Thermophilic Culture
Cheese cultures inoculate your milk with friendly bacteria. This gives the cheese its flavor, and helps coagulate the milk and turn it into curds. Thermophilic culture is used for cheeses cooked at higher temperatures.
1. Heat 2 cups of fresh milk to 165 degrees. Be careful not to heat it too high or scorch the milk, then let cool to room temperature or at least down to 125 degrees. If you are sure of your milk source, pasteurizing as above is optional; and you can start with 2 cups of fresh milk.
2. Add one heaping tablespoon of FRESH yogurt, homemade or store bought. If you buy from the store, make sure it says "live and active culture" on the box -- and it must be plain yogurt. You can add a couple of tablespoons if you wish. Mix it into the milk thoroughly.
3. Keep the mixture at 110 degrees F for 8-10 hours or until a firm yogurt has set. I used to do this in my crock pot. Put the mixture in a sealed, water-tight container, mason jar, zip-lock bag, etc., then put 110 degree water in your crock pot. Put the container with the culture into the water, put the lid on your crock pot, set it on low, and leave it alone. You may want to experiment with your crock pot to make sure the low setting will keep it at 110 degrees. Since we started this, my husband bought me a yogurt machine; so now I just use that. It can also be done with the same type of water bath method on the lowest setting of your electric range.
4. Pour the culture into a clean full sized ice cube tray and place in the freezer. Once frozen, separate the cubes and put them in a sealed container or freezer bag. Label the container so you don't get it mixed up with your other cultures.
5. One cube is about 1 ounce of thermophilic starter. Add thawed cubes as needed to your recipes. 30 seconds in the microwave will thaw a cube. Cubes will keep for somewhere between one and three months (maybe more) in the freezer, depending on how well you have them sealed.
To make more starter, simply thaw one cube and add that instead of the fresh yogurt using this same recipe.
Visitors since 11/2/2000