This is a fascinating thread that I have only just happened upon. It touches on my own interests somewhat. I suppose I'm not so adverse to commercial, mass-produced, industrial ways of making cheese but it's not something I have any interest in replicating it in my own at-home cheesemaking practices. I'm more interested in using older, more traditional cheesemaking practices at home - not just because tradition is
nice - but because it's all so deeply cool. Working with wild cultures, heirloom cultures, forming a cheese in some old pot in the sink, with unpasteurised milk and fig sap or nettles - it is amazingly fun. I feel like a magician every time I get a pot of milk to curdle. Anyway, that's just my personal philosophy
The discussion about whey starters is interesting - it may be something to look at in future years - but I'm interested in the related subject of cultivating wild cultures. Is there a thread about this? I'm thinking of either making a wild culture from just setting a pot of raw milk aside to clabber into yoghurt, or from an introduced outside source (I think I've heard that lacto-bacilli are quite fond of the tops of capsicums?) Would the cultures that result be principally thermophilic? Would they tend to be heirloom/long-life cultures because the bacteria are living in the wild anyway, as it were, on their wits? Or would the richness of the bacterial strains that result not necessarily contribute to long-life? This may be something to look into this year. I'd imagine you wouldn't need too much milk to make an initial starter....