In article >,
Mark Thorson > wrote:

> If I took a block of cream cheese and inoculated it
> on the outside with the finely divided rind of a Brie
> or a Neufchatel, incubated it in my refrigerator with
> the temperature turned up, could I ferment it into
> something worth making? Some cheeses have natamcyin
> for mold inhibition, so I'll have to check for that.
>
> This might be a good reason to buy a microplane,
> so I can shave off little particles from the rind
> of a fermented soft cheese.
>
> Instead of a whole cheese-making setup, if I can
> just buy a block of cream cheese, unwrap it, roll
> it around in some rind shavings, and turn it into
> something good, that seems like an experiment worth
> doing.
>
> If I ever give you a beer and it seems a little bit
> too warm, you should ask whether I'm doing any
> cheese experiments.
>
> I'm wondering whether this could be dangerous.
> Cream cheese is very fatty, and that might restrict
> infiltration of oxygen, creating the possibility of
> anaerobic bacterial growth and botulism.

Rather than making it from a processed (cream) cheese, why don't you
make some raw cheese using milk and rennet first, then inoculate it? I
see no reason why it'd not work but I'd read up on cheese making first
to make sure that I held the "new" cheese at the right temperatures and
conditions, and educated myself on what possible contaminants could look
like.

Fungi is rather easy to passage so it'd likely work, but I'd still
research the hell out of it first, and not just here.
--
Peace! Om

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