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I have decided to give a go at home cheesemaking.

I got a nice book by Mary Karlin, which seems to explain things relatively well. Now, most recipes would call for something like 1/4 tsp of starter for a gallons milk (=3.7l milk)

So I proceeded to find some starters... and here comes the problem.

Obviously I don't intend to produce tons of cheese, and the smallest packaging I've found is freeze-dried sachets of ~10g, which most vendors say is good for 100 to 300l milk!

Some websites tell you to dilute the whole pack into 1l milk, then aliquot it and freeze it for storage. Is this a viable option (the microbiologist in me says a big yes)? Or would I be better at taking a little bit of freeze-dried product everytime (hmmmm)?

Any suggestion would be appreciated.

rumtscho
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nico
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2 Answers2

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I was told by a cheese merchant who sold me the culture and rennet, to store the culture in the freezer, and the rennet in the fridge.

I hadn't used it in more than two years and it's still alive and working. (as tested a few weeks ago)

120 Things in 20 years
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Mary Karlin addresses this in "Artisan Cheese Making at Home" -- it sounds like you have this book.

Her recommended method is to divide the pack of dry culture into smaller doses, using a precision scale. You can store these in small ziplock bags, in a bigger ziplock bag, in the freezer.

Your starter came freeze-dried. That process made it both cold and dry. The overall idea is to keep the bacteria dormant by keeping them at low temperature and maintaining that low humidity environment. No repacking will be as good as the original package, but it's best to open it once, weigh and repackage into individual doses; instead of opening the original package each time you make cheese.

As @rumtscho mentioned, you can get limited range, high-precision (0.01 gram) scales pretty cheaply. You can also buy tiny ziplock bags that work well for this.

You may want to find this section in Mary Karlin's book -- there are some pictures. I'll look it up when I get home.

SamBobb
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