The Cheese Thread

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Do you have to make a starter culture the day before? Some recipes I've looked at say to, and I'm assuming this is better but others say to just add the dried starter culture directly to the milk once heated.

With this shitty Melbourne weather today it's a good day to make cheese but I don't have a prepared starter culture.
 
It's best to make a starter culture beforehand, that way the bacteria are thriving and growing and will be ready to munch on whatever you throw their way. Same principle as with yeast starters really! I always have a starter culture ready because we just use the starter as our house yoghurt, and we replenish that every week
 
After 7 days my Camemberts are almost fully covered with white mould and are coming along nicely.

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Today the missus and I made some blues. But had an issue. I used the recipe for blue cheese on the country brewer website.
It says to use 5 mls of rennet. (For a 7.5 litre batch). Im using the epicurean brand rennet which is the same that's used by country brewer and the bottle says to use 2.5 mls for 10 litres of milk.
I didn't know if I should stick to the recipe or use what's typed in the bottle and in the end used what the recipe said which was 5 Mls.

I waited five minutes and did the bowl spinning test to get my flocculation multiplier. The bowl didn't spin at all so my floc multiplier was 5 minutes x 6 = 30 minutes. I left it for 45 mnutes as per the recipe though.

Not sure what the effect of to much rennet will have on the final result, but hopefully it will be okay.
 
Just did my first cheeses this week. A halloumi, camembert and whey ricotta. The halloumi and ricotta turned out excellent. The camembert I will know in about 4 weeks I guess.

Im going to mature the camembert in my waeco which ive plugged into my spare stc1000 and ive put the temperature probe in a small opened glass of water to help increase humidity and to try keep a more stable temperature. Im not sure if this is the right thing to do or not. Ive also ordered a $20 hygrometer on ebay which seems to be a decent model. Ill check the calibration with the salt test when it arrives.

A couple of questions.

I see PH levels mentioned in a few different articles. Does anyone test their PH and if so can you give me a quick run down on why this may or may not be important or useful?

Do people just use kosher salt or any supermarket salt which states that it isnt iodised?

Im a bit confused as to what the 2 different cultures are that get added to camembert. I believe 1 is the white mold but what is the purpose of the other one? Also I see some people do a starter the day before. What does this accomplish and is there a 'yeast calculator' type thing rather than just having a stab in the dark? Or is this not required when using the freeze dried type mad millie cultures?

Cheers.
 
1. pH, nope, don't check it, though I should. For the cheeses I do I find it's not mattering so much at the moment - though it probably would help with mozzarella, which I do on occasion.

2. Kosher salt or non-iodised salt are pretty much the same thing. Other terms you'll find in use are pickling salt and cheese salt. Again, same thing - the point is just the lack of iodine, so the salt is not harmful to the cultures. I've heard some cheesemakers use crystal salt, you know, the rocky stuff, because it's better for the cheese or some crap like that. We have a big bucket of dehydrated lake salt with lots of interesting natural salts byproducts in there - it even has trace amounts of iodine, but not to harmful levels. In fact I think it might have come from the bacteria living in the lake.

3. Don't make camembert, can't really comment. Though what is the second culture you add called? At a guess I'd say it would be a surface culture that would contribute to the rind or maybe the smell?

4. It's always good to have active bacteria, rather than bacteria that have just been sitting around in a fridge for a week or a month, or bacteria spores - hence the use of starters. I wouldn't bother trying to calculate the amounts; bacteria multiplies exponentially, doubling every hour - or maybe every half hour. Anyway, within a few hours you'll have countless bacteria swimming through your cheese - as it should be! Not sure about the other cultures - surface moulds and the like. Never seen any equivalent of yeast calculators.
 
TimT said:
3. Don't make camembert, can't really comment. Though what is the second culture you add called? At a guess I'd say it would be a surface culture that would contribute to the rind or maybe the smell?
Mesophilic aromatic culture I believe. Cheers for the other responses.
 
Huh, well, the mesophilic aromatic culture would be the proper starter, the one that starts the milk curdling, turns the lactose into lactic acid, and contributes the basic flavour, texture, and aroma to your cheese.
 
TimT said:
Huh, well, the mesophilic aromatic culture would be the proper starter, the one that starts the milk curdling, turns the lactose into lactic acid, and contributes the basic flavour, texture, and aroma to your cheese.
That's interesting, I thought the rennet was what did that. I think I need to read a little more.
 
danestead said:
That's interesting, I thought the rennet was what did that. I think I need to read a little more.
The rennet is the setting agent. The culture does as TimT describes.
 
Rennet is the enzyme that helps the process along. Left on its own a mesophilic culture will curdle milk anyway into a kind of yoghurt. But with a little rennet it will curdle much quicker, and more efficiently.
 
Ok I did some more reading last night, mainly on making camemberts. This is how I think I understand the process. I am a by the numbers guy and like to get pretty technical so that repeatability is possible.

Heat milk to 32 and add cacl if using homogenised milk.
Add the aromatic mesophilic and white mole culture. My stuff is the mad Millie dry stuff and is mixed up in a sachet together.
Let it do its thing of converting the lactose over 90 minutes at 32 deg. Is it now I am chasing a PH target? 6.2 - 6.6ish I think I may of read? If the PH is too high do I just wait longer?
Add the rennet. I am aiming for an ideal coagulation time of 12-15mins and then multiply by 5-6 to get my total time I let it form the curd. Do I also test the whey PH here and aim for a certain number of is it only in the above step?
Cut curd and proceed like normal.

Cheers
 
I am not certain about pH questions, my guess would be so long as they are together the curds and whey will stay the same pH but I could be wrong.
 
I have successfully made a lot of cheese (not mozzarella) and have never bothered to test for PH.
I heat milk to 32C and add cultures. Wait 40 minutes and then add rennet. Test if set after 40 minutes and then process with rest of process.
 
pH of milk can vary, I'd probably tend to be a bit more careful about milk variety and pH control if I was doing something like camembert with an extra culture. I know the lactobacilli seems to be adaptable to different environments, but other cultures might be more fragile.
 
Got one of those Mad Millie cheese making kits for Christmas. Just started on my first batch of Goats Feta!

Using my Brauduino controlled brewpot as the water bath to keep it at a perfect 37d, which helps justify to swmbo the money I've spent on it

ImageUploadedByAussie Home Brewer1452039631.088518.jpg

I plan on splitting it into various jars to make a few different flavoured varieties

Any suggestions from people who have done the same?

I was thinking:
Herbs: Rosemary, Oregano, Thyme & Peppercorns
Chilli: chopped red chillies
Not sure what else to try

I hope this works
 
I might be tempted to suggest it might be a good idea to toast the herbs a bit in the oven to kill off wild yeasts. But as you are splitting up your fettas maybe don't bother as it's incredibly unlikely that both will fail. (Also, the most likely point at which wild yeast enters into a cheese would be right at the beginning, before the lacto bacilli has had a chance to create lactic acid or curdle the cheese.)
 
Not sure what I did wrong but it didn't set properly. I followed to instructions to a T & have ended up with approx 100g in my moulds & I'm not even sure if that'll set. Devastated

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Give us some details about the instructions and we might be able to help.....
 

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