I’m starting to think about starter cultures: frozen powder DVI vs. mother cultures. The reason is merely to save a few bucks by making a few more cheeses per DVI packet. I’ve read several forum posts and it sounds like generally, one can use homemade mother cultures from yogurt (thermo) and buttermilk (meso) with success- however, with varying degrees of reproducibility, flavor and uniqueness in the final cheese. It makes sense that specific bacterial strains (i.e. frozen powder, direct set stuff) might contribute more to distinct flavors in a cheese, and I don’t want them all to taste the same. For that reason, I’d like to stay with specific bacterial compositions for now, either in direct set starter packets (DVI)- or, in homemade mother cultures of these, if possible.
I poked around and read several different threads on the topic of propagating a mother culture from store-bought, frozen DVI powder. My understanding so far is based primarily on two threads (
http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,2573 and
http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,2110, recommended by Linuxboy) and is this:
1. Yes, you can generate a mother culture from store bought, powdered direct set DVI packets.
2. To do that, be as sterile as possible, and basically, sterilize some skim milk, inoculate it using your frozen DVI powder, and let it set up.
3. Yes, you can freeze smaller aliquots of that mother culture in ice cube trays and it will last for 1-6 mo, depending on freezing conditions and sterile technique.
4. It sounds like the final composition of the mother culture will vary some from the initial powder, in terms of percentage composition and types of bacteria- but that generally it will be a close enough match to get you a similar type of cheese. Good enough for a home-cheesemaker who isn’t super picky about reproducibility?
5. When using the mother culture, use between 1 and 4 cubes per gallon of milk (following the 1.5 – 2% rule).
6. If I understand correctly, it sounds like one should only propagate future cultures from a DVI packet for a few generations, before starting another fresh mother culture from a new DVI packet. Right? I think I would probably just culture each packet once (not propagate new cultures from a cube).
7. More generally, when ripening milk (before adding rennet), the point is either (a) to rehydrate and activate frozen, powdered DVI (~30min) or (b) to defrost a frozen cube of mother culture, which when defrosted is ready to go and doesn’t require any real ripening time- one could go ahead and add rennet 5 minutes after adding the cube(s)?? This is where I get a little hazy--- is this right? I was surprised to learn this- I thought I was allowing bacteria to eat and multiply…
Does that sound about right, or am I mistaken on any counts?
Is there any special procedure for using frozen cubes of culture, or just chuck it into the 90 deg milk and proceed?
Phew! My brain is going to explode...
Thanks for any direction here!