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I'm new to the forums and pretty new to cheesemaking. It's something I wanted to try and had read a lot about in the past. My wife bought me a nice beginner's kit from Leeners, and I had books already. My true hobby was photography for many years, the real kind with a darkroom and chemicals. I've found cheesemaking to have the same zen quality, attention to times/temperatures and knowing what you want to end up with before starting the process. I hope to learn a whole lot more in the future.

I've made a few farmhouse Cheddars and just tried some baby Swiss last night. Having read that the flocculation method was superior, that's what I've always used to test for when to cut the curd. for the recipes I've made, I've used 2 1/2 gallons of whole milk. It's home-delivered, but still P/H milk. I've mainly used Meso-A or Thermo culture to start, also using 1 1/2 tsp of prepared calcium chloride solution. For rennet, I used half a tablet of Marschall dissolved in 1/4 cup cool water. My concern is that the onset of flocculation seems fast at 6-7 min, but the curd still seems a little weak when cutting at 3xflocc for the right cheese type. I've read plenty about it taking too long, but not about too quick. I guess the question is am I doing it right?

In the end I've been happy with the cheeses I've made, but feel that I'm missing a crucial basic step.

P/H milk suffers from weak curd with most milk brands. You will lose solids in the milk, even if you do add CaCl2. In these cases, depending on what the curd is doing (if still weak with normal 3x floc), you can extend the heal time, or you can increase the multiplier to give you a better set. In the end, milk is variable and seasonal. Using the same multiplier only goes so far as the milk changes. Sometimes, you have to adjust temperature and the process to achieve consistent results. That said, floc method is still way better than clean break. But the ultimate tool is your brain (or a fancy machine that can calculate strength of set and curd rheology)

I appreciate the verification. Everything  I had read said weak curd tends to be expected from commercial milk. I'll certainly try to up the healing time when working with it. There is a local goat farm that sells raw and parturized milk. I've been tempted to try some and it would be good to be able to see the qualitative differences between large commercial and small local sources. This website has been great for general knowledge like that, but always a good learning experience to try first-hand.