Author Topic: Coagulated, Rennet, Cow - No Curd Formation, What Do With Milk?  (Read 4875 times)

jessot

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Coagulated, Rennet, Cow - No Curd Formation, What Do With Milk?
« on: February 27, 2010, 01:48:09 AM »
Hi,
First time making cheese.  I am trying an asadero cheese as this one is my favorite.  The only problem is that in 50 min. the curd has not set.  What can I do?  And if it never sets do I have to discard the milk?? 
this cheese stuff is more difficult than I thought!
all help is appreciated!
thanks
Jessica
From Mexico!!
VIVA MEXICO

Cheese Head

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Re: Coagulated, Rennet, Cow - No Curd Formation, What Do With Milk?
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2010, 05:16:06 AM »
Hola y Bienvenido Jessica!

My family and I just had a great Christmas holiday in Merida & Cancun 2 months ago, wonderful country & very friendly people!

Cheese making is indeed difficult ;D. Many when making Asadero, don't use a lactic acid starter culture. For your milk, if you didn't, then add more rennet to try and get a curd set, but if it's been hours and milk is warm, I'd say the milk is junk.

If you did, then even without the curd setting, the milk will by now be highly acidic, which is good, but you still need to dewater (de-whey) the cheese and have two choices, either draining in a mold if you have one, see the Lactic Cheese Board for ideas, or probably simpler is to hang in a cheesecloth and make American Style Neufchatel (light cream cheese).

Next problem is to try and determine why you didn't get a curd set so that this problem isn't repeated, for this we need details, milk type and where from, rennet and where from, steps you took etc.

jessot

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Re: Coagulated, Rennet, Cow - No Curd Formation, What Do With Milk?
« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2010, 07:28:52 AM »
Hi again!
 I finally got some curds going but I never got a clean break so I did as you suggested and drained the "soft" curds I got.  Anyway.... after that I got a little creative with some answers while browsing this site so I nuked the cheese.... a few times... don't know what I acomplished with that, but needless to say it did not stretch.  haha...  so I finally gave up with the microwave and just put the "X" cheese and pressed it.  I will wait for tomorrow to see what happened with it...
do you think it will be okay to eat??  barring the crumbly state, should it be safe??
will post back later!!
thanks!

Cheese Head

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Re: Coagulated, Rennet, Cow - No Curd Formation, What Do With Milk?
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2010, 12:09:04 PM »
Jessica, there are several major parameters that govern rennet's effectiveness, one being acidity of the milk, if no starter culture and no acidification then harder to coagulate/need more rennet.

Yes it should be safe to eat, human body is a wonderful thing, if smell's OK and small bite tastes OK then it should be edible.

jessot

  • Guest
Re: Coagulated, Rennet, Cow - No Curd Formation, What Do With Milk?
« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2010, 09:12:28 PM »
Hi!
I pressed the cheese for a few hours and then refrigerated it. It turned out very well.  I added salt too.  So I have a "panela" type of cheese.  I don't know how this cheese is called in English but it is kinda like paneer I think.  I am very excited about this result because I thought I was going to have to throw everything away!!!
I am still not sure about the asadero though.  I will try to find another recipe to see if they add any culture or citric acid to the milk.  Will post results!!!
anyway, thanks for all the help!!

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Coagulated, Rennet, Cow - No Curd Formation, What Do With Milk?
« Reply #5 on: February 28, 2010, 06:28:42 AM »
Never throw away the milk there is always some way to save it. If all else fails drain it and use it like riccotta.