Manchego - Mesophilic & Thermophilic Starter Cultures

[scasnerkay]

I just received "Artisan Cheese Making at Home", and mostly followed the recipe for Saffron Infused Manchego. Not knowing what kind of difference it would make, I used the cultures I had on hand, Thermo C and Mesophilic C101, rather than Thermo B and Meso MM100.

So my first question is, what kind of difference would it make to use the other cultures?

I made the cheese with the usual past/hom milk I use, and I used the 1/4 tsp of calcium chloride the recipe called for.  I usually use 1/2 tsp of calcium chloride for the 2 gallons, but was following the instructions even though I was concerned about it, thinking that perhaps using 2 cultures would make a difference in how things set up. I did end up with trouble however, the milk taking over 90 mins to reach clean break, and even then the curd was a bit soft.

My second question is, should I have gone with the 1/2 tsp of calcium chloride?

My next question is, what effect will the long period of time coming to clean break have on the final product?

[Tomer1]

"what effect will the long period of time coming to clean break have on the final product?"

Usually it will mean higher moisture "locked" into the curd so your final moisture will be higher then you might be aiming for if you follow the recipe and not try to compensate for this factor ,  also you need to watch your acidification.

Not getting a good clean break usually means lower yeild with milky whey from several mini fails I had.