Clabber Starter Culture Making Recipe

[Lachevriere]

Aaaargh!  I forgot to say that in 1999 when I first got goats and started making cheese, I was also milking a mans' cow once a day.  I was able to take my share of the cow's milk and experiment.  Because I wanted some cream and butter, (and because I believed this is what pioneers did), I skimmed off the cream and THEN let the skimmed milk clabber the same as the whole goat's milk at 85f to 104f.

At first I used the 'slosh-back' method, (leaving a little acidified milk from the previous days batch in the glass jar for clabbering the next days milk), but I abandoned it pretty quickly as I found that the goats and cows milk would go too acid too fast causing a sharpish cheese before it's time.  Because I was using raw milk and wanted to sell raw milk cheese commercially, I did not want that flavor profile to advance so quickly knowing I would have to age the cheese out to 60 days before legal sale could take place. 

At that time the best option for me was to clabber the milk in lidded glass gallon jars placed on a tray on top of a fridge.  In my sparse living conditions at the time with very little AC, that temp seem to rise as high as 110f with little ill effect, except for the occasional small overflow of whey.  As many of you probably know, there are several types of overflow which can be caused by the introduction of yeast, introduction of e coli or other pathogens, that can create millions of little pinholes and gassiness.  I had some of those too, but fresh, clean milk high in butterfat at the height of good-grazing season will sometimes clabber quickly and release some whey.

[DeejayDebi]

Interesting concept I look forward to reading your book.

[Lachevriere]

I have found that the mouthfeel is my raw milk lactic cheeses is better than any others that I have made.  I believe this is due to the natural development of acid, as when I have added acid the texture has been noticeably more grainy.  I also believe that because the raw milk is carefully handled, never chilled before starting the make process, drained fully after clabbering, and VERY importantly dried at 45f for at least 24 hours, makes the difference.  This little message window is so small that I can't remember what is at the beginning of my sentences!!  The texture is so silky smooth, that when people taste them from samples at the market, they almost always buy.  I think mouthfeel is as important as taste.

[justsocat]

Shame on me, but i've just seen this thread!
First i'm after Lachevriere clabber cheeses can be very nice and different in texture, hardness mouthfeel flavor etc.
And Karen, yes, clubber sure IS NOT rotten milk! I used to eat (or drink) clabber for years since i was a little boy. And what an amazing thing it is full glass of clabber with a couple of teaspoonfull of sugar mixed in! The holy taste of fresh raw milk is one of the reasons because i try to make as more lactic cheeses as possible.
By now the best result i've got is washed rind cheese. I think it's because presence of some molds at the surface of a wheel change not only flavor. It affects the very structure of the cheese and, though i didn't make measurements, i think pH of the cheese goes up, as i noticed every time reducing or even disappearing of sour aftertaste that almost always presences in lactic type cheeses. Except, of course, heat coagulated ones. And the effect of molds made me start those experiments with non-rennet blue cheeses. Because they go together so well - p. roq. and lactic cheese
Farmer, are you still using clabber for your cheddars? If yes, we are closer to each other than i thought before
I make "classic" cheddar using microbial rennet and want to master my skill in it. But i do admire non-rennet or lactic or clabber cheeses!
Pfff.... this short post takes me already more than a half an hour! It's hard for me to wright in English. May be to be continued

[justsocat]

Karen did you make that " parmesan-type" cheese again? For the first time, as you wrote, you had done it by accident and may be you made more attempts? And as i understand, when you made that "parm" you didn't skim the milk, right? The matter is i don't get a clean break even when i let the milk set for 48 hrs and i thought it is because of thick layer of cream above the milk.

linuxboy can you say anything about inoculating of heat-precipitated curd? This is what i want to try and your suggestions about it could be very usefull. My plan is to make heat precipitated curd, remove most of the whey, add culture and let it ripen then. Can it work?

[MrsKK]

Pavel,
I do have another clabber parm-type cheese aging right now.  It is only about two months old, so I won't try it for another 2-4 months yet.  Not quite as long as "real" Parmesan, but it does take some time.

I do skim the milk for this.  I discovered awhile ago that it took forever for raw milk to clabber if it wasn't skimmed first, too.  Plus, all of the recipes I've seen for Parmesan are using skimmed or low-fat milk.

I'm thinking that maybe all the fat in the cream tends to seal off the milk, preventing proper thickening to clabber?

I also want to thank you for persisting in posting.  I really appreciate all of your efforts - I know it takes a long time for you to translate your thoughts so that we can understand you.  You are doing a terrific job!

[Lachevriere]

Hello Karen and Pavel,

This post is long, and I'm afraid may be too much information for those not using milk from their own, or local animals.  I'm sorry!

I recently re-read my earliest post and noticed that I left something out related to the current discussion.  I said that when I first began making lactic cheese in 1999 that I skimmed the cow's milk before clabbering.  I did skim the cow's initially, but not for long, and I don't do it anymore because I have better luck clabbering whole milk, AND because I am making primarily whole milk cheeses..... cow and goat.

I was trying to emulate what people would have done in the past, when they had no access to grocery stores for rennet, had no calf to kill, or could not afford to kill a calf for the stomach for rennet.  (With cow's milk I too  wanted to have some skimmed milk for family drinking, some cream for coffee and the rest of the cream for butter.)  I have since read and found some old folks who gave me more verbal evidence of what they used to do.  Most people in Virginia did not make hard cheese from clabbered milk, but instead ate the fresh farmer's cheese, or made cottage cheese with some cooking.  The wealthier people gave the 'blue-john' or buttermilk to the pigs!!  Not my family.  We had fresh buttermilk from butter making when I was small in the 50's and 60's, and I love the stuff.  If we still had access to great, fresh buttermilk, we'd likely have not need for Prilosec!

Karen and Pavel...  you are have trouble getting whole raw milk to clabber as well as skimmed.  I am very curious about that.  The only time I have more trouble with whole raw milk is when the ambient temperature is dipping below 80f.  Like making yogurt or cheddar whole milk seems to clabber most efficiently around 90f-104f, and at the time of year when pastures are best..... May through July here.  Efficient clabbering and draining issues DO also occur when I'm using late lactation milk, which for my goats is after 6 months.  If poor pasture, cold weather, and late lactation happen to fall at the same time, I sometimes have to add a yogurt starter culture at the rate of 1 part yoguurt to 10 parts milk....  otherwise the whole milk clabbers well on it's own with nothing added. My draining cloth has to have a tighter weave because the clabber is softer than a rennet-curd.

Regards,
Rona

[justsocat]

I'm so happy we have some kind of "clabber comunity" here, for the first several months since i'd sign up i was sure that almost no one is interested in making cheese without rennet (except Riha with his munajuusto)

Karen
this time, when you were making that "parm", i guess, you made all measurements of temp, time etc.? Could you please share the data? I'm very exited and will be waiting for the result of aging

Rona
I saw the pictures of the cheeses you make and they are wonderfull! I wish i could try at least a very thin slice And those "hearts" show how much do you love what you are doing. Very impressing!
The raw milk do clabber readily, the problem is to get a "clean break". I always add my home made yogurt-like culture but still have to heat all clabbered mass for an hour or two before i can cut it. BTW do you check your clabbered milk for a clean break or it doesn't matter for you?

[MrsKK]

Pavel,
I will post my method under the appropriate section of the forum,, but it will probably be a day or two, as I'm working nights this weekend.  It takes me a couple of days to catch up on my sleep, then I'm good to go again.

Rona,
The only time I have trouble getting milk to clabber is if I set out whole milk or if the temps in the house are under 70-72 degrees.  Which, honestly, is for about 8 months of the year.  Our home is an old cheese factory, with tile flooring and stays very cool, even during the summer.  As it is a HUGE house, we don't heat it above 65 degrees in the winter. 

Once I have a good clabber going, though, I always use some to innoculate the next batch, which speeds up the process and gives better flavor to the clabber.  A good flavored clabber is always essential to getting good flavored cheese.

[Lachevriere]

Hello Pavel and Karen,

I cannot always get a clean break, but that's ok., when I follow the routine that I will explain later in this post.  There are so many variables, as I sometimes have to make cheese from pasteurized whole cow's or goat's milk, which I have purchased.  I did find that the 'Pet' brand of cow's milk clabbers better than other brands that I can buy here.... for some reason???  There is a plant near Virginia Beach where the Pet milk originates.  Anyhow, I use pasteurized when I am not milking goats or the cow for raw milk.

That's pretty cool that you live in a former cheese plant Karen!  I do not completely heat or cool my buildings either..... home or dairy.   In the Summer my cheese kitchen is a perfect temperature for the clabbering milk, and I only use the air conditioning for the times that I need to be in there working.  Right now, it is pretty cool in there..... maybe 50f.   

I am heating my cheese kitchen only a little right now, but to clabber the milk I have to use a rectangular food warmer which only has a high, or low setting.  (It is COLD here right now!).  I have been putting a stainless steam pan with water on this warming appliance which I have set on high, (which is still not very high), then I put my 2 1/2 gallon glass container filled with milk into the warm water and incubate it that way.  I cover the whole thing with a stainless lid and a large towel to help keep the heat in.  It keeps the temperature above 85f for about 8 hours.  Then I turn the appliance off leaving it covered for a day or two until I get a strong enough curd to drain. 

I use what's called butter muslin for draining, and I have great luck now not losing milk solids.  When it stops dripping whey, I mix in the salt and close the draining bag back up, wrapping the whole thing in a large towel.  I put these bundles into the fridge to dry for one or two days, flipping them several times.  I want it to dry enough that the fromage blanc pulls right away from the cloth without scraping or losing any cheese.  THEN I usually put the cheese  into a mold shape lined with cheese cloth for another day or two.... turning, but not really pressing..... only from it's own weight.  After that I either bind the wheels with cloth, coat in beeswax, or do some kind of rind treatment with herbs, leaves, oil, alcohol, etc..

I'm just never happy with the texture of cheese curd when I have used rennet or acid for curd development.  I like a satiny smooth mouth-feel and no rubberiness.  Gently handling of the milk and curd, plus the extra drying time helps me to achieve this, I believe.

As far as appropriate sections.... I have not gotten used to this forum yet.  There are lots of things that I have not figured out.  This should be my slow-ish time, yet it seems not to be!!

Later,
Rona

[linuxboy]

Karen did you make that " parmesan-type" cheese again? For the first time, as you wrote, you had done it by accident and may be you made more attempts? And as i understand, when you made that "parm" you didn't skim the milk, right? The matter is i don't get a clean break even when i let the milk set for 48 hrs and i thought it is because of thick layer of cream above the milk.

linuxboy can you say anything about inoculating of heat-precipitated curd? This is what i want to try and your suggestions about it could be very usefull. My plan is to make heat precipitated curd, remove most of the whey, add culture and let it ripen then. Can it work?

Pash, a few possibilities for the lack of clean break:

One, the bacteria might not be distributed evenly in the milk. With natural bacteria, you are taking a chance in terms of how well they will perform. Some like to clump on the bottom, and will produce acid and acidify only the bottom. The result will be a lack of clean break. Resolution is to use an established clabber starter that is vigorous in reproducing and making acid. Uneven distribution or poor bacteria growth also happens with suboptimal temps.

Two,  the milk may be off. Although milk will coagulate due to acid/heat, if it has low solids or a poor mineral content, you may have issues with coagulation.

You also asked about inoculating curd. Do you mean taking clabber and heating it to aid curd formation, then re-inoculating that curd? Well, it will work in the sense that you can do it, but it will not work in the sense that it will produce a different cheese. By the time you heat, there is very little food for the bacteria, so if you introduce living bacteria, it will not be evenly distributed, and it will die because it will have no food.

Feel free to PM me directly if you prefer; I am fluent in Russian.

[justsocat]

Pash, a few possibilities for the lack of clean break:

One, the bacteria might not be distributed evenly in the milk. With natural bacteria, you are taking a chance in terms of how well they will perform. Some like to clump on the bottom, and will produce acid and acidify only the bottom. The result will be a lack of clean break. Resolution is to use an established clabber starter that is vigorous in reproducing and making acid. Uneven distribution or poor bacteria growth also happens with suboptimal temps.

Two,  the milk may be off. Although milk will coagulate due to acid/heat, if it has low solids or a poor mineral content, you may have issues with coagulation.

You also asked about inoculating curd. Do you mean taking clabber and heating it to aid curd formation, then re-inoculating that curd? Well, it will work in the sense that you can do it, but it will not work in the sense that it will produce a different cheese. By the time you heat, there is very little food for the bacteria, so if you introduce living bacteria, it will not be evenly distributed, and it will die because it will have no food.

Feel free to PM me directly if you prefer; I am fluent in Russian.

Now i begin to understand some of sources of my failures. I observed that the bottom is coagulated better than the top. And after i've red that Karen "whisks culture to death", i know i must give a very good mix to my clabber culture first and only after that add it to milk. And i see that my culture becomes stronger every time i "propagate" it by adding fresh milk. So the second reason (after not even distribution) is  natural bacteria's poor performance. Ok, seems like i can solve those problems. Thank you linuxboy and Karen!
About inoculating curd i understand that that lead to producing of different cheese. That doesn't matter to me. Good news it's possible
I've sent a PM to you linuxboy. I would be happy to get some information in Russian. It would be much easier for me

[BikerChick]

Are you cutting the curd after it clabbers?  For a cheddar style cheese?  I made a big mess today trying to use a clabbered raw milk.  I stirred it up and added rennet....stupid me eh?  If I can get it to drain I will still press it to see but after reading this thread and visiting Lachevriere's site I realize I missed something totally!  Hey-I am learning eh???