Do I need to add culture

David — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 08:46:51 +0000

When using fresh raw milk, is it necessary to use any culture at all? Sorry if this is a dopey question but I’m quite new to this cheese making 🙂

Thanks, David

Reply To: Do I need to add culture

MatlockCheese — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 20:04:14 +0000

Hello David,
I have often wondered that same thing myself but what I’ve learn’t so far is that there are 2 types of culture: an acid producing type (Homofermentative) and a flavour creating type (Heterofermentative), (or a bit of both in the same one). The acid producing one helps to change the milk sugars (lactose) into lactic acid and so making the milk set into the curds. The flavour producing one as the name suggests.

Have a look at the film clips at Graham Kirkham’s Lancashire Cheesemaking farm. He uses raw milk but keeps the temperature of the milk at about 11 centigrade for a while to produce “some activity”, making the bacteria multiply a bit. He only uses a very small amount of starter culture: 40 mls. into 2000 litres of milk.

Note: if you cannot see the links below, go onto YouTube and enter: Graham Kirkham’s Lancashire cheese.

Kirkham’s Lancashire
Kirkham’s Lancashire

Hope this helps.

Do I need to add culture – Curd Nerd

Do I need to add culture

Reply To: Do I need to add culture