Author Topic: Store Bought Buttermilk & Yogurt - Using As Starter Cultures  (Read 14501 times)

Thomas9666

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I once heard from a f riend that 'Cultured buttermilk is a mesophillic culture, and yoghurt is a thermophillic culture.' They also told me that I could use these products instead of a pack of bacteria. Is this true? Could I just use cultured buttermilk and yoghurt?

Cheese Head

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Re: Store Bought Buttermilk & Yogurt - Using As Starter Cultures
« Reply #1 on: July 02, 2011, 06:30:43 PM »
Correct, both of those have bacteria, you can use them instead of the manufactured starter cultures. For the store bought active Cultured Buttermilk you need to concentrate it first, see our Wiki: Store Bought Cultured Buttermilk Mesophilic Starter Culture Making Recipe article.

More info in the INGREDIENTS - Lactic Acid Starter Cultures board.

Thomas9666

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Re: Store Bought Buttermilk & Yogurt - Using As Starter Cultures
« Reply #2 on: July 03, 2011, 12:14:34 AM »
Wow... Thanks :-) I've set that up to incubate over night.
Is there a similar page on preparing a yoghurt thermophillic culture, or is the process indenticle?

Gustav

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Re: Store Bought Buttermilk & Yogurt - Using As Starter Cultures
« Reply #3 on: July 03, 2011, 06:14:17 AM »
The easiest thing to do is to buy plain, unsweetened store yogurt & use it as yoiur starter. Just put some of your own batch in a tub in the fridge for the next batch.  ;D

Thomas9666

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Re: Store Bought Buttermilk & Yogurt - Using As Starter Cultures
« Reply #4 on: July 03, 2011, 10:03:15 AM »
Ok :-) But is it the exact same process for yoghurt as with the buttermilk (which worked amazingly well)?

Gustav

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Re: Store Bought Buttermilk & Yogurt - Using As Starter Cultures
« Reply #5 on: July 03, 2011, 07:13:03 PM »
Heat milk to 87'C for 30 min.
Cool down to 32'C
Add about 2 big tablespoons of yogurt to about 2-4 Litres of milk.
I prefer to incubate at 42'C for 7 hours (this is just before it starts to get tangy)
cool down fast in fridge for 8 hours before adding sugar/flavourant/pulp.
Leave in fridge for another 8 hours before consuming.

This is what I prefer. You may eat the yogurt sooner, but the texture is better if it's done like this.

Cheese Head

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Re: Store Bought Buttermilk & Yogurt - Using As Starter Cultures
« Reply #6 on: July 04, 2011, 03:06:15 PM »
Thomas, you just use the yogurt direct from store bought container, no need to concentrate like for cultured buttermilk, the recipe that Gustav provided above is for making yogurt using milk an yogurt as a starter.

Offline fied

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Re: Store Bought Buttermilk & Yogurt - Using As Starter Cultures
« Reply #7 on: September 08, 2011, 11:32:37 AM »
I've always used bought sour cream or creme fraiche and yoghurt as starters as I don't make cheese on a weekly basis enough to make and continually cultivate my own. However, I'm particular about the brands I use and choose those that are made with live bacteria after checking with the dairies that make them; here, in Scotland, they're known as organics. From what I've read on the forum, for the US, substitute organic for cultured.

JeffHamm

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Re: Store Bought Buttermilk & Yogurt - Using As Starter Cultures
« Reply #8 on: September 10, 2011, 06:41:08 AM »
Hi,

I just bought a 600 ml carton of cultured buttermilk and put it in the hot water closet for about 6 hours.  It thickened up nicely, and is now in the ice cube trays.  I probably could have taken it out a bit sooner though, as it was starting to separate and there was whey on the top.  For anyone else from NZ, it was Tararua Cultured Buttermilk. 

- Jeff

mbox

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Re: Store Bought Buttermilk & Yogurt - Using As Starter Cultures
« Reply #9 on: December 15, 2012, 04:17:17 PM »
This a very interesting thread ...being in thailand i can find yogurt which i successfully used to make more yogurt out of it ....basically by following somewhat similar as gustav mentioned. I can also get sourcream .... so i could jut use the yogurt as starter for lets say emmmenthal ? how about sourcream can it be used for anything? Trying o find Meso for making blue and camembert on local level ...any suggestions?

thx mbox


Alpkäserei

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Re: Store Bought Buttermilk & Yogurt - Using As Starter Cultures
« Reply #10 on: December 22, 2012, 05:04:20 PM »
check the cultures listed. Most plain yogurts use only 1 or 2 bacterial cultures, usually a strain of Streptococcus Thermophilus.

While this is the most important bacteria for early acidification uring the production of cheese, this alone will not produce Emmentaler or any other long aged hard cheese. For this you need something else.

If you use active Greek yogurt (make sure it says live culture, active culture, or something like that) then you get a set of other bacteria in there that will produce your aged flavors. These are lactobacilli. I believe Greek yogurt contains Lactobacillu Delbrueckii which is also the primary bacteria that a lot of Swiss alpine cheeses use to attain their flavor (NOT lactobacillus helveticus, as is commonly reported)

But even this will still not produce Emmentaler. for these, you need p. shermanii, a third cloass of bacteria. This makes the eyes and characteristic bite of an Emmentaler. This will not be had from yogurt, ou will need to buy it or figure out how to grow some from a wild source. (i would recommend buying it)

But for producing an eye-less hard alpine style cheese (such as my Oberlander or its Swiss parent cheese, Berner Alpkäse, or a number of others such as Gruyere, Etivaz, Vacherin Fribourgeois, Appenzeller, etc.) a GREEK style yogurt will work just fine. Though I would recommend re-activating it first, which is to say make a few batches of yogurt until you get suitably strong, consistent results (very often the first batch made from boughten yogurt will be runny, but can be used to make a successful second batch.) This will give you more control over the culture during cheese making.


mbox

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Re: Store Bought Buttermilk & Yogurt - Using As Starter Cultures
« Reply #11 on: December 27, 2012, 02:10:20 PM »
check the cultures listed. Most plain yogurts use only 1 or 2 bacterial cultures, usually a strain of Streptococcus Thermophilus.

While this is the most important bacteria for early acidification uring the production of cheese, this alone will not produce Emmentaler or any other long aged hard cheese. For this you need something else.

If you use active Greek yogurt (make sure it says live culture, active culture, or something like that) then you get a set of other bacteria in there that will produce your aged flavors. These are lactobacilli. I believe Greek yogurt contains Lactobacillu Delbrueckii which is also the primary bacteria that a lot of Swiss alpine cheeses use to attain their flavor (NOT lactobacillus helveticus, as is commonly reported)

But even this will still not produce Emmentaler. for these, you need p. shermanii, a third cloass of bacteria. This makes the eyes and characteristic bite of an Emmentaler. This will not be had from yogurt, ou will need to buy it or figure out how to grow some from a wild source. (i would recommend buying it)

But for producing an eye-less hard alpine style cheese (such as my Oberlander or its Swiss parent cheese, Berner Alpkäse, or a number of others such as Gruyere, Etivaz, Vacherin Fribourgeois, Appenzeller, etc.) a GREEK style yogurt will work just fine. Though I would recommend re-activating it first, which is to say make a few batches of yogurt until you get suitably strong, consistent results (very often the first batch made from boughten yogurt will be runny, but can be used to make a successful second batch.) This will give you more control over the culture during cheese making.

wow, great! thanks for the explanation, einen Kaes fuer dich :-)

mbox