In the past we’ve talked a little bit about various ways to reduce the cost of your home cheese making adventures.
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. Read more
In this article you will learn step by step how to make your own blue cheese culture (Penicillium Roqueforti) at home.
The best part?
You will save hundreds of dollars by producing your own Penicillium Roqueforti.
And if that’s not enough…
It allows you to have blue cheese cultures on hand for when you make your next blue cheese at home.
This article will guide you, step by step, to make your own cheese cultures at home.
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.
Cheese starter cultures are a form of bacteria used in the production of cheese. They are added to the milk at the start of the cheese making process (not for all cheeses though, there are exceptions such as Haloumi) in order to determine taste, smell, texture and mouth feel.
The main cheese starter cultures are Thermophilic and Mesophilic. Thermophilic cultures can handle being heated to higher temperatures, Mesophilic cultures suffers at higher temperatures.
There are also specific culture strains made by commercial manufacturers which fall into each of these types (Therm and Meso) and each subtly changes the results you will get with your cheese. Your recipe should tell you which culture type you need.