Cultures from store bought cheeses

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone. Anyone ever tried using store bought buttermilk as

mesophillic starter, or dannon yogurt as thermophillic starter, as

described here :

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Cottage/1288/thermo/thermo.htm

? I just find this very neat if the results are good, though the

website does mention the results are slightly different from the real

thing.

So, to make it more like the real thing, has anyone tried to use

bacteria from other cheeses, ie taking a small chunk out of a

parmessan and trying to propagate it in warm milk? Or, similarly,

taking a chunk out of store bought blue cheese and progating or

directly adding to the cheese recipe (to have blue mold and mesophilic

bacteria in cheese)? I just think it will be much more satifying to

buy the cheese than the packaged bacteria.

Also, anyone know of a place I can find a small either cheese vat or

bulk tank (<100gal preferably)?

Ernesto