[Thrift Bee]

Had two attempts using lemon juice/ vinegar and got bland rubber that the hens loved. Made great bread with the whey.

Bought Cheese Culture from Ascott and made an error making up a batch of starter. I added the powder to the almost boiling milk instead of cooling it first.  I was going throw it because i figured i'd killed the culture but my husband said to leave it to see what happens. I left it for 24 hours and it had a sort of cream/soft yoghurt at the very top. Thought i 'd use a tablespoon of that as a starter.

So i used 1litre of this mornings milk, heated to 66 but couldn't stop it going to 74ish, cooled in a saucepan of running cold water to 30C added and stirred my 'starter' left it for over half an hour beside range

One drop of veg rennet in 5ml spoon of pre boiled water. Stirred top to bottom with slotted spoon.  That was 40mins ago and nothing has happened.

Can i salvage this milk? I have goats cheese in the fridge, could i make a starter with a little of that?
Can i add more rennet? I'm a bit paranoid I'm just brewing a whole big jug of listeria!!!

I need to learn major lessons each time i try, that way i can justify the wastage.

UPDATE- Well the lesson is most certainly learnt .........patience. Not really sure how long it took but the next time i looked the whole lot had turned to a milk jelly!! I cut it with a knife, the whey flowed and i spooned the soft cubes of curd into a muslin and colander  over a saucepan.  It is now hanging in the kitchen and I am mucho excited about investigating it tomorrow. WoooHoooo!!!!

[Ina]

From what I remember making goats cheese - we added the starter when milking (no heating up of milk, but of course it was still at body heat); then, an hour later or so, we added the rennet and left overnight in a warm place. It certainly always took at least 12 hours to firm up, depending on outside temperatures up to 36 hours.

But there are different ways of making cheese...

[benkt]

I'm in the middle of a cheese making frenzy at the moment - I've got it down to a rough and ready formula that I can follow quickly and easily.
 I start in the evening by heating the milk until you put your little finger into it and think 'mmmm that feels like a good hot bath'. Add starter. Do other jobs for half an hour or an hour (less for soft cheese more for hard cheese). Then add rennet - I do 3 gallon batches which needs ~60 drops of animal rennet or 200 drops of the veggy stuff from a health food shop.

Go to sleep.

In the morning I either strain the curds (if doing soft cheese) or cook the curd if doing hard cheese (~15mins at the same 'mmm that feels like a nice hot bath' temperature) then strain.
 Leave cheese in the cheese cloth in fridge till the evening then add salt/chives/garlic etc. and either shape in mold (soft cheese) or put in press (hard cheese).

I started off with a lot of failures as well, but just keep going! I've never had much luck with home-made starters but never had a complete failure to get some kind of curd when using a bought, cultured starter so I'd really recommend sticking with that.
First few goes, it was all done with timers and thermometers etc. but if you do it regularly you'll get in a routine that works for you and then you can ease back a bit and just make it as required. For getting the hard cheese right, I spent about three months doing two batches a week and had a 50:50 ratio of edible:inedible results.  A year or so later,  I'm pushing 95% edibility on batches of hard cheese. Still completely failing with my efforts at a soft 'chevre' cheese using brie-type cultures so I'm going to try the same intensive program over the autumn to try to crack it!

[Thrift Bee]

Thanks for your thoughts.

Well I hung it overnight and this morning the whole family watched as i peeled away the cheesecloth. More bland rubbery stuff. When i pulled it apart it was full of little holes? Like yeasty bread.

I've ordered more culture, next time I'll at least get the starter right.  And just keep trying.

I hate wasting the milk.

[Bumblebear]

I make cheddar; chevre and a soft goats cheese.  I don't use the lemon juice method but here is what I do:

Chevre:  buy a chevre starter from http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/cheesemaking/cultures/chevre-culture.html  It's DELISH

Cheddar:  I use the Ricki Carrol recipe (I bought her book)

Starter:  Make a starter by buying the starter you choose to use (ie Ascotts or another) then make it up by warming 1 litre of milk to 90 degc for 10 mins then cool to 22 degc (this pastuerises it but you can ignore this bit if you want).  Sprinkle a packet of starter in the milk and leave for 24 hours.  The next day pour this starter in ice cubes bags or trays use 1 cube per 3 litres of milk.  As you can see your starter will go a long way

Soft cheese:  Warm howeevr much milk you want to make cheese with to 74degf then put in one cube of starter per 3 litres of milk.  Mix it about a bit then add 1 drop of rennet per litre and 4 drops of water per litre.  You can mix it in a small eggcup or something but i just chuck it in lol  Then cover it and leave it for 12ish hours.  Then drain in muslin for 6+ hours or however long you want for the consistency you want.  A couple of days will see a firmish, crumbly cheese.  Then add salt (be generous!); pepper; or want ever you want (we love chopped stem ginger in ours - yum yum).  Then EAT!!

Hope that helps

[benkt]

Holey curd in my experience comes from yeast contamination - were you making bread, drinking beer or brewing wine in the kitchen whilst the milk was out? It still make edible cheese, but the texture can be a bit off - crumble it up, add salt and squash into a tupperware pot and leave it in the fridge for a couple of days - some flavour should develop.

[Thrift Bee]

Thanks bumblebear. That all helps.  I think i'll skip the pasturising of the milk for starter stage as you suggest.
Ginger sound delish!!

Benkt.  I've done exactly as you said. Interesting to see what happens.

I also received more starter in the post today, so If i get a decent yield tonight i'll make the starter.

Thanks again.

[Harmony Farm]

Hi
If you are not pasteurising the milk it is not necessary to add the starter. I use 1 drop of Rennet to 1l of milk diluted in a few drops of water. Usually I warm the milk (out of the fridge, in general collecting 3 days worth of milk from our goats to make a batch of cheese) to 23-24 degrees C, add the rennet and leave the milk for 5 - 12 hours (many times I do this last thing at night and then continue in the morning, but sometimes I am unable to get to it until much later).
The curds then can be ladled into moulds or into a cheese-cloth. I let the milk in the cheese-cloth drip for about 6-8 hours, then crumble it and add the flavourings, mix it well and either press it (in the cloth) or put it into moulds. The cheese in the moulds will be ready in 1-2 days and the pressed one in 6-10 hours. Check for consistency.
Good luck!