About the importance of welcoming the unexpected

[falinna]

My first attempt to making cheddar was half a success. The curds did not knit at all. Using recipe from cheesemaking.com, I made one mistake, od two : I doubled the recipe and worked with 6 gall of milk; the original recipe calls for 1/2 tsp of rennett for 3 gallons of milk, and I thought isn't it supposed to be 1/4 tsp for each gallon? So for my 6 gallons of milk I added 1 1/2 tsp of rennett. Maybe that was too much.

The other mistake I have done, maybe, is not being persuasive or patient enough with the weight. Not enough pressure or pressing time. So I did not insist and after a few hours kept the curds as they were : the best squeaky cheese ever!!! From now on, this is going to be my recipe for cheese curds, it tastes way better that the recipes I have tried before. Lots of goooooood poutine ahead.

So with failure come surprises. So far I am lucky with my experimentations. I will keep trying, but not sure about the cheddar for now

[Ptucker]

You are not too far off on the amount of rennet, I usually make cheddar using 4 gallons of milk and add 1 tsp. of rennet. I reach Flocculation usually in 11 to 14 minutes times 3.5 averages around 30 to 45 minutes to set. Cheddar is one cheese that needs a lot of pressure for the final press to get a good knit.. You could try putting the curds in warm water for a few minutes and repress. Either way I am glad it was not a total waste, good luck on your next make.

[Andrew Marshallsay]

 I'm not sure that too much rennet would cause the problems with knitting.
Lack of weight and time certainly could. You have not given us the details of your make so it is hard to tell but you did say " a few hours" which does sound rather short. As an example, with my last cheddar, which I have just waxed, I pressed for about 40 hours, mostly at 2.6 PSI.
I would recommend following Devon's example and measure flocculation time. That is the best way to determine coagulation time  but will also indicate whether the rennet rate is about right.
By the way, cheddar is worth persevering with.

[Frodage4]

This story deserves a cheese! Any one who starts out to make one cheese and then saves the day by making poutine is a hero to me. Long live poutine!

[falinna]

Thank you for your replies! It is true that I probably did not press long enough. But when I unwrapped the cheese the first time, I though it was impossible to do better than this unstable pile of curds. Next time I'll try to do better.

[Andrew Marshallsay]

That does look a little sad, except that you obviously enjoyed it.
Poutine must be a Canadian thing. I'd never heard of it and I think it is probably unknown here.
It definitely looks like it needs more pressing: probably both time and pressure. A search on the forum would probably show you what sort of pressures and times other people use.

[garbetsp]

I would recommend a pH meter. The milk I was using took longer to reach the target pH than most time based recipes. It completely changed my cheddar for the better. Time based recipes are one individuals observations with their milk and supplies, and there's a fair bit of variability in it all and pH is more informative.

On a bright note, my earlier cheddars were better curds than pressed cheddars. How are you cheddaring?