Rennet, Tablet, Junket Brand - Expiry Date?

[lactosedave]

Well I thought i'd give this cheese thing a stab and make some fresh halloumi for our restaurant however i have a bit of a problem. 

I prepared the milk as the recipes on this board instructed, added 1/4 Junket Tablet, 1/4 teaspoon of CaCl, and let it sit for 2 1/2 hours and in the end I had a gallon of luke warm milk.  I added the rest of the tablet and gave it another go and still, warm milk.  I got the Junket tablets from a small local grocery store and I thought to myself at the time, they look like they had been sitting there for roughly a decade.  Might I just have bad rennet?

[linuxboy]

possibly. Did you dissolve the junket in ice cold water and stir it in?

[lactosedave]

i would guess the water to be 45-50 degrees

[linuxboy]

Then yes, if you dissolved the rennet completely and stirred it in thoroughly, and had absolutely no coagulation, your rennet is bad.

[DeejayDebi]

There should be a date on the Junket box.

[Cheese Head]

Some members like and use them regularly but many others have problems, search for the word "tablet" and you will find many members have problems with tablet rennet.

If you are in the US, some Whole Foods Store's have liquid rennet, otherwise best to [ur=http://www.cheeseforum.org/Links/Stores_Cheese_Making_Supplies.html]order from a webstore[/url].