culture and in 52C skimmed milk for thermofile culture. The meso will take a bit longer to develop.

[Bantams]

Not all the original cultures will be available in the same proportions and same viability as they started at, so you won't really be able to replicate a cheese by stealing its cultures.
However, the cheese will lend some variety of cultures.  Best to add a piece of cheese to warm milk and let it culture for a day or so, then use that as your culture.

[Joey Jo Jo]

It seems like a good experiment.  If, like Sailor suggests, I take the bad molds with it then I have only lost a little milk.

[FRANCOIS]

The starter cultures are all dead. You can only use cheese to prolog ate ripening cultures like blues, whites and smears.

[awakephd]

Francois, that has been my understanding as well -- but I confess that I don't know exactly when in the development of cheese all of the starter bacteria have died off. I'd be curious to know if it happens, say, within the first 72 hours? Or more like the first 4 weeks? or ... ?

[FRANCOIS]

Most starters die off in the first 24 hours with virtually none left at 48.

[Stinky]

Most starters die off in the first 24 hours with virtually none left at 48.

And then the rest of the bacteria hang around for the next few weeks, correct?

[FRANCOIS]

The starters die when the lactose is converted to acid and their food is gone. The ripening bacteria then become active and create flavor and texture, increasing pH as they work.