No culture cheese???? What happens with out culture?

[Bonemarrow]

If I use no mesophilic or thermophilic culture what might I get?

If I was to use blue cheese crumbles but no culture would I still get blue cheese?

 

[passedpawn]

If I use no mesophilic or thermophilic culture what might I get?

If I was to use blue cheese crumbles but no culture would I still get blue cheese?

The bacterial culture reduces the pH of the milk by producing lactic acid. Lower pH will produce stronger curds. This is why the culture is usually added to warm milk an hour or so before the rennet is added. I've always used a culture, so I'm not really sure what would happen if you didn't, but it might result in problem with curd formation.

Even after curd formation, and after the cheese is in it's final form, the cultures will continue to reduce the pH of the cheese. I think this is important for the curds to knit together to form a cohesive cheese, but I'm not sure. These cultures can also produce characteristic cheese flavors over time, but in the case of blue cheese it won't matter too much due to the strong flavor from the penecillium roqueforti (PR) mold.

If you're using blue cheese crumbles, you'd have to trust that the crumbles actually contained live PR. It might, but who knows. It's really easy to grow a ton of PR. If you want use cheese crumbles, I'd suggest growing a big culture of it from a single crumble.

If you have some blue cheese and you want to grow a bunch of PR:

• Smear a pea-sized bit of blue mold from blue cheese onto the center of a fresh piece of bread.
• Put bread inside a tupperware container with a lid. The humidity must remain high to encourage growth. If it doesn't start to spread in a few days, add a wet napkin or other source of water into the container.
• When the bread is entirely consumed with blue mold, remove it and let it dry. Don't toast it or do anything that will kill the mold.
• When dry, turn it into powder with a spice mill, rolling pin, whatever you want.
• Use about 1/8 tsp per gallon of milk.

 

[Rhumbline]

If I use no mesophilic or thermophilic culture what might I get?

If I was to use blue cheese crumbles but no culture would I still get blue cheese?

Think of cultures as the yeast of cheesemaking. They provide the characteristic flavors of the particular cheese type. Maybe not a perfect analogy, but close enough.

If you are using unpasturized milk there are already cultures in it waiting to do their thing. But just like wild fermenting beer, you don't have any control over what takes hold.

Just like with adding yeast to wort, you add a specific culture to milk to give it a leg up on the other cultures that may be present.