Rennet Stirring Time

[Cheese Head]

Alex, in this thread for lactic acid coagulated cheese you said:

The rennet must be diluted and stirred for 15-20 seconds for 1 gallon of milk.

In rennet coagulated cheese, I understand the reason to stop stirring after ~ 1 minute and preferably stop any (swirling) motion of the milk (more of an issue for large vats), is because the rennet will set up in ~ 2-5 minutes and understandably don't want to disturb/hurt the curd set.

But for lactic acid coagulated cheeses, because of the lower temp, the rennet does not set up the milk like in rennet coagulated cheeses. Therefore I wouldn't have thought the stirring time of the (normally significantly smaller amount of) rennet to be an issue. Could you help me to understand? TIA

[Alex]

I think I've been missunderstood, I apply the same stirring method for all kinds of cheeses I make. For a 10 liters batch I stir for a maximum of 30-45 seconds. larger batch takes more time as you mentioned.

[Cheese Head]

OK, thanks Alex, now I understand better .

[Likesspace]

Hmmm....
I've been stirring my rennet in for 2 minutes and have had no problems doing so.
I do this because I want the rennet mixed in well and since I have been using the floc. method I've never seen the beginnings of a set in less than 12 minutes.
If this is not the proper way of doing things, please let me know but as I said, I haven't had any problems yet.

Dave

[DeejayDebi]

I usually stir for about a minute.

[Sailor Con Queso]

I stir vigorously for about 15-20 seconds with a lot of up and down motion. Then I stop the circular motion of the milk.

[Alex]

I am with you Sailor