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[Illustration: Fig. 1.--Bottles of Starter.] When cottage cheese is to be produced in large quantities it is advisable to use a starter. Starters aid and hasten acid fermentation and tend to suppress and eliminate undesirable fermentation. A starter, in brief, is a quantity of milk in which the acid-forming bacteria have grown until the milk contains a great number of them. There are two kinds of starters, commercial and homemade. [Illustration: Fig. 2.--Stirring in starter and rennet and taking temperature.] _Commercial Starters_ When cottage cheese is to be made on a large scale it is advisable to use a commercial starter, obtainable from a reliable starter company or through a dairy-supply house. The small package of starter, which may be either liquid or solid, is added to a pint of pasteurized skim milk and the milk covered and set away at 75° F. to sour. This is called a “mother starter.” After curdling or coagulation, a teaspoonful of the “mother starter” is added to a quart of pasteurized skim milk, which, when coagulated, is used to ripen the milk for cheesemaking. In pasteurizing milk for starters, it is heated to 175° F. and held at that temperature for 30 minutes, after which it is cooled to 75° F. before the starter is added. _Homemade Starters_ Homemade starters are made as follows: