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GENERAL CHEESE MAKING BOARDS (Specific Cheese Making in Boards above) => STANDARD METHODS - Making Cheese, Coagulation => Topic started by: mrmekon on April 20, 2012, 05:21:24 AM

Title: Stirred the partially-coagulated milk!
Post by: mrmekon on April 20, 2012, 05:21:24 AM
I assume it's too late to get help now, so I'm going to proceed the best I can figure out, but want to ask what the best way to handle this situation would have been.

First of all, I've been a cheese maker for about... oh, 4 hours now, and I'm not very well versed in it.  Just an experiment to pass the night away.

I'm making some half-assed combination of this cheddar (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,8247.msg57821.html#msg57821 (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,8247.msg57821.html#msg57821)) and the "farmhouse/cheddar" on this page (http://seaualait.webs.com/cheesemaking.htm (http://seaualait.webs.com/cheesemaking.htm)).  The end result doesn't really matter, just playing around.

Anyway, I made a starter that is maybe legit, from store-bought buttermilk.  Mixed it with store-bought pasteurized/homogenized whole milk (big city, sigh).  Waited 3 hours, heated it to 91F, and mixed in a junket rennet tab that was dissolved in cold water.  Stirred well for 40 seconds, and let it sit for 30 minutes.

At 30 minutes, the check-for-clean-break time, it was still perfectly liquid.  I quickly searched this forum and found that junket tablets kinda suck, and some recommendations to go ahead and pitch another.  I got another ready and poured it in.  *DOH*.  In the 5 minutes it took to do that, coagulation started.  I didn't notice until I made a nice big spin around the pot with my sanitized spoon and it turned into scrambled eggs.

Now it's been another 30 minutes.  It looks like nice, firm scrambled eggs floating in whey.  I'm just going to pretend it didn't happen and continue, but would there have been any way to save that?
Title: Re: Stirred the partially-coagulated milk!
Post by: DeejayDebi on April 21, 2012, 03:35:24 AM
Other than waiting a bit longer for it to coagulate the first time not really. It might be a bit on the dry side but it should be eddible. One thing about Junket is it takes longer as it ages. There should be  a date somewhere on the package. If it is working slow give it more time and be aware to check with a small knive or something to be sure it just doesn't look like liquid - It can be hard to tell but just looking.