Pter Dixon's Recipes - Interpreting & Understanding

[BigCheese]

I know I asked this in one other thread, but I still don't understand.

For example (from his Gouda recipe):

add 0.25-0.5% Rosell Aroma B bulk starter or
direct-vat-set EZAL MM100, MM101 or BT002:
1 unit per 50-100 lb. milk

Say I am doing a 5 gallon batch, could someone decode this for me and show me how?

Thanks in advance,
Nitai

[linuxboy]

Yes, for the first one, it is a bulk starter, not DVI. You add this by weight. 5 gallons is about 43 lbs, so .0025*43= .1075 lbs of starter.

And then the second one is DVI, so you use 1 unit. If you buy a pack that has 50 units, you measure the weight of the entire pack, and divide that by 50, then add that 1/50th portion.

[BigCheese]

Thank you. So I have a digital scale, but I don't know if it will get as specific as I need, is there a general weight to volume conversion that would hold for starter culture, assuming they weigh about the same thing?

Or maybe I should just start testing using Margaret Morris and others' measurements...

[linuxboy]

Sorry, missed this question. It comes out to about 1/8 tsp per gallon, but this decreases as your volume goes up. Thing is, culture activity can vary by as much as 50% between batches, and also the amount of filler varies. So there's no rule of thumb. You're dealing with ultra concentrated bacteria when using DVI.

Edit: On second thought; I was wrong. You can use the industry rule of thumb, which is that 1 KG of DVI culture is the same as 100 liters of bulk starter. Then you can convert your normal inoculation of bulk starter, from 1% to 2.5%, to what you need to use with DVI. But this info isn't so helpful for small batches. Generally, 1/8 tsp per gallon is a good starting point.

What cheeses do you want to make?

[BigCheese]

Well, I am going to be doing Gouda, Havarti, Stilton, and Parmesan to start. And it is all from raw milk. I was thinking around a 1/4t of MM100 and 1/8 LM57 for the Gouda. They will all be 8 gallon batches. How does that sound? I have not looked closely into the others yet to formulate an idea about how much culture.

[linuxboy]

Why do you want the Leuconostoc? More diacetyl, and some more CO2? A MM100 with Leuconostoc is the same thing as Flora Danica or Danisco's Probat 222.

1/4 tsp culture is about right for 8 gal. For a gouda, it's somewhere in the range of .5-1 DCU per 100 lbs of milk.

[BigCheese]

The LM57 was cause I read on DairyConnection that sometimes it is added to Gouda, giving some small eye formation (which I do not really care about, but some say it is traditional) and a buttery flavor. To me, there are very few things that would not benefit from buttery flavor. I was thinking MM100 and LM57 (as opposed to FLora Danica) because they would seem more versatile when separated. I was thinking to start addidng a pinch of LM57 to yogurt and stuff. What do you recommend?

[linuxboy]

Yep, if you want the traditional gouda with small openings, and a more buttery note, that's a great combo. Not sure on the LM amount. Maybe less than 1/8 tsp.

[BigCheese]

Thank you. Yes I will try less than 1/8.