Using Ricki's "Chevre" cultures to make a mother culture?

[shoelessone]

Hi all, the wording may not be quite on, but I was wondering if anybody had any insite on how to stretch Ricki's Chevre culture that comes in the packets (frozen).

I really was very very happy with the results of the culture (I used 1 gallon of fresh goat milk and 1 packet of the starter and I ended up with awesome goat cheese, perfect to my taste).  The problem is that it was 5.29 for 5 packets of the starter.  That's not soo bad, but I'm paying 4 bucks for a gallon of fresh goat milk which brings my cost per 1.35ish pounds of goat cheese above 4 bucks.  That's not so bad either, but I'd really like to not have to buy new cultures.

I'm thinking about experimenting and just saving some of the weigh from my next back and freezing it into ice cubes and giving those a shot.

Anybody have any thoughts on this?

Thanks!!

[Waitawa Farm Cheesemaking]

Hi, I am not sure about using the whey, but why not make up some batches of culture from the one packet? You should be able to get heaps then freeze it- I take my culture for brie from store biught cheese, mix it with milk that has been warmed and freeze portions in ice cube trays . I use silicon ice cube trays as they can be easily sterilised.

[goatherdess]

I believe these 'Chevre' packets have rennet added to them. You can re-culture it just fine, but you may need to add some liquid rennet to subsequent batches to help them set up. I use 1 drop per qt. myself.

[Milkweed]

I know this is an old thread, but I have the same question. I've read some past posts on making mother culture, and have done some reading in cheese books too, but there seem to be several different approaches to this. And I'm wondering if anyone has specifically tried this culture (Ricki's chevre) and if so, what was the process?

Is it essential that I do the sterilize jars/sterilize milk process, or can I just culture some raw milk with Ricki's DS chevre culture and freeze it in ice cube trays?

New to this forum and new to cheesemaking....all advice appreciated!

[linuxboy]

sterilize. Make it as aseptic as possible.