Hi everybody! I am trying to buy some Penicillium Rocheforti for experimenting with Blue Cheeses for the first time, however it confuses me a lot since the packages for sale I see online say they are good for a large amount of gallons of milk. Fpr instance, I am looking at one that is enough for over 200 gallons of milk, however they also say that content is about 1/4 tsp of mold. Now, several recipes that I have looked at ask for 1/8 tsp for 2 gallons of milk (if I follow recipes this package would make about 4 gallons of milk, not over 200). Now, how do I make this work for me? If I use 1/8 tsp for 2 gallons of milk as recipes ask, wouldn't it be way too strong? What is the trick here? :(
Do you have a link to the place?
Cheesemaking.com sells PR and has instructions for 2-4 gal. milk. https://www.cheesemaking.com/shop/ingredients/cheese-cultures-and-mold-powders/choozit-penicillium-roqueforti-ps.html. (https://www.cheesemaking.com/shop/ingredients/cheese-cultures-and-mold-powders/choozit-penicillium-roqueforti-ps.html.)
Also, if you don't want to commit to a whole package of culture at this point, you can purchase a commercial blue cheese (local, freshest best) and scrape out some of the blue veining, dissolve in some of your milk, then add to the rest of the milk. I did this once with a surface ripened blue goat cheese and was surprised and amazed how well it worked.
Susan
Duntov, theSite's name is Grape Granary, package reads good for 250 gallons of milk.
That is amazing Susan! Great idea, I will try it very soon! Thanks.
Either way, Susan's suggestion or a little sprinkle of PR would do the trick as it is very aggressive. What you want to watch for is cross contamination in the cave with other cheeses or to much PR will make the cheese bitter.