The world of home cheese making can be very overwhelming as a beginner. All the terms can get quite confusing and the processes are no easier. At least, that’s how I felt when I first started making cheese.

That’s why I decided to create Curd Nerd; so that other beginners to home cheese making had a resource to turn to when the times got tough.

Alas, Curd Nerd has grown a lot since then, and I can now say that we have resources not only for beginners, but also for more experienced home cheese makers.

Making cheese at home and creating Curd Nerd has definitely been a journey, to say the least, and one resource that has helped me time and time again is a wonderful book called “Artisan Cheese Making At Home.” It is now available in a range of formats and having a cheese making ebook handy can do you wonders.

A Source Of Learning & Inspiration

When the book was published in 2011 I was still learning the skill of home cheese making, and so this became a vital resource for my learning. Between this book and learning off skilled individuals, my cheese making improved drastically.

In fact, I still turn to this book on the odd occasion to gain some inspiration for new cheese recipes or flavour combinations.

As my knowledge and skill of home cheese making increased, Curd Nerd became a place that I could impart my knowledge onto others in the online world. At that stage, there really weren’t many resources around online for a home cheese maker and finding answers to those tedious troubleshooting questions was near impossible.

My vision was that Curd Nerd could be a free resource available to home cheese makers around the world, so that they could learn and gain inspiration, as I wanted to. And I do believe that vision has come to fruition.

With that said, Curd Nerd would not be where it is today if I hadn’t learnt and taken inspiration from “Artisan Cheese Making At Home.” I believe that this is still one of the leading cheese making books on the market, and I feel that every home cheese maker could benefit from having this book handy.

A Cheese Making Recipe Book That Cannot Be Missed

The book goes through all the basics that you will need to know as a beginner to home cheese making. From the equipment and ingredients you may need, to processes, techniques and even habits of successful cheese making. Then you will start to go through cheese recipes for beginners such as Queso Blanco and Mascarpone.

For the more experienced home cheese makers, there are a range of recipes available in this book that you can try your hand at. Perhaps a Cocoa-Rubbed Dry Jack Cheese or a Smoked Brandy-Pecan Gorgonzola? You can go wild trying as many different types of cheeses as your heart desires.

I believe that the best way to truly enjoy a cheese is by itself, or perhaps with the right cracker and condiment. However, if you wanted to try your cheese in a more interesting way, the book also covers a range of ways to use your cheese in other recipes. You could try the Manchego and Saffron Flan, or maybe the Curried Saag Paneer. Although this is not what draws me to this book, it is a bonus for those who love to cook with cheese.

Accessing “Artisan Cheese Making At Home”

I highly recommend getting your hands on a copy of “Artisan Cheese Making At Home.” It is a fantastic resource to have for any home cheese maker, no matter your level of experience. Although it is very handy to have an online resource such as Curd Nerd, where you can search for troubleshooting tips or interact on forums, it is just as good to have written material such as this which is revered by so many.

You can purchase “Artisan Cheese Making At Home” in a different formats, depending on what you prefer. Below is a list of online purchasing options:

Have you read “Artisan Cheese Making At Home?” What tips have you picked up and which recipes have you tried? Let the Curd Nerd community know in the Forum

• Making Home Cheese Making Cheaper
• Cultivate Your Own Blue Mold
• Make Your Own Cultures

It seems costs savings are still on the minds of some home cheese makers since we’ve been asked a few times now if existing cheeses can be used as cultures for making new cheese, as a means towards saving money.

Answering this question is easy.

Yes you can use existing cheeses as cultures.

In fact this method has been used for as long as cheese has been made to pass on a desirable strain of bacteria and preferred type of cheese through families and even across villages, countries and continents.

But there’s a little more to it now that we’ve got access to commercially made cultures. There are still a few good reasons to harvest your own cultures, but there are also some draw backs so let’s look at whether propagating cultures from an existing cheese is a good idea or not.

The Case FOR Using Existing Cheese As Cultures

There are a few seemingly good reasons for having a go at using an existing cheese as a possible source of cultures for your new cheeses.

1) Saving money

Purchasing commercial cheese cultures can be one of the most expensive aspects of home cheese making and any opportunity to reduce cost while still being able to enjoy the hobby of cheese making, and the wonderful results of that hobby, is enticing.

2) Recreating A Preferred Cheese

If you have a particular cheese that you enjoy which is made by a commercial producer you might want to try reproducing that cheese for yourself. Without knowing what cultures they used it could seem impossible to replicate what they’ve created but with a little of the cheeses ‘DNA’ you may have a better chance.

3) Fun

Let’s be honest, most home cheese makers have a little bit of the adventurer in us and we like to see what happens if we do one thing versus another. Experimenting is an inherent part of cheese making and trying to inoculate a new cheese with old cheese is just another one of those fun experiments.

The Case AGAINST Using Existing Cheese As Cultures

1) Unpredictability

There is absolutely no way you can know what bacteria, good or bad, you are adding to your cheese. Yes, you may get the good stuff you were hoping for and end up with a cheese similar to that which you were trying to replicate, but you may also get a bunch of nasties that you weren’t expecting, without knowing what was going on with the cheese you harvested from.

Likewise, you can’t predict how the existing cheese cultures will react with the milk, and how the acid levels will be affected. Commercial cultures are manufactured to be more predictable and create a ‘typical’ response so for the home cheese maker, especially a new one, they are the safest way to get a reliable outcome.

2) Fuss

To use the existing cheese you need to do a bit more work. First you need to harvest a piece of the cheese, then either dry it, grind it down to a powder and mix it with spring water to add it into your cheese, or harvest your cheese, blend it with boiled and cooled milk, leave it overnight to check for viability (which is evident if the milk coagulates after the existing cheese is added) and then add that mixture to your new cheese. Can you be bothered with the extra time and effort? Or would you rather just sprinkle a few pre-made spores in and carry on with the rest of the process?

3) Cost

In the full scheme of things are the cultures really that expensive compared to what you could spend on cheese? I know that here in New Zealand, even with the cost of cultures, milk, and rennet, making my own cheese is still cheaper than buying it. Especially for the fresh cheeses. Up front, cultures might seem costly but the amounts that are used are small and as a total contribution to your cheese cost, it’s still pretty reasonable.

And in addition, if your harvesting experiment doesn’t go well, you could lose more money in the milk and rennet that never becomes the cheese you were planning on, or it becomes a bacteria ridden frankencheese ; )

Still Keen?

If you do decide to go ahead and harvest an existing cheese for cultures then just make sure you do so with the most stringent of cleanliness and caution so as to avoid introducing any unwanted bacteria.

Use a cheese that looks well stored and presents in a good state at purchase and, if possible, take your harvest from the center of the cheese when you first cut into it.

While taking this kind of care is a bit of a departure from the rustic way it was done traditionally, and many people scoff at taking all the extra care when for centuries people would just slice off a chunk of cheese and hand it around for the next person to use, I personally would rather avoid getting ill from my experiments than be a stickler for the old ways.

Do you have any questions or comments about propagating cultures? Join the discussion over at the Curd Nerd Forum. We would love to hear from you!

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Related Posts

Cheese Cultures Make Your Own And Save Money

How To Add Cheese Starter Cultures

By doing this you will save a lot of money from buying thermophilic and mesophilic cultures so often.

Allowing you to make more homemade cheese for less costs.

That’s not all…

We will cover what are cheese cultures, mesophilic cultures and thermophilic cultures. Outlining which cultures should be used for certain cheeses.

The bottom line is I have been doing this for years and it has saved me a pretty penny.

It has allowed me to make more delicious cheeses then I would have been able to, if I had to buy starter cultures all the time.

Now, there’s a whole lot that goes into making the perfect wheel of cheese, of which cheese cultures take center spot.

Until recently, a crucial part of getting a great, tasty cheese meant having all the right ingredients and conditions necessary to nurture your own cultures, or to have had an established one shared with you to use.

Conversely, you had to have had an established set of cultures provided for you to use. These were and still remain to be known as mother cultures.

What Is Cheese Culture?

So, what is cheese culture? A Cheese culture comprises one or several species of lactic bacteria.

These lactose fermenting bacteria when added to milk, digest the lactose sugars to produce lactic acid which is what causes the formation of curds.

Without cheese cultures, you’d be making sour, coagulated milk cheeses that certainly do not come close to anything like the cheeses most of us enjoy.

The Cost Of Modern Day Home Cheese Making

Technology has turned around the traditional methods of making cheese. Now, you can buy bulk, readily prepared starter cultures to use as you like.

Even if you don’t have a local cheese-making supply store, you can jump online and with the click of a few buttons have cheese cultures swinging their way to you within a couple of days.

This has however done little to solve one home cheese making problem, the high costs of cheese cultures. One of the most expensive parts of making cheese at home is buying the starter cultures.

Even though you only use a small amount for each time you make cheese, the packets don’t last that long when you make cheese regularly.

In such instances, the costs really start to add up. This brings many DIY cheese makers to a point where they ask themselves whether they should create their own cheese cultures and make cheese making more economical.

Commercial Starters VS Homemade Cheese Cultures

A percentage of DIY Cheesemakers stand by the clear benefits of purchasing commercial starter cultures as opposed to making one’s own.

Commercial cheese cultures tend to be truer to type, and are produced so as to be free of any unwanted contaminants. You can rely on commercial cheese cultures to do what they are supposed to, as long as they aren’t expired or compromised in any way.

There are, however, numerous benefits of creating your own cheese cultures. By far, the best reason you should consider making your own cultures, as mentioned, is the reduced costs.

You can save a whole lot of money by taking one small amount of purchased starter culture and using it to make your own mother culture.

Afterwards, continue to re-culture from that first batch, without spending an extra cent. A lot of cheese can be made from each batch of lactic bacteria cultures if stored properly.

The cost savings will soon become apparent when you no longer have to keep stocking up on DVI cultures (Direct Vat Inoculation).

Another benefit to making your own cheese culture is that you’ll have easy access to as much starter culture as you may need, without worrying about your order getting delivered on time.

You’ll also enjoy keeping things more natural from start to finish in the cheese making process.

What Is Mesophilic Culture?

A mesophilic culture is a type of cheese culture that is best suited to work in moderate temperature. That means milk that is neither too hot nor too cold, anything up to 90°F.

How To Make Mesophilic Culture

Before you commence the process, it is vital that you maintain high standards of cleanliness, especially when preparing the mother cultures, similar to when you’re making your cheese.

A mother culture is the base bacterial culture from which you will draw samples to use in your future cheese-making projects.

• Sterilise a preserving jar and lid by boiling them in water for about 5 minutes or cleaning them then putting them in the oven at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes.
• Cool the jar then fill it with fresh, unpasteurized, skimmed milk, leaving ½ inch of headspace.
• Close the lid tightly.
• Place the jar in a deep pot with the water level ½ inch above the lid of the jar.
• Bring the water in the pot to the boil then leave it on a slow boil for 30 minutes.
• Remove the jar from the water and let it cool to 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Add the appropriate amount of freeze-dried mesophilic starter culture (depending on manufacturer’s instructions) to the milk while still at 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Close the lid tightly again and gently swish the jar to mix the culture into the milk.
• Place the jar somewhere that will keep the milk at 75 degrees Fahrenheit for 12-24 hours.
• After approximately 18 hours you should see a solid white gel forming. If not, leave it for longer, or place the jar somewhere warmer to encourage the coagulation.
• When the culture is ready, it should look like a thick yogurt. It will pull away from the sides of the jar cleanly and have a glossy surface.

Types Of Mesophilic Cultures And Their Uses

Fresh Cheese Culture:

An aromatic mesophilic culture used in making soft cheeses such as Neufchatel, Chevre, and Cottage Cheese. This culture can also be used to make flavorful aged types of cheese such as Baby Swiss and Blue Cheese.

Flora Danica Mesophilic Starter Culture:

Used to give cheeses a buttery flavor. The bacterial culture is primarily used to produce cheese such as Edam, Gouda, Leerdam, Samsoe, and other types of soft cheeses such as Camembert, and Blue Cheese.

Mesophilic Direct-Set Culture:

A versatile cheese culture that can be used to produce semi-soft and fresh cheeses at home. You can use this culture to makes cheeses such as Monterey Jack, Colby, Cheddar, Chèvre, Feta, and more.

Mesophilic Aromatic Type B:

A versatile cheese culture used to produce buttery, flavorful cheeses. This type of culture is mostly used to make soft cheeses such as Cream Cheese, Goat Cheese, and Cottage Cheese. You can also make sour cream and cultured butter among other speciality cheeses such as Camembert and Havarti.

MM Series Starter Culture:

Used to make buttery, open-textured cheeses such as Brie, Havarti, Camembert, Gouda, Edam, Feta, Blue Cheese, and Chevre.

RA22 Cheese Culture:

A fast acidifying bacterial culture used to make traditional cheddar and similar cheeses.

MA 4000 Series Culture:

This culture contains bacteria that resembles the bacteria balance in raw milk. This culture creates an open texture ideal for many types of cheese that include Brin D’ Amour, Caerphilly, and Roquefort cheese.

What Is A Thermophilic Culture?

A thermophilic culture involves bacteria that can withstand high heat and is used to make cheeses that can be heated up to 130 degrees.

How To Make A Thermophilic Culture

Making a thermophilic culture is as easy as making a mesophilic culture. To make a thermophilic culture, simply follow the same directions as above. However, in place of the mesophilic culture, add a thermophilic culture to the milk instead.

Allow the milk to cool and afterward incubate it at 110 degrees Fahrenheit, for 6 to 8 hours as opposed to the longer period for a Mesophilic culture.

Otherwise, the two processes are similar and, with the right care and conditions, should result in a batch of your very own homemade thermophilic culture ready for use.

Types Of Thermophilic Cultures And Their Uses

Thermophilic Direct-Set Starter Culture:

This type of thermophilic culture is used in the making of hard cheeses such as Romano, Parmesan, Mozzarella, Provolone, Emmental and Swiss cheese.

Propionic Shermanii Bacteria:

Primarily used for the eye formation in Emmental and the aroma, and flavor production in Swiss-type cheeses such as Gruyere.

Thermo B Culture:

Used to make Italian-Style Mozzarella, Romano, Parmesan, Provolone, other popular Italian cheeses.

Thermo C Culture:

This is also used to make Italian cheeses. The bacterial culture is suitable for making farmstead type cheeses, such as Gruyere, Emmentaler, Swiss, and Vacchino Romano cheese.

It is worth noting that thermophilic cultures are sometimes used together with mesophilic cultures.

Storing Your Cheese Cultures

Once you’re done making your mother culture, leave it in a jar and place it in the fridge.

The cultures should be used within a week.

However, if you intend to store the culture in the freezer for later use.

You can freeze it in ice cube trays and then pop out the cubes to store in freezer bags for a period of up to 6 months.

Remember to label your mother culture depending on what type it is, and the date you made it.

When you are ready to make your next wheel of cheese, simply use one ice cube for every 2 gallons or 10 litres of milk.

You can also use these ice cubes to start a new culture, using the same directions explained above.

This time, use an ice cube of your mother culture instead of the DVI cultures to inoculate the milk.

What Happens When Good Cheese Cultures Go Bad?

If for any reason your cheese culture goes bad, don’t use it to make cheese.

If it doesn’t coagulate, despite following all the steps, the correct temperature and time period, or has bubbles in it, then throw it out and start over again.

A bad starter culture will translate to bad cheese and a total lost time and effort.

Making your own starter cultures is a wonderful way to advance your home cheese making and to make this artisan craft even more economical. 

So, give it a go, and make your own Thermophilic and Mesophilic cultures and let us know how it turns out for you.

As always, feedback, advice or questions are welcomed. Join the discussion over at the Curd Nerd Forum. We would love to hear from you!

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If you’re a cheese shop owner and are looking for ways to set up your business for success, here are our top resource to help you do that: 

-Secure your safety through worker’s comp insurance from Cerity

-Perfect your Cheese Making Techniques

-Don’t forget to check out some New Cheese Recipes

If you have enjoyed this post then you will love these cheese articles:

Using Existing Cheese As Cultures For New Cheese

How To Add Cheese Starter Cultures

Sure, you can go all out and buy the best of the best and get everything you could possibly want and need to make cheese, but you can also start making cheese with just a few basic tools and the right ingredients, and without spending a whole lot of money.

And let’s be honest, people have been making cheese at home for thousands of years with the most basic equipment and it’s worked out pretty well. I’m sure there were plenty of funky failures, but their efforts have brought us most of the wonderful cheeses we enjoy today.

With that said, there may come a time when you either become curious about understanding more about what’s going on with your cheese during the make, or you want to start aiming for a more consistent success rate with each cheese you make.

This is particularly important if you decide to start selling your cheese because if you make great cheese that your customers love, they will be back for more and you want to be able to provide them the cheese they are expecting.

A cheese pH Meter is one piece of equipment that can improve your cheese making results.

Working to determined pH levels, measured by a pH Meter, will help you to track what’s going on with your cheese making, and give you information that will make it easier to refine your cheese production, and more consistently create a true to type end product.

Get Your New pH Tester Here

How Do pH Levels Affect Cheese Making?

During the cheese making process the lactose in milk is turned into lactic acid by the starter cultures.

That lactic acid is what creates the signature flavours and textures of your cheese.

As the cultures do their work, with the right amount of heat and time the acidity levels of the milk and curd raise, changing the pH levels.

There comes a point during this process when a preferred level of acidity is reached. This level is considered optimum for setting up the signature flavour and texture of the cheese you are making.

In most cheese making recipes, temperatures and times that are given as a guide to help you to achieve the correct levels of acidity and ensure you get something that resembles a good home made cheese.

In fact, a lot of home cheese making books won’t reference pH levels. There is sense in keeping things simple and not putting new cheese makers off but making it all look too technical.

But if you really want all the facts and know for sure you are hitting the right mark, testing the pH levels will tell you what you need to know.

Testing Cheese pH Levels

The thing that trips a lot of people up with measuring pH levels is knowing which way they are going. Is a higher number better, or a lower number?

Here’s the deal:

• The higher your pH level – the lower your acidity

So obviously…

• The lower your pH level – the higher your acidity

To expand on that, acidity charts normally show the following:

• Values of around 7.0 are netural pH
• Values above 7.0 are alkaline
• Values below 7.0 are acidic

Typically the pH levels sought after for cheese range between 5.1 and 5.7 but if you are at the point of testing pH levels, you will likely have a recipe with the levels you should be aiming for and there are different levels required for different types of cheese as well as for different steps in the making process.

How To Test pH Of Cheese

The two most common ways to test the pH of cheese is to use either a pH Meter or pH Strips.

A pH meter looks like a high tech thermometer and the testing end (often referred to as the probe) is dipped into the milk or whey. Within a few seconds it provides a reading of the current pH level and is easy to use with accurate results.

pH strips are dipped into the milk or whey, and react to create a certain colour depending on the pH level present. The final colour is then compared to a chart to assess what pH level your cheese is currently sitting at. They tend to be expensive over time and terribly inaccurate, which is why advanced home cheese makers often invest in a pH Meter instead.

Full instructions on how to use both options will be included when you purchase but essentially, both are dipped into the milk or the whey for a short period of time to achieve a pH reading.

So, do you need to rush out and invest in a cheese pH meter?

That’s obviously up to you. If you are really set on getting consistent, uniform results either for sale, or just want to cater to your perfectionist tendencies (don’t worry, I have them too) then why not?

Sure, you can get on with your cheese making, perfectly well without one, but if you decide that this hobby is really for you, and you want to expand your knowledge of exactly what is happening during your cheese making, then go for it.

Otherwise, keep practicing, keep experimenting and enjoy the sometimes random, but often wonderful results of home cheese making : )

Do you have any questions or comments about using pH Meters? Let us and fellow curd nerders know what brands are working for you and which ones didn’t. Join the discussion over at the Curd Nerd Forum. We would love to hear from you! 

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Without a good set up, most cheeses won’t ever become what they should be, and some won’t become anything much at all. Apart from pig or chook feed, or compost waste that is.

Using the suggested coagulation times in a cheese recipe is reasonably reliable for getting a set, but not overly precise in terms of getting the best set to achieve the ideal cheese profile.

Sure, you might end up with a Gouda after all your hard work, but does it have the texture and moisture that you know it should have? Do you have a cheese that could give the all those store bought wedges a run for their money.

And to make things more interesting, the many variables in just the combining of milk and Rennet, such as Rennet strength, amounts and viability, seasonal and commercial milk variations and heating temperatures, let alone room temperature and acidity levels, can send things somewhat awry.

As you continue with your cheese making journey you’ll likely come to a point where you will want to understand more advanced methods that will allow you to perfect your ‘starter cheese profiles’. Or maybe you just want to avoid any more vats of gloopy unset curd from having to be disposed of.

Either way, the curd set up step in cheese making can become a lot more reliable and you can gain more control over achieving a preferred firmness of curd with what is known as the Flocculation Method. But first I will explain what flocculation is.

What Is Flocculation?

I heard about the flocculation method and began using it for my home cheese making then I thought to myself what is flocculation?

Flocculation is when fine particles are caused to clump together. This is called a “floc”. The floc may float to the top of the liquid which is called creaming or sink to the bottom of the liquid which is called sedimentation.

What Is The Flocculation Method?

The Flocculation Method is a way to test the point of coagulation, when the solids begin to separate from the whey.

Using this method to define the point when coagulation occurs, and then using a standard multiplier depending on the cheese type (listed below), you can predict the optimum curd set point for the type of cheese you are making.

These optimum set points dictate how much whey is bound in the curd, therefore contributing to the moisture content and texture of your cheese.

A soft cheese typically has a higher flocculation time, and a larger curd cut, keeping more moisture in the cheese.

A hard cheese on the other hand has a lower flocculation time, and a smaller curd cut, releasing more whey for a firmer, drier cheese.

It might sound complex, but the aim of Curd-Nerd is to try and de-mystify the sometimes technical aspect of cheese making and keep things reasonably simple, so here are the steps of what is actually a pretty simple method when you break it down.

Flocculation Method – Step By Step

Add your Rennet to the milk, and mix thoroughly.

Leave your Rennet to work for 5-6 minutes then take a sterilised bowl (I use a small glass bowl) and place it onto the surface of the milk. The bowl will float on the top of the milk.

Spin the bowl gently and notice that it freely rotates in the milk. The spinning of the bowl is why this method is also sometimes referred to as….wait for it…..’the spinning bowl method’.

Continue to spin the bowl regularly, every minute or so. You will notice the bowl will slowly start to resist spinning in the milk as freely as it did when you started

Eventually the bowl will become almost totally resistant to spinning without force, and you will also notice that a dent has moulded in the solid curd mass forming underneath the bowl.

This is the coagulation point and it ideally occurs at about the 12-15 minute mark.

This video shows the first stage of the Flocculation Method. Notice that they push the bowl rather than spinning it. Either technique gives the same information.

Now depending on the cheese you are making, you need to take the number of minutes it took until coagulation and multiply it by one of the factors below for your ideal curd strength:

The higher the multiplier, the more moisture is held in the cheese. So cheeses such as Brie and Camembert have a higher multiplier than say Parmesan.

Now you can work out your total Rennet Set time –

Coagulation time x multiplier = total time from Rennet addition to cut

So if you have a coagulation time of 14 minutes and a multiplier of 3.5 for Cheddar you would have a total of 49-50 minutes Rennet set time.

When using the Flocculation method it is a good idea to keep a log of the set times you achieve with different cheeses. This will give you an indication of what to expect and then if you find it changes, you can start to assess (and better understand) if product, seasonal or environmental factors are having an impact on your cheese making process.

Flocculation Method Discrepancies

Common discrepancies that occur with the Flocculation method are either too short a coagulation time (less than 10 minutes) or a coagulation time that is too long (anything upwards of 20 minutes). These discrepancies can occur due to any of the variants mentioned above but can often also be easily remedied by adjusting the amount of Rennet, up or down, to achieve the preferred coagulation point of between 12-15 minutes.

So hopefully, if I’ve explained this clearly enough, you can see that the Flocculation Method is not overly complicated but it does take a little extra attention, thought and patience.

It’s well worth it though to have more control over how your Rennet performs with your milk and to feel more confident about getting a better curd set, and a more superior end product.

Give the Flocculation Method a try with your next make and let the community know how you go. If you have any issues, we can work them out together. Join the discussion over at the Curd Nerd Forum. We would love to hear from you!

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