[Cheese] Clean break/coagulation problem -- Warning -- Long Post

[TOM KNUCKEY]

My two cents, for what it's worth - I've made exactly one batch of cheese, but it worked out great.  I followed the recipe from Ricci Carrol's book exactly, except that I used the powdered nonfat milk plus whipping cream that Schmidling recommends on his website.  Ricci Carrol's book has a pretty extensive discussion about milk, but Jack's website provided me a cheese milk option that I can pick up at Safeway...

I have no idea how my cheese will taste since I need to age it for six months, but it looked great.  Good luck to you.

http://schmidling.com/milk.htm<http://schmidling.com/milk.htm>




- Original Message ----- 
  From: Derek Bradford<mailto:derekbradford at gmail.com> 
  To: The Cheese Makers' Digest<mailto:cheese at hbd.org> 
  Sent: Friday, February 16, 2007 5:24 AM
  Subject: [Cheese] Clean break/coagulation problem -- Warning -- Long Post


  Hi All,

  I've been lurking for a long time, but this is my first post.  It's
  long, and for that I apologize.  I want to be specific.  In a
  nutshell, I can't get a clean break; my milk won't coagulate.  I don't
  know if I should be adding calcium chloride, or if I'm just doing
  something else wrong entirely.  My recipes have all come from
  Fankhauser's pages.

  I've been making yogurt for a long time with excellent results.
  My yogurt is 3.5%, made with store-bought homogenized milk, and is
  very, very thick, and as smooth as it could ever be.  I make big
  batches every week and they all turn out just fine.  I make labneh
  with nearly every batch, and it's equally wonderful.

  I've tried making two cheeses; once, feta, and it failed to produce a
  feta, but did make a cream-type soft cheese that I ate for
  weeks, and the second was Fankhauser's basic pound of cheese from a
  gallon of milk recipe.

  I have utterly failed to achieve a clean break.  I've used the freshest
  milk available (it hit the shelf the day before I used it, and it's
  the same milk I use for yogurt all the time.

  I warmed the milk the night before to 20C, and let it sit, inoculated with
  mesophylic starter (and I also added some mild lipase powder for
  flavour (just the tiniest amount)), for about 15 hours at 20/21C.  I
  used the mesophylic starter from the Grape and Granary
  (http://www.thegrape.net/browse.cfm/4,9888.htm<http://www.thegrape.net/browse.cfm/4,9888.htm>).  I used 1/8tsp.
  (Side note: when I made feta I used yogurt as a starter, but I believe
  my milk had overacidified.  I thought using the powdered starter might
  provide for a more stable experiment this time.  Bad science, changing
  too many variables...I know...).  The next morning I slowly heated it to
  30C, and then added my rennet.  I also use the rennet from the same
  site (http://www.thegrape.net/browse.cfm/4,10199.htm<http://www.thegrape.net/browse.cfm/4,10199.htm>), and used about
  1/8 of a tab, perhaps more.  I erred on more than less.  I mixed the
  rennet thoroughly, but briefly, and let it sit, covered, for 1 hour,
  completely undisturbed.  After one hour, I still had a pot of liquid
  milk--no evidence of coagulation.

  I have some calcium chloride, but I'm not sure when to add it, and
  since I've had strong success with yogurt, I decided to wait until I
  knew I needed it.  I'm not convinced it's absence is the source of my
  problem, though.

  A note about my rennet: I find that it fails to dissolve terribly well
  in the water; most does, but there is (as with last time) always some
  sediment on the bottom of the glass.  Could this be a significant
  source of error?

  Can you offer any advice?  I have been extremely sterile; I'm also a
  beer and wine brewer, and I really can't see what my problem must be.

  Thanks all for your help.

  Cheers,
  --Derek
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