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

Started by Worlock, March 20, 2009, 05:21:16 PM

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Worlock

Ok going to see if it's the supplies I'm working with.  Cultures/liquid Rennet, etc..  Recent order from http://dairyconnection.com/hobbyiest.html

TA61-50DCU   TA 61 Culture- small
MM100-50 DCU   MM 100 Culture- small
R-V   Rennet- Veal - 2 oz.

My wife is going to kill me for spending so much money on this stuff, lol.....

makkonen

Yeah, same here as far as filtered water goes. I filter, then I boil uncovered, then I cool down to room temp. Probably overkill, but I've never had a problem, so I stick with it. I guess once I get a pH meter, I'll have to have real distilled water, but for now, I'm good.

As far as upping the acid before adding culture, I'm not sure exactly what you mean. You could partially acidify with citric acid, and then let the cultures produce the rest of the acid to get you to the right range (I'm pretty sure that's the idea with the Fias Co Farms recipe). But I never tried that, as it seemed like added complexity where none is needed.

If you just mean let the starters work more before adding the rennet, that sounds right to me. I always seem to get better sets when I let the culture work before I add the rennet... but there's about a hundred things that could confound that, and I don't have enough experience to judge that accurately.

I don't know that how long the rennet has been dissolved in the water has anything to do with anything, as long as it is fully dissolved.

MrsKK

First of all, Ted, I'd like to welcome you to the forum and to the world of cheesemaking.  Even more than that, I'd like to thank you for serving our country.  My son is also in the AF, stationed at Shaw AFB in South Carolina.

I had been using only the liquid rennet I purchased through Ricki's site, but am extremely low on it, so I decided to try Fank's hard cheese recipe.  Where the culture is added at about 68* (don't quote me on the temps and other specifics, because I have a really poor memory and connection is too slow for me to speedily get it on here for me to check right now...).  Then the cultured milk is allowed to set overnight before being warmed up and the rennet added.  I had wonderful results with this method for hard cheese, so decided to try his mozz recipe.

I wasn't thrilled with the results - took forever to set up, then I had to wait overnight for it to acidify enough to spin.  I decided to experiment with my next batch and used the hard cheese method of culturing the milk the night before, at a low temperature (I learned that if you heat the milk to 90 degrees or so, culture it with yogurt/buttermilk, and allow to set overnight, you end up with a HUGE batch of clabbered milk!).  I then warmed the milk to the specified temp, added the rennet, and walked away for about an hour and a half (probably went out to milk my cow).  There was a beautiful clean break when I came back.  I followed the recipe the rest of the way and had curd that spun in about 4 hours, rather than the overnight that it took to acidify before.

I do need to add a clarification here - I am not using pasteurized, homogenized store milk, but raw cow's milk that is probably up to 4-5 days old.  I skim off the cream (yummm - homemade butter), and make mozz (or any cheese) in 5 gallon lots.

I hope you are having better luck.  I really wanted to be able to use Junket, as I don't have to order that and wait for it to come, plus it doesn't lose potency like the liquid does.  I'm also in a position where I don't have to regret cheese mishaps/failures, as my chickens and pigs love it when it comes out inedible by humans!

goat lady

distilled water can be found with the laundry soap usually,at least in stores here

DeejayDebi

I have used Junket Rennet tablets exclusively in every batch of cheese I have ever made and never had a problem with them. I have read somewhere that whenever you see tablets listed use 4 times as many Junket tablets. I forget the liquid convertion I will look for it tomorrow - it almost midnight here.

As a general rule I use 1/2 tablet per gallon for most cheeses and it works fine. I use 1 whole tablet for my asiago per gallon off the top of my head I can't think of any other differences.