Thanks for the posts
Update:
My milk is not Ultra-Pasteurized.
My water is tap water run through a Brita filter - but I'm going to get some distilled water for this purpose.
I did mix my yogurt with some warm milk to get it incorporated before adding it to the pot.
I did use more water with my rennet this time to dilute it.
So far everything "looked good" up until the dreaded clean break test.
It was actually MUCH better than previous attempts but "clean" it was not. It still seems like it's too soft for the proper curd. See photos.
I cut it anyway - because I was so excited that I actually could!
Now every 10 minutes I give it a stir
One problem: at one point shortly after cutting, I took it's temperature and my thermometer went up to 125F! Yikes. I find it very hard to control the temp precisely on the cooktop. I originally was going to use my slow cooker which is much easier to control - but I only had 4 cups of milk to use for this experiment so I went to the smaller pot on the stovetop.
I let the temp settle back down to 95ish giving it a very careful stir every 10 minutes. I feel like if I stir is much harder it will all fall apart and turn to cottage cheese. That's what I'm trying to avoid.
Next I am going to strain it - any suggestions or tips on how to do this to yield the best result? Should I try to get these curds "stiffer" some how before straining?
Thanks
Doug