i’m wondering if anyone has ever tried using an existing bit of cheese (such as a vein or two from a blue you especially liked) to culture a new batch?.
i have various cultures that i’ve purchased, but i’m thinking i’m going to try scraping a vein from some Point Reyes Farmhouse Original Blue cheese and using it to innoculate some milk. i love their blue, and although i don’t expect to reproduce their fantastic cheese, i’d like to find out if it works *at all* to culture this way.
any thoughts? i imagine that the main concern is inadvertently getting undesirable bacteria in with it, and also perhaps that the bacteria isn’t strong enough once it’s been turned into cheese. but i’m a sucker for science :)
i’m a relatively new cheesemaker, have tried a few things so far.
check my ‘cheesemongery’ set on flickr if you’re interested in seeing what i’ve tried so far:
Yes you can use an existing cheese to get your mould. I have taken a piece of rind and minced it up in a small amunt of milk. I let it develop for a few hours at room temperature and then add it to the cheese as usual. Just make sure that the original cheese is not over ripe and not contaminatd with any obvious foreign organims.
Welcome aboard Pie. That’s a terrific avatar you’ve chosen! I am not one of the mold lovers, preferring cheddars, jacks, and the like; but its great to hear of other people’s experiences in the wonderful world of cheese making. I particularly enjoy the expressions I get when I let someone sample a cheese and then tell them that its home made. The next question is usually, “What’s in it?” And I get to say, “Milk.”
If u go to my website u can see pics from my early years. For brie/cam, 1 1” sq surface is enough for a batch (cut into small pieces and add to the batch like regular culture. The blue I would use about an 1” sq cube.
But I have wondered whether you get any different mould by this process than you would get by using the commerial blue mould or white mould. I mean how many different moulds are there? Isn’t the difference between various mould cheeses in the temperatures and handling rather than in a different mould? Or are there some rarer moulds you can get by using the cheese to get your mould?
Actually their are allot, most companies develop their own variety that gives them distinction, some are from the natural caves that they use in the hills/mountains. We use the “pure” generic strain.
Great question, Bezza!
I like the idea that, like dogs, there are “breeds” of Penicillium Roqueforti, say, that give slightly different results. There is bound to be a little variation in the DNA of the mould over time.
Which gets me thinking that I should set up a vast experiment (like Gregor Mendel) where:
- I make a dozen small blue cheeses from one inoculum,
- then pick my favourite and make a dozen with that as inoculum
- then pick my favourite and make a dozen with that as inoculum
- then pick my favourite and make a dozen with that as inoculum
- etc, etc, etc
... But I feel exhausted just thinking about the logistics of that!
It might be easier and quicker to “pinch them” from the commercial brands you like. I’ve noticed a cheese which may be only in Australia- called “white Castello” and also its cousin “blue Castello”. These are mould cheeses but taste quite different from the classics like stilton. They are creamier, and milder and have a tang to them.
I wonder if it is the strain of mould, or a combination of moulds (such as a mix of white and blue moulds). I have made cheese with some of the rind from these but I can’t tell if the mould is different or my technique not quite up to scratch. I’m going to persist with it though.
You can reproduce a producer’s mold. Put a piece from your favorite blue with a slice of rye bread in a plastic bag and wait until the bread will be well contaminated with mold. Dry the bread and grind it to a fine powder. You may repeat this with your self made cheese.
Good Luck!!!
I use blue cheese to innoculate all my ... blue cheeses ;o) I take a sterile knife and cut the six sides off a cube of commercial cheese (I use Saint Agur because I love it and never Danish Blue because I find it too harsh) and place it into a sterile small bowl (it’s actually an egg cup ... the bottom is a perfect concave) and mash it with a splash of spring water until it forms a slurry. I add that to the crumbled post-pressed curds after salting and just before placing in molds.
There’s always a chance of cross-contamination because of the myriad spores that lie everywhere but generally the dominant strain will out-flourish the others. I have tried to innoculate with spores of Hypomyces lactifluorum (the acsomycete parasitic fungus that causes the scarlet colouration on lobster mushrooms). Alas, it did not work.
Hey there-
This is Fankuaser’s recipe; he describes a method with specific amounts of slurry from another cheese. I’m not sure how I found his page originally but he seems knowledgeable on the subject. http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/Blue_Cheese/Blue_Cheese.htm
I haven’t tried it myself but I hope to one day… Good luck!
Bobbie
