Buttermilk Starter
Posted: 20 July 2010 09:42 AM   [ Ignore ]
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My first year of making cheeses was completely dominated by using buttermilk as the starter.  I would buy a quart of buttermilk and add a quarter cup of the stuff to the milk prior to letting the milk set for the period of time recommended in Rikki’s book.  As I have stated previously my cheeses, with some exceptions, tasted very similar and were dry and crumbly.

This morning I visited Cheesemaking.org and was reading that a person should allow the buttermilk to ripen at room temp for 7 to 8 hours prior to adding to the milk to allow the bacteria in the buttermilk to awaken and do their job properly.

What are your thoughts on this?

thanks

kim

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Kim   cool smile

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Posted: 20 July 2010 03:08 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 1 ]
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Get the starter mix and do your own smile
I love buttermilk but the cost are such that might as well buy a gallon and add culture and let it sit till the next day and drink it down LOL.
Thats why I made Kieffer, had a craving for it and I had some culture packets (5 years old and still works great).
I used 1gall 2% then added cup 18% to bring it up, works better with more fat. By the way, calcium req fat to be absorbed into the body.

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The Cheese Hole

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Posted: 20 July 2010 04:18 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 2 ]
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I too used buttermilk at first.  I was not overly satisfied with the results, so I switched to commercial starter culture.  I’m now using a couple or three different types - thanks to Dave’s suggestion of using MM100 culture in Gouda.  There’s obviously a lot to learn in the culture area; but isn’t that what we’re here for???

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Rich

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