Does someone with clabber and yogurt need to buy starters?

[Annie]

I have a cow which we milk, so I can make clabber, and we also have experience making raw-milk yogurt with starter from the store. So why would I need to buy mesophilic or thermophilic starters, since clabber and yogurt seem to be mesophilic and thermophilic starters?

I am just wondering if the "official" starters make it taste different, or if there are other things going on? Or if I don't need them at all? Or if I need them only if I want the cheese to taste like what we are used to?

Thanks

[DeejayDebi]

You can make perfectly great cheeses using clabber. You have more control over variations and flavor profiles with commercial cultures and can relicate many imported cheeses but there is nothing wrong wih clabber and yogurt. Good place to start and develop your cheese making techniques.

[Annie]

Thanks, Debi I had looked around hear to see, but the titles really didn't seem to match what I wanted to know, but after I posted I found a discussion of using various strains of bacteria (esp LinusX), but what you have written is very encouraging about using what we have here, which will give a different taste but that might not be such a bad thing!

[MrsKK]

I mostly use clabber and yogurt for cheesemaking.  Be aware, though, that the flavor of the culture really affects the flavor of the cheese.

This thread from Keeping a Family Cow is a great one on how to make good clabber.  If you taste the clabber and it doesn't taste good, it probably won't make cheese that you'll want to eat.

Now for an easy way to make rennet...

[Alex]

Annie, for 3 years now that I make cheese using clabber/buttermilk and yogurt only. You may calm down, you'll make wanderfull cheeses.

[linuxboy]

Do you need a good howto on making calf rennet or rennet paste? It involves a little science and math, but it's not too bad. I could write it up if you want.

Also, clabber works fine, but the flavor is more variable, like everyone has said.

[MrsKK]

No, but thank you anyway, Linuxboy.  I do have instructions on how to make calf rennet, just no desire to slaughter a young calf in order to make it.  As I only have one born on my property a year, I prefer to raise them for a couple of years to be beef.

By an "easy" way to make rennet, I was meaning something as easy as making clabber or yogurt!

[DeejayDebi]

Like Alex I used nothing but buttermilk and yogurt for many many years. You'd be surprised how good a cheese can be made that way.