Hi Trisha,
I agree with padams. 3/4 tsp seems like a lot of rennet to me too, but then, I use something that calls for 0.7 mls in 10 L, and 4 US gallons is about 15 L. 3/4 tsp is over 3.0 mls (so about 3 times the amount I'm used to). However, I also know of a brand of supermarket rennet that calls for 7.0 mls for 10 Litres and people have said it makes good cheese. What do the packet instructions indicate on your brand?
Regardless, I recommend you look up the floc method (or floating bowl technique). This not only helps you achieve greater consistency between makes but it also can be used to fine tune your rennet amounts since you are trying to achieve a floculation time in the order of 10-15 minutes. Floculation time is when the milk just "gells" due to the rennet. Basically, you float a small plastic bowl in your milk at the time you add the rennet. Starting around 6-8 minutes, give it a very gentle nudge or twirl. It should move or twirl freely. Every 30 seconds or so, repeat. You will notice the bowl starts to act as if the milk is "thick". Eventually, it will not move/twirl. That is the floculation point. Write down how much time has passed since you added the rennet. You are trying to get this to be in between 10 and 15 minutes. If it's shorter, use less rennet next time. If it's longer, use a bit more. Anyway, you then multiply this time by some "floc factor", and for butterkase that would be 3.5 to determine your cut time. So, if you had a floc time of 12 minutes, then 12 * 3.5 = 42 minutes. That means you cut the curds 42 minutes after adding your rennet (don't foreget, you've already used 12 of those minutes getting to the floc time). Cut the curds, regardless of "clean break", at the designated time. For a longer aging, drier cheese, use a shorter floc factor (i.e. 3.0 for chedder or caerphilly, 2.0-2.5 for parmesan or romano). Moist cheeses, like camembert use quite long floc factors (around x6.0) and so on. Because milk varies between batches, whether raw or store bought, and how well the rennet works will vary as a result of all sorts of things (like how your culture is working, the milk, temperature, etc), the floc method results takes these changes into account while using set times does not.
Anyway, I'm sure your cheese will turn out fine. If you do cut into it at 4 weeks, you could vaccuum seal 1/2 and save that for another month. That works too.
- Jeff
P.S. Our posts crossed in the ether! As for bitterness, I'm not sure how that works. I've seen some posts say that bitterness will "fade" after long aging, but I've also been told that long aging of cheeses made with veg. rennet produces bitterness?
