Stop Buying Confusing Cheese Cultures
Make This “Lost” Starter Instead (Clabber, Kefir, and Real Old-School Cheese)
🧀 Cheese has been around for thousands of years…
…but in the last ~150 years, the process got “industrialized.” Suddenly, the idea of using natural cultures (the way people always did it) is treated like it’s risky or weird.
The truth is: raw milk already contains the ecology needed to culture itself—if you understand how to work with it.
This post breaks down the big idea behind natural cheese cultures, why people struggle at first, and how to start in a way that’s beginner-friendly.
✅ The Problem With Modern Cheese Cultures
📦 Commercial starter cultures work, but they come with friction:
Confusing names (MA4001… MM100… WHAT?)
You have to keep buying them
Results can be inconsistent if you don’t understand what they do
They can make cheesemaking feel like chemistry class
Meanwhile… homesteaders in the Great Depression were making cottage cheese with nothing but clabbered milk.
🧬 What “Culture” Really Means
🧫 A starter culture is mainly lactic acid bacteria.
These bacteria:
eat lactose (milk sugar)
produce lactic acid
acidify milk
help it coagulate (curdle properly)
protect the milk by lowering pH
That acidification matters because it:
🛡 helps suppress unwanted microbes
🧱 sets the cheese up for aging
🍽 affects flavor and texture
🥛 Natural Cultures: The 3 Big Options
1) 🥛 Clabber (Raw Milk Culture)
Clabber is simply raw milk allowed to ferment naturally until it thickens.
It can become a true “starter culture” if you maintain it like a sourdough starter.
✅ Best for: consistent flavor, traditional cheesemaking, “closed-loop” dairy systems
⚠ Needs: raw milk access
2) 🥤 Kefir
Kefir is a powerful culture and easier for many people to maintain daily.
✅ Best for: people without steady raw milk access, fresh cheeses
⚠ Can introduce yeasty flavors or bubbles in aged cheeses (depends on your kefir)
3) 🧴 Backslopping / “Backsplash Whey”
This means saving the right whey from a previous batch and using it to start the next batch.
✅ Best for: frequent cheesemakers doing back-to-back batches
⚠ Risky if you don’t know what whey you’re saving (not beginner-friendly)
🧠 Why People Fail With Clabber at First
🚫 The most common mistake:
Using clabber once, then treating it like it’s ready.
Clabber only becomes reliable when you:
feed it daily
keep it active
keep it tasting clean and pleasant
stop letting it “die off” into funky territory
A strong clabber culture should smell:
🧈 buttery
🍶 clean
🙂 pleasant enough that you’d actually eat it
🧪 How to Make a Clabber Culture (Simple Version)
🫙 Step 1: Start it
Put fresh raw milk in a clean jar
Cover with a loose lid or coffee filter
Let it sit at room temp 3–5 days until it coagulates
⚠ The first batch often smells “funky.” Don’t eat it.
🫙 Step 2: Feed it
Take a teaspoon of that clabber
Add it to a new jar of fresh raw milk
Cover loosely again
Wait 12–24 hours (it should coagulate faster now)
Repeat daily.
✅ When it’s ready to use
It’s “ready” when:
it clabbers consistently in 12–24 hrs
it looks smooth (not separated)
it smells sweet/buttery
it tastes like something you wouldn’t mind eating
🚨 Funky vs Bad (How to Tell)
👃 Funky = feed again
☠️ Putrid = throw it out immediately
If it’s truly bad, you won’t wonder.
Your body will say: “NOPE. Get it out of the house.”
🧀 Beginner-Friendly Win: Clabber Cream Cheese
If hard cheeses feel like too much, start here.
🥣 Quick method
Warm milk to ~90°F
Add culture (clabber OR kefir OR commercial culture)
Add a few drops of rennet
Let sit ~12 hours
Strain in cheesecloth overnight
Salt it, stir it, done
✅ Very low effort
✅ Great training for future cheeses
✅ Delicious return for minimal work
🏡 Can You Make Clabber From Store Milk?
🚫 True clabber requires raw milk.
You can try feeding a started clabber culture with pasteurized milk, but it tends to drift and contaminate faster.
If you only have store milk:
✅ kefir is usually the best “natural culture” choice
🔥 The Real Takeaway
Natural cheesemaking isn’t “unsafe.”
It’s older than industrial dairy, and when done right:
it’s consistent
it’s self-sustaining
it’s cheaper long-term
it builds real skill
it produces incredible flavor
And the best part is:
You’re not buying your starter every time. You’re growing it.
🧰 Icon Summary
🧀 Cheese = survival skill + food preservation
🧫 Culture = bacteria that makes milk safe + usable
🥛 Clabber = raw milk starter (best if maintained daily)
🥤 Kefir = easier culture, sometimes yeasty
🧴 Whey backslop = advanced method
👃 Smell test = your best safety tool
🫙 Start small = cream cheese/quark first