Does anyone buy the large culture packs from New England Cheese? How much culture is in each pack? They say it contains 20U, but that could mean anything. The large packs seem to be the same ones that the Dairy Connection sells and I’m trying to see what is more cost effective. The Dairy connection has multiple sizes too.

Thanks
Sal

http://www.cheesemaking.com/default-cPath-36_112.php
http://www.dairyconnection.com/cultures.htm

Depends on how much u use, I bought a box of rennet from Danlac and it will do at least 2000L I thingk, will take a while to use it up, fortunately their freeze dried and can stay good for years in the fridge regardless of the date. If u do allot of cheese then its worth it if u just do small batches (2gall) /month then it would be better to get the 100L pack worth. If I knew people locally I could sell it to them, 4$/100L LOL. Cultures are the same, price drops allot with larger bags, I keep mine in the freezer and will last for years.

One u is the amount required to culture 100 litres milk (appx 25 u.s.gal ). work it out for yourself, you will see you only need a few grains per batch. the suppliers will encourage you to use more- they would do, wouldn’t they? after all, they are in the business of selling the stuff!

Thats for sure, I used a pack thats meant for 20L I thingk for a whole year, By make a starter the night before u can stretch it for a very long time

I plan on culturing my starter as well to make it last longer.

kevthefarmer - 20 April 2008 01:57 AM

One u is the amount required to culture 100 litres milk (appx 25 u.s.gal ).

That’s interesting. That means that New England’s 20U pack is good for about 500 gallons. They say 250 gallons, I wonder if they just want you to use twice as much. I may have to do a side by side.

I’m also going to reculture my stuff. Has anyone recultured the direct set kind? New England say you can but I suspect it’s so you’ll just keep buying more. I took some to work and got it to grow just fine.

On a side note, New England says that the 20U packs are now 50U. It’s still they same amount but just some new calculation. (2.5U/25gal)

Sal

I think the main problem with re-culturing your starter is that the proportions of different bacteria in the mix will vary a lot from the original culture because of the differential growth rates (doubling time). Even if you knew the doubling times it would be unpredictable because different bacteria will have different optimum growth parameters related to Ph, temp, food supply etc. Sure, it would probably work, but it may have very different properties to the original. Re-reculturing would multiply this effect.
Also, there is the possibility of infection by bacteriophage (phage). These are viruses that eat bacteria and they create havoc to the industrial producers. This is what keeps Danisco, Hansen et.al. in business. For more info on phages google “wild bacteria and the phage that eat them” ( for some reason can’t upload the hyperlink directly) for a great article by Dan Strongin.

kevthefarmer - 03 May 2008 04:14 AM

I think the main problem with re-culturing your starter is that the proportions of different bacteria in the mix will vary a lot from the original culture because of the differential growth rates (doubling time). Even if you knew the doubling times it would be unpredictable because different bacteria will have different optimum growth parameters related to Ph, temp, food supply etc. Sure, it would probably work, but it may have very different properties to the original. Re-reculturing would multiply this effect.
Also, there is the possibility of infection by bacteriophage (phage). These are viruses that eat bacteria and they create havoc to the industrial producers. This is what keeps Danisco, Hansen et.al. in business. For more info on phages google “wild bacteria and the phage that eat them” ( for some reason can’t upload the hyperlink directly) for a great article by Dan Strongin.

very very good explanation, i always been wondering why it is not recommended to re-culture the culture, even i do it