Please help me answer this question...

[Homestead]

I try to use as many old-fashioned methods as possible around my farm.  I really want to make special one of a kind cheese from my cows.  I have a plan for my cheese making, but I don't know if it will work and/or if my understanding is right.  My hope is to make true "clabber" from my raw milk and then make my cheese from that point in the recipe.  So for Jack as an example I would skip the heating, adding culture and rennet and go right to the cutting and heating of the curds with the clabber.  Am I right that I could do this with most hard cheeses?  Granted I realize that I will not end up with a traditional Jack or Gouda but will it be edible and work about the same way?  Please help guide me in the right direction....thanks to all

[linuxboy]

Think of clabber like a bulk starter. Or if this helps, think of it like buttermilk in all the home cheesemaking type recipes that use buttermilk as a starter. Clabber is a complex collection of bacteria that you use in place of a commercial starter, and can then follow whatever recipe you want.

You can do this in any cheese. You can also create your own thermophilic starters by thermizing milk and propagating thermophiles forward to create a stable whey starter system.

Another way to look at it is that you can convert rennet-based cheeses to all lactic coagulation. It makes for a different cheese, of course, but you can form a synthesized approach. And then, you use clabber as the starter for the lactic cheeses.

If you want to be all-farm and want to make your own rennet, let me know and I can help figure that out.

[ArnaudForestier]

Wow, timing.  Playing with this very thing as we speak, and with Pav's help as well, Mountain Maiden.  My first attempt wasn't great - at 90F, a not very pleasant, heavy balance to butteriness (pointing to a predominance by diacetyl-producing bacteria, e.g., leuconostoc), and some other sensory effects which suggested to Pav perhaps entero and even some psychotrophs - I was getting some DMS whiff. 

I've used a commercial starter this time, as I didn't want to attempt it with the cuirrent make and this clabber, but will try going in higher - per Pav's suggestion, 92-94F - to encourage lactococci growth, next time.  Following your results with interest.  I'll post mine, as well, if it helps.

[Homestead]

Thank you both....I need all the help I can get.  I would be glad to post stuff and follow your post as well.  I am interested in making rennet too....hopefully once I get through this   I have some milk clabbering as we speak.  My plan is to cut the curd and hang to consolidate and try as a fresh cheese then next I will reculture the clabber a few times and do the same cut and hang to see the difference between the two.  I hope after the taste test I can then decide which way to go for the hard cheeses......again if anyone has advice that would be great!  Thanks again and God Bless