making cheese cultures from store bought dairy

[corrales_305]

new to the cheese making process. I don't wanna spend a lot of time and money ordering things online. I have rennet and cheese cloth already. Made a plastic mold and press out of household items. so ....cultures are next how can I make cultures for hard cheeses like chedder, Colby, muenster, gouda, edam, blue cheese or any cheese that is gonna be aged from "store bought" dairy. I would think that just like you can wash and reuse yeast from a beer batch, you can probably do the same with cultures. Maybe buy some cheese from the market and scrape some blue mold off a blue cheese and some how make a starter from it or off the rind of brie or some other cheese. Also how do you properly make culture starters out of buttermilk and yogurt? Is there a "pitch rate" for these cultures? can you pitch too much or not enough to properly inoculate the milk? If I somehow make my own culture how do I know how much to add since most recipes talk about adding cultures that have been purchased from a cheese making supplier.If some one with experience can answer any of these questions it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[EMG]

Hi Corrales,

You can't scrape off cultures from an already made cheese. It's a good question, but it will only create problems.

Here's a link on how to make a mesophilic MOTHER culture:
http://www.culturesforhealth.com/making-keeping-mother-cheese-culture

Cultures can only be created in labs, but that doesn't stop you from being able to make a MOTHER culture. The shelf life of a mother culture is only about a week. Three months if you freeze them in ice cube trays. But if you keep the culture in it's dehydrated powdered form, it can stay frozen up to 1 year AFTER the expiration date.

Freshness is important. So if you buy buttermilk, use it directly. Make sure you have the right amount and it's at room temp. Always remember that your buttermilk needs to be as fresh as possible.

Last point on buttermilk and yogurt as a starter: Buttermilk contains mesophilic cultures that are needed in hard cheeses like cheddar, colby, monterey. Yogurt contains thermophilic cultures such that are needed in cheeses such as mozz and Parm.