MM100 Culture - How Much for Gouda?

[rsterne]

My wife and I are recently retired, and have adopted cheesemaking as our new hobby.... We have done a couple of Farmhouse Cheddars and a Parmesan (still aging), a Cream Cheese (fabulous), and an Halloumi (excellent grilled, even better pan fried in bacon grease).... We want to make a Gouda, using MM100 culture, and don't know how much to use.... The mould we have is about right for 1.5 lbs. so we plan to start with 1.5 gallons of milk.... We actually plan on using 5 litres of 2% homogenized plus 700 ml of 18% coffee cream, which will result in 1.5 gallons of just under 4% MF.... We find that blending our milk in this way to create a pseudo "cream-line" milk works very well, greatly reducing the coagulation time compared to the 3.25% homogenized whole milk we can buy here....

So, how much MM100 would you recommend for a 1.5 gallon batch of Gouda?....

Bob

[DrChile]

What are you using for culture?  i.e. freeze dried DVS? or a mother culture?

I typically use a mother culture for almost all my makes and found this guide (attached) on this board many moons ago...
edit: I usually use 1.5% for my makes.  in my raw milk makes, I've been dropping to 1% with good results.


Trent

[rsterne]

We have the Danisco MM100 culture.... I believe this is called a "Direct" culture.... It seems that about 1/8 tsp. would be right for this amount of milk, but I thought I would ask, just to be sure....

Bob

[Mornduk]

....So, how much MM100 would you recommend for a 1.5 gallon batch of Gouda?....

0.1g. If you don't have a balance then the closest to 1/50th in your measuring spoon set.

That's assuming you have the same Danisco MM100 I have. It's 16.7g per 50U package, each U does 5 gallons according to manufacturer instructions, so 0.067g/G and ~0.1g for 1.5 gallons.
I've used that ratio for my 6G batches and it's worked fine.

[mikekchar]

I'm also a fan of "mother cultures".  To make a mother culture from a DVI culture, take some milk (I usually use about 500 ml), add a tiny amount of DVI culture (it doesn't really matter as long as it is "some").  For a mesophilic culture like MM100, let it sit at room temperature until it gets thick (probably about 15 hours).  You can store it in the fridge for a few days in a sealed jar before you use it.  I find that I get *much* more consistent performance when I do this.  It doesn't work well for mixed cultures where there are mesophilic and thermophilic cultures together since there it's hard to figure out a temperature that makes a good balance.  For that reason I've given up on cultures like MA4000.  Instead I just make a mesophilic (Flora Danica these days) and a thermophilic (a local commercial Bulgarian yogurt) and mix them at various ratios based on what I want.

[rsterne]

Thanks for the advice.... I will stick to Direct Set cultures until I know more.... I did find Spec. sheets on MA11 and MM100 online, and they recommend 1/8 tsp. for 1 gallon, 1/4 tsp. for 2-5 gallon, and 1/2 tsp. for 5-10 gallon.... We made the Gouda last night, and I used 3/16 tsp. of MM100.... It seemed to work fine, I guess in a few months we will find out....  ::)

Bob

[DrChile]

this is the math we've been looking for.
When i don't do mother cultures i was also doing the 1/8 tsp , 1/4 tsp , etc method.
Calculating amount using Mornduk's math (that has a nice ring to it!) is how i want to use cultures in the future.

This of course requires an upgrade in measurement scales, but I needed a new one anyway ;D

There was also another post, i forget by who, that talked about calculations like that.  Caldwell's book does as well.

Trent

....So, how much MM100 would you recommend for a 1.5 gallon batch of Gouda?....

0.1g. If you don't have a balance then the closest to 1/50th in your measuring spoon set.

That's assuming you have the same Danisco MM100 I have. It's 16.7g per 50U package, each U does 5 gallons according to manufacturer instructions, so 0.067g/G and ~0.1g for 1.5 gallons.
I've used that ratio for my 6G batches and it's worked fine.