I'll post some pics after press if all goes well, still waiting on a clean break been about 2 hours. I'm using the recipe off here. I'm doing a 3 gallon batch.
first time using the ph meter. it's been cooking at 102 for an hour and only down to 6.36.
Good luck Jimmy!
yep it didn't work i tossed it. I'm going to try again today don't know for sure what went wrong. The curd didn't look right they where all tiny. i was doing a 3 gal batch and used 12 mesophilic starter cubes. I'm going to use freeze dried today.
You didn't try to save it? Even tiny curds can make some sort of cheese. Maybe not what you were going for but cheese none the less. Maybe cheddar flavored mozzarella?
I tried to see if it would press over night and it didn't it was just mush. Today doens't seem to be going any better. using different brand milk, tab instead of liquid rennet, freezed dried starter, and calcium chloride and it has been 3 hours and still no clean break.
Hmm doesn't sound good. Is there anything you can strain maybe to make something?
same results today i don't know what the deal is. After it took forever to get a clean cut i switch to making just farmhouse cheddar but i don't think it's going to make it, it's in the mold but it looks like pancake mix.
How much rennet are you using? l had the same problem until l increased the amount of rennet, l was using about 5 drops which was enough for soft cheese but not for hard cheese. Made a cheddar last week, using 1/2 teaspoon of rennet diluted in water for 4.5 litres of milk and had a clean break in less than an hour.
first batch i used 60 drops, directions on bottle says 5 drops for every quart. 2nd batch i used a whole tab. My only guess is it still wasn't a clean enough break. I'll try again this coming weekend. I've done gouda, jack, and colby the gouda and jack did fine the colby i didn't seem to get as much cheese from 3 gal that i did for the others.
Make sure you don't raise the temperature of the milk above 90 when you have added the starter. Meso starter can't stand high temperatures.
Are you defrosting your icecubes before you put them in the milk? The ice cube starter needs to get to room temp before you add it to the milk.
Just a few suggestions, as l have learnt from trial and error.
Is this the same milk you normally use?
Hi Jimmyz....
The only time I've experienced what you are describing was when I got a bad bottle of liquid vegetable rennet.
I've used some rennet for a two year period with no problems whatsoever yet one bottle that I tried was bad from the very first.
I would get this grainy,half set mush of a set that I couldn't understand and it was only when I purchased a new bottle of rennet that my problems went away.
What is strange is that I could still use the bad rennet when making Mozzerella, even though it still gave an inferior set. But as for using it for any type of hard cheese, forget it.
Hope you find out what the problem is before wasting too much milk. I've had to dump a couple of fairly large batches in the past and it can certainly ruin a person's weekend.
Dave