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Vacation from the diet and fun with microbes

It's thanksgiving week, and I'm vacationing from the diet that took me from 242 lbs down to 206 pounds. Not only to enjoy the holiday foods but also to reset my metabolism so I can continue dropping weight once I get back on. But enough about me and my diet.

I wanted to share some valuable information about microbes. Have been reading Sandor Ellix Katz's book, Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods, a delightful book on how to ferment anything from cheeses to mead to kimchee, along with info on the health benefits of fermented foods. Surprisingly, Katz misses a trick for cheeses, which I will now share with you.

If you pick up a book on how to make cheese, you will find out that many cheeses must be made not only with a curdling agent called rennet, but also a microbial agent called a mesophilic starter and possibly one called a thermophilic starter. Both of these agents are microorganisms which convert the lactose in the milk to lactic acid; the thermophilic starter is a wee beastie that thrives at a higher temperature than the mesophilic. Specialty shops will gladly sell you these starters.

But you don't need to buy them.

It turns out that the mesophilic bacteria are the same critters that culture buttermilk, and the thermophilic are the same that turn milk into yogurt. So you can use a bit of live cultured yogurt in place of the thermophilic starter and save yourself money. Likewise, you can use buttermilk in place of the mesophilic starter. The microorganisms in storebought buttermilk are normally not abundant enough to get the job done, so bring that buttermilk home and leave it out on the counter for a few hours or overnight until it thickens and sours some more. That allows the little bugs to wake up and breed. Then just pour the buttermilk into an ice cube tray, freeze, and store the cubes of mesophilic starter in a labeled plastic freezer bag.

If you are running low on mesophilic starter, you can just take a gallon of lukewarm milk, add a cube of your mesophilic starter, and let it sit in a warm place and culture into buttermilk. Freeze another ice cube tray and drink the rest - it's good for you!

Many dry sausages are fermented, and the commercial agent used to do this is called "Fermento." Once again, you can buy this from a specialty store, but the fermenting agent in Fermento is just the buttermilk bugs, so your mesophilic cheese starter can do double duty if you decide to make an artisan salami.

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