Mother culture vs DVI initial acidification time

[tecla]

I haven't used a mother culture yet, only DVI cultures, but at some point I'll give it a shot. Recipes such as on NECM's website give initial acidification timing before rennetting based on DVI cultures, so they have time to hydrate, wake up, and start multiplying and getting initial acidification going.

All other variables being the same, if one were to use the equivalent amount of mother culture, should the initial acidification time be reduced? And if so, what's a good rule of thumb for the time adjustment?

Alternatively, is there a rule of thumb for how much mother culture to use that gets you in the ballpark of the same DVI time before rennetting, so instead of adjusting time you just adjust amount mixed into the milk instead?

[smolt1]

I started with a meso culture. Then I tried kefir whey. Then I tried both in the same make. I found that I liked the kefir better so I mixed the whey from both and have been saving that mixed and frozen as ice cubes. Now I use that mix for all meso cheeses. I use 6 to 8 ice cubes for a 2 gallon batch and the times to renneting and clean break are the same as they were for meso only.

Cheers, Bob

[mikekchar]

Sorry for the late reply.  Basically, if you have similar cultures they will acidify at similar rates.  Most mesophilic mother cultures that you culture up from dairy products are very similar to the cultures found in DVI cultures.

Typical rates for healthy mother cultures are about 1.5% of the weight of the milk. That's about 15 grams of mother culture per liter of milk, or even 15 ml of mother culture per liter of milk is very, very close (withing the error bars of the usage rate, anyway).

[tecla]

So would you say that if a given recipe calls for only 1/2 of a recommended dose of say TA61 for a longer, slower acidification in the vat and the press, then you'd use only 0.75% dose of mother culture by milk volume, and keep all other timings or acidification markers the same for the recipe?

[smolt1]

You are getting above my pay grade. My knowledge of cultures Is not much, I just like to experiment, and taste the results.