When I was gathering together my "starter kit" for cheesemaking, Geo got left off the list - my supplier didn't stock it, and I didn't want to make a separate order just for that when I had other exciting new cultures to play with. But now I'm watching my first batches of white bloomy cheeses become ripe, and thinking that they
really needed some Geo. People assured me that "geo ends up everywhere", but perhaps not in the quantities needed to make a tasty Cam? Or maybe my techniques are
too sterile?
So, my question is this: is there a way to get an innoculum which contains Geo from a piece of cheese rind (eg. a geo-rich Camembert), and
then treat it in some way (eg. heating/decanting/acidifying/etc) which would leave the Geo healthier-and-happier than the other critters in there? Does Geo have any property which would allow it to be partially separated (from the other common cultures likely to be found in a piece of Cam rind), just using common kitchen equipment?
I realise that this isn't true isolation of culture, but I couldn't think of another way to phrase it. My resources consist of a small kitchen, a reasonable thermometer, a few years of university biochem & organic chem (about 10 years ago
), but no pH meter.
Or if isolating my own isn't feasible, is there anything I can do to encourage wild Geo (but not other stuff) on my cheeses?