Stuart's American Style Neufchatel - Speed Of Adding Rennet

[Stuart]

I have had bad curd sets during the last couple of batches of Neufchatel. It sets so badly that instead of just the whey coming out through the cloth during hanging, all the curd slowly drips out. I don't have any idea why, other that I've been letting the crushed rennet tablet sit in the water for a few minutes before adding. Is that the culprit? Other than that possibility, I'm clueless. I'm doing the exact same recipe otherwise that has given me success before.
I'm ordering some veal rennet to try instead of the tablet rennet...

[Sailor Con Queso]

You may be using too much rennet. Most recipes call for just a small quantity of very DILUTED rennet. Check your recipe carefully.

[Cheese Head]

Stuart, you don;t need fully set curds to make Neufchatel, was their any gelling. Unset curd shouldn't drip out the cheesecloth during hanging, sounds like as you say not a good curd set or weave is way to open?

There are people on this forum that use tablet style rennet successfully, there are also several that have not gotten them to work. Here's a thread on their ability to dissolve. Here's some info on clean curd break. Search the forum from the homepage on "tablet", should give you some ideas.

[Stuart]

Definitely not a good curd set. I know it's not suppose to fully set like cheddar or anything. It looks like a decent gelling then drips through.

I'm going to try it again with maybe a half tab of rennet... I have some liquid veal rennet coming soon, which will allow me to follow the recipes in the home cheese making book more closer.

As always, thanks for the input, guys.

[Stuart]

I got great curd using the same recipe (but with raw milk this time) and using veal rennet. 

[Cheese Head]

Stuart, good news, I'd bet 5:1 that it was the tablet rennet.