Making Starter Culture

[Aikage]

It says to sterilize the milk, let the milk come back down to 76 degrees and then add the cultures.  Ok.  So far.  It [the package] says to let the milk and cultures sit for 12-18 hours or something along those lines.  Does this mean at 76 degrees?  How would I go about keeping the milk at 76 degrees for that amount of time?

[Cheese Head]

Aikage, I've only used homemade starter cultures and freeze dried Direct Vat Set (DVS) cultures that you sprinkle onto the milk.

I think you are asking about Prepared Culture or Mother Culture style starter cultures and suspect your directions mean maintain at 76F. I know fellow member Tea in Queensland uses this system so I'm hoping she can answer.

Assuming your house is colder that 76F, options to keeping warmer are a small "health" heat blanket, placing on top-back of fridge, placing in oven and leaving light on similar to making yogurt ( i suspect you'd need to keep the door open otherwise it will probably get warmer than 76F).

Hope helps, John.