Stuart's American Style Neufchâtel - What Went Wrong?

[Stuart]

I'm at home visiting my folks and I thought it'd be nice to make some cheese for them. I followed my normal recipe for Neufchâtel and the cheese just didn't set right. I basically used the recipe from the cheese making book:
1 gallon pasteurized commercial vitamin D whole milk, added a pint of heavy whipping cream, 1/8th tsp CaCl2, and stirred, brought it to 80 degrees F.
add 3/4th of a tab of rennet and 4 oz cultured buttermilk ( a different brand of buttermilk down here, and it's pasteurized, but I'm sure what I used up there was pasteurized too).
I let it sit overnight and didn't get a clean break. I usually don't get a good break and it still turns into good soft cheese, but when I put it in cheese cloth, it just poured right out. I thought maybe the cheese cloth's hole diameter was to blame so I doubled it up and it still poured through.
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Does anyone have any ideas? What a let down! I really wanted to impress my family. The temperature in the kitchen was 72F overnight. I also am making chocolate cheese and I think that's working fine. I'll post separately about that.
Does the order of the rennet and the buttermilk make a difference?
Thanks in advance for any input!

[Alex]

"Does the order of the rennet and the buttermilk make a difference?"
Of course it does!!!
Rennet should be THE LAST ingredient added in every cheese.
Buttermilk - Pasteurized is OK, I use only store bought buttermilk. You should buy the freshest available. In my country I can buy buttermilk with an expiry date of 3-4 weeks. There are different brands, containing different bacteria. I think that for Neufchâtel it's not so important.
DON'T FORGETT: RENNET=LAST INGREDIENT

[Stuart]

Well then it's the rennet! I added it right before the buttermilk. Oh well, live and learn. At least it looks like the chocolate Neufchâtel will turn out okay... I guess I did the rennet last in that one.

Thanks, Alex! What country are you in?

[Cheese Head]

Stuart (& others), if you click on people's names to left of their post, then you can see their profile including location .