Hi, so I've made two cheeses so far, both were successful. But, both used a danone yoghurt starter culture (lacto thermophilis and bulgaricus and others?) . i want to try to get a mesophilic culture but i live in korea. there are basically no cheese making supplies for the public. i can buy rennet for 38 dollars/2oz bottle online and also online can buy some kind of kefir making culture, but the bacteria listed include about 8 different types (though including both cremoris and thermophilus), maybe not ideal for cheese making? there's NO buttermilk and sour cream is nearly non-existent in my entire large city but i could buy it if it could be used as a starter for a mesophilic culture. also i can buy imported camembert, brie, cheddar, some blue cheeses etc. it seems like ordering stuff online is too expensive for my tastes. Please note-technical issues regarding sanitary/pure harvesting are not a problem for me as i've been doing this kind of thing with beer for a long time and have good equipment/techniques.
so my questions are:
1. Can I harvest a starter culture from sour cream or an existing mesophilic cheese or anywhere else? how?
2. I want a penicillium candidum cheese or a blue cheese soon. I can just cut off a very clean piece from an existing cheese, dissolve in water and use it? Is it effective?
3. Does anyone know of any other way I didn't think of to get a mesophilic culture? I'd really rather not spend 50 bucks ordering some stuff from afar...
Sorry if I've used some terms incorrectly. I'm new to this forum. please give me any advice!! or ask any question about cheese in korea if curious
Where do you live in Korea? I might be willing to ship to you if you can get U.S. Global Priority Mail. Everything else is too expensive.
im very cheap, and shipping seems just out of my price range. i tend to have a policy regarding stuff i make-beer-cheese-food-etc that it shouldn't be more expensive than the store but quality should be higher.
so im mostly curious - sour cream is fermented with lacto lactis cremoris and l.l.lactis, can i use that as a starter instead of yoghurt? i heard sour cream has less active bacteria than yoghurt, should i step up the bacteria count in some way?
thanks
There is a link to cheesemaking supplies by country on this site. https://cheeseforum.org/articles/links/links-supply-stores/ (https://cheeseforum.org/articles/links/links-supply-stores/)
It links to:
Korea
JMJMall.com web store, mostly tofu but some cheese making supplies & equipment
http://www.jmjmall.com/ (http://www.jmjmall.com/)
Thank you so much. They do have mesophilic cultures for a fairly reasonable price. 20 bucks for 5 packs. Buy do you think I could stretch out these packs? I mean can i use a smaller than recommended amount, and add it to milk 24 hours ahead of time as a way to build up bacteria count?
Edit: i finally saw that there is a sub-board just for the topic i was asking about. Thanks!
That is a good way to optimise the cultures, search the forum for "Mother Culture"!
Also I think you can freeze the unopened packets to extend their life. (Someone more knowledgeable than me will be able to guide you further.)
Your edit showed up after I posted. :)
Quote from: fredthecat on January 30, 2015, 09:26:52 AM
I want a penicillium candidum cheese or a blue cheese soon. I can just cut off a very clean piece from an existing cheese, dissolve in water and use it? Is it effective?
You will find that this article addresses your question:
http://thewayofcheese.com/penicillium-roqueforti-aka-blue-mould/ (http://thewayofcheese.com/penicillium-roqueforti-aka-blue-mould/)
I have done this and can confirm that it works. There is only one point with which I would differ. In the second step the article reads "Smear a tiny bit onto a small patch on a slice of the sourdough bread." I did this the first time and found that while the blue mould was growing on the small patch various toxic-looking black and yellow moulds established themselves on the other parts. I chucked that one and on my next attempt I used a spray bottle to spray the liquid over the whole slice.
There's also a technique called "repiquage" or transplanting, where you take a bit of rind from a store bought cheese (e.g. "brie") and inoculate milk with it. I have heard of multiple people doing this but have not tried it myself. Rinds are definitely living ecosystems, and you should be able to harvest some cultures to play around with this way for less money than ordering cultures. The downside is you won't have pure strains of anything, as there will be a mix of whatever cultures are there (mostly P. candidum if brie). I believe at this stage most of the l. lactose would have died off, but I could be mistaken.
Happy cheesemaking! I'm also new to this forum (hence the late response).