[Cheese] Using raw milk

[Barbara Cornelius]

Hi Jack - thanks for the info. I guess what I meant when I referred to
sourdough is that while you *can* get sourdough bread with homegrown,
naturally occuring cultures from the environment, it's more consistent
and you get specific flavors that you're looking for if you inoculate
with prepared cultures (not leaving it to chance). That's what I
understood Doug's reference to be. Inoculating gives you specific
flavors, and more consistent results, than not. Like, buying sourdough
culture freezedried and using that instead of hoping to catch your own
in your own house.

Would that be the correct analogy, then?

Barbara

----- Original Message -----
From: Jack Schmidling <arf at mc.net>
Date: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 3:08 pm
Subject: Re: [Cheese] Using raw milk

> Doug Snyder wrote:
> > Those are cultures that help create specific flavor (among other  
> > things).  You would use them whether using raw milk or 
> pasteurized  
> > milk.  You can absolutely make cheese without them.....
> 
> I thought so too until I tried it.
> 
> My first unpasteurized milk cheese was a total loss.  After 5 
> hours, the 
> pH was exactly where it was when I started it.
> 
> I then did a bit more research and learned that it is nearly 
> impossible 
> to make good cheese without external cultures.  Not because of 
> flavor 
> but because there just is not enough native flora to get things 
> going in 
> a reasonable amount of time.
> 
> The old dairy maid would always use a starter from yesterday's 
> cheese to 
> get the current one going.  The native flora will add character and 
> flavor to a cheese but should not be counted on to produce the 
> proper 
> acidification of a fresh batch of cheese.
> 
> The sourdough analogy is not a good one because it also requires a 
> culture to get started.  One can, with lots of luck, create a 
> culture by 
> just exposing the nutrient to the atmosphere but it is a very 
> inefficient way to do it.  If one gets lucky and produces a usable 
> culture, one would keep this going by regular nurturing and use 
> this as 
> the starter for future batches.
> 
> One can purchase a cheese culture and nurture it for years and 
> never buy 
>  again but it is risky business and the stuff is cheap enough.  It 
> is 
> not worth gambling the raw materials and time to save a few pennies.
> 
> js
> 
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