CHR Hansen Units vs Choozit DCU - the same?

[ialkohme]

Hello All

I'm hoping to get confirmation here.  Are CHR Hansen units and Choozit DCU the same, i.e. if a recipe calls for 1 DCU will this be the equivalent of CHR Hansen 1U (unit)?  I've seen recipes starter measurements in U, DCU and grams.

From my limited experience with cultures, it looks like CHR Hansen provides the starter content in units only, which needs weighing out to find the grams, whereas Choozit have the DCU and content grams on the package.

Thanks!

[mikekchar]

My understanding is that 1U for CHR Hansen is enough for about 4 liters.  1DCU for Choozit is about 20 liters.  Not sure if that's correct, but that's always the way I've thought (based on NEC's information pages).  I think Caldwell has details in her book as well.  I've given up and only use mother cultures now (make a yogurt from the DVI culture and dose it at 1.5% of the total milk).  I've found that I get much better results that way -- especially for the small amounts of cheese that I make.

[Bantams]

Because each culture strain has its own recommended usage rate, I usually just follow the packet's recommended dosage.  ln other words, unless the recipe calls for a specific culture at a specific rate and I end up using that same exact blend, the DCU/U amounts aren't really relevant.
For example, one meso blend might recommend 0.5-1 DCU per 100# while another blend recommends 2-3 DCU per 100#. Better to go off the packet's rec than the recipe that broadly calls for 1 DCU meso culture per 100#. 

[ialkohme]

Thanks for the info and guidance.  Better get them packets out of the trash can and record the litres! 

[Mornduk]

I read that 10DCU=1U, I'm not sure where, I think Caldwell's. Personally I just write down how the package describes it should be used and the net weight, and do the math. For example my Flora Danica package content is 12.7g, 50U and says 1 U will work for 6G. So 12.7/(50*6)=0.04grams per Gallon of milk. You can google pdf spec documents from CHR, Choozit, and other producers describing their products and recommended dosages for different popular cheeses, as they are not always the same.

[mikekchar]

Yeah, I'm largely with Bantams on this one.  When reading recipes, I don't really pay any attention at all to the amount of culture used as a number.  I'm looking more at how close/far they are from *normal*.  It gets a bit frustrating when you go through a bunch of recipes with a particular culture and the usage amounts are all over the place :-)

I've ranted about this before.  It's the same with rennet.  You get recipes that give you volume of DVI culture per gallon of milk.  Utterly useless IMHO.  For rennet, volume per gallon of milk is almost useless.  Give me % of weight of mother culture, or % of normal dosing of DVI cultures.  Give me IMCU for rennet.  And for dog's sake, give me flocculation times if you aren't going to give me pH targets.  Give me yields as well, so I can estimate moisture content.  Otherwise the recipe might as well be "Make cheese.  You are done".