Coagulation, Rennet, Tablet, Junket Brand - No Clean Break

[DennisZ]

Thanks for all the help! The liquid animal rennet worked I had flocculation in 8 min and was cutting curds in 30 min. Thanks a bunch!!


Cheese On!!

[atreyablue]

Oops! I'm sorry, I got mine from thecheesemaker.com (They are a different manufacturer also, It says Fromase on the back) so I can't be much help with that rennet specifically. However, you say that you have had some luck before with increased dosage; I don't suppose you determined the flocculation point, did you? If not, use the spinning bowl technique as found in the When to Cut Curds section of this site. For most cheeses, the flocculation point should occur between 12-20 min. If you are in this range for this particular dosage of rennet, then you're good to go. Make a note for yourself that this is the optimum dosage, no matter how high it is. If you get a flocculation less than 12 minutes, you are using too much, and it can have irreparable effects on the taste of the cheese.

Is there another way to separate milk solids without using rennet, vinegar/lemon juice, that is fast and wont effect flavour?

I'm going to go back to Double dose since my last batch had lousy curd.

Eric

[MarkShelton]

Another way? Yes. Fast? No.
Curd is formed in only 2 ways that I know of. 1 is the enzymatic action of rennet, and 2 is acidification, whether it be from an added acid like lemon or vinegar, which is for fresh cheeses, or from a culture working for a long time producing acid as in making cream cheese.

Adding acid is the fast way, but not appropriate for most cheeses other than soft or fresh. Rennet is the fast way for hard cheeses, or at least I think it's pretty fast.
Producing sufficient acid with culture to separate solid from whey is slow way. I've not made cream or neufachel cheese, but I understand it takes somewhere over 12 hours to get a curd set.

Rennet is your best bet for quick curd set without changes in flavor (when used in the correct dosage.)

[Cheese Head]

The only method I know of industrial and called Ultrafiltration, I have learnt the hard way that for home/artisan cheese making there are no shortcuts, Cheese Artisans of old must have already thought of them.

[DeejayDebi]

Rennet like culture is not nescessary something that can be cut in half and function the same way. Often it will be close enough for what we do but sometimes we have to make slight adjustments. You may notice that the bottle says something like X teaspoon for 1 to 2 gallons ... 3 to 5 ... 5 to 7 ... etc. IF you don't get a clean break give it more time. Good luck!

ok, I have been quaffling for some time as to post this question or not.....

When I use 1/8 tsp per gal of Dairy connection double strength veggie rennet, I get flocc. in less than 1 minute.  SOOOOO...last week I tried cutting that dosage in HALF....flocc. took between 5-8 minutes, but even after 1/2 hour total flocc time (trying to make a jack) my curds were so soft that it was a total flop...ended up feeding it to the neighbor's chickens. I couldn't cook enough moisture out of them. When I tried to flip it after it's first pressing, it completly disentegrated back into separate curds.
I know I need to go to the metric system, which I am desperatly trying to understand (I spend most of my time here, reading past posts) but until I can wrap my little brain around it, does anyone have any ideas?  I let my milk culture for at least 1 hour, and the inital heat was right on at 88 deg.

[padams]

Thanks, Debi!