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Hello,

Yesterday i attempted my first recipe, and it took 24 h to reach the curdling point.The recipe said 60 minutes.

What should i do now?

Thanks

B Masterno

Which cheese? Seems like your rennet is bad. After 24 hours, the curdling is likely due to the acid development. You've likely just made yogurt if you used thermo culture or buttermilk if meso.

Hello,

I tried the gouda recipe and i did not add any culture or Calcium salt.

Thanks

culture helps to acidify the milk so that the rennet can work better.  I've never made gouda, but would think that a culture would be necessary.

Yes, I would definitely think you need to add a culture to make a gouda, or any hard cheese. Fortunately, you don't need a specialized, packaged cheese culture. Regular supermarket buttermilk contains mesophilic cultures, and regular supermarket yogurt contains thermophilic cultures (just make sure it says on the container that it contains live and active cultures). For gouda, you will need mesophilic, so pick up some buttermilk before your next try and you will fare much better. I'm not sure about the amount to add, but I know it has been posted here somewhere. If somebody finds it before I do, please post.
BTW, what recipe are you using?

Thanks for your answers.

The recipe i attempted is https://cheeseforum.org/Recipes/Gouda/Recipe_Gouda.htm

When i tried to cut the curl, i realised in fact i did not reach the curdling point.

I will retry with culture or buttermilk.

Thanks again

completely uncultured milk should take only 1.2-2x the time as milk with culture to reach the flocculation point. The slight pH drop only helps a little. Your rennet is bad or you need to use more rennet. Doubt it's the milk. And yes, you do need the culture, else you'll make a frying halloumi type cheese.

Here's the link for making a mesophilic starter from buttermilk.

Quote from: MarkShelton on March 22, 2010, 08:52:35 PM
Here's the link for making a mesophilic starter from buttermilk.

Old link is 404'd, appears now to be located here: Recipe for Mesophilic Starter from Buttermilk