Rennet

[cooked]

apparently you cannot read. How many batches of cheese have you made with any of the non recipes that you have linked? How many batches of cheese have you ever made in your life? 0, but keep on keeping on wiki warrior.

Nice comments guys, I learn all the time.

[quidnunc]

you need bacteria. Rennet is used for hardening not making the curds for cottage cheese.

Actually, there's a very good chef named David Lebovitz who has a recipe for cottage cheese just using rennet. No bacteria or acidifying agent of any kind. Here's the link: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2006/03/la-presure-home-1/

I decided to go ahead with this recipe and make cottage cheese. I'd say my first shot was about 85 percent successful. The curds were very small so that the texture was more like American style ricotta (made from curds not whey). It may be because my rennet was a bit old and in the liquid form it doesn't age well. Next time, I'll up the rennet by 50%. That said. the cheese was delicious. It probably helped that I used Dairy Home organic milk. Actually, my favorite milk is from Dacheeso, but it's not homogenized so I didn't want to cope with that variable.

Also, ,the recipe does not stipulate that buttermilk must be used. The author gives us a choice of either heavy cream (i'm not what it's called in the uk.I think it's 40-44 percent butterfat), half-and-half, or a 50-50 mix of heavy cream and buttermilk. What's more, because this is added at the conclusion of the recipe after the curds are both separated from the whey and chilled, neither anything mesophilic nor thermophilic, and especially not the New York Philharmonic, even enter into this process. The formation of the curds is due entirely to the action of rennet.

I also have a confession to make: my grandparents on my mother's side were heavily involved in the dairy industry. In fact, they were cheese miners in Northumbria. They mined those great lodes of cottage cheese that were laid down during the last ice age. That resource has now been exhausted, so we have to settle for the comparatively pallid stuff that is derived from milk. Still, I think it's self-evident that my genealogical connection has conferred upon me special insight into and authority over all questions pertaining to cheese.

[zeichen]

You tell a poster that he made yogurt by adding buttermilk. Yes you are an expert. At least apologize for not knowing what you are talking about and admit that you have to look up every single fact about cheese online because you have never made a viable cheese product.

[onthedarkside]

Insults removed.

[quidnunc]

Eureka! Third time around I succeeded in making cottage cheese. As for the 2^nd time around, well, the less said the better. R.I.P.and de mortuis nihil nisi bonum, and so forth and so on.. Anyway, the cheese was absolutely fantastic. Because it was curdled only with rennet it retained the milk’s native lactose and sweetness. And an addition at the end of buttermilk gave it a haunting lactic tang. An absolutely extraordinary breathtaking…oh, who am I kidding? After all, it’s cottage cheese. If there were a Mohr scale for intensity of flavor, cottage cheese would occupy the place of talc. (That’s right, a mineralogy joke. You got a problem with that? )

Yes, it was probably the best cottage cheese I ever had and all the effort t was worth it…... not. Not when a local dairy like Dacheeso provides an excellent version with no bother at all on my part. I just figured that since some people go into a paroxysm of rage over the subject, maybe it would be possible to go into a paroxysm of joy as well. I couldn’t manage it. I kind of feel I let my side down. Anyway, an excellent version of cottage cheese can be made with only rennet. Q.E. D.

[zeichen]

"And an addition at the end of buttermilk gave it a haunting lactic tang."

as stated before that is the mesophilic bacteria. So you didn't make it with only rennet. Your failed attempts were most likely because you didn't add the buttermilk which should have made you apologize for being such a know it all know nothing. But it is like talking to a brick wall with you. You don't even have a clue why your statements are wrong and then bang on your drum again even though your success was because you were wrong you need a bacteria. When using nothing but an acid and rennet you get small grainy clumps that are reminiscent of cheap quality ricotta. Proper ricotta is also made with whey left over from making mozzarella.

[quidnunc]

It is, I suppose, forgivable to make an error once. But to make the exact same error twice? We've been over this already. Just to make sure you don't miss it again, let me put the salient phrase in bold, italicized, and underlned letters for you: "And an addition at the end of buttermilk gave it a haunting lactic tang."

You see, you have to add the bacterial culture at the beginning for the lactic acid to do it's work of helping to separate the curds from the whey. If you add it at the end, when the curds have already separated, you already have your cottage cheese. The buttermilk is only flavoring. Let me try to make this simple for you. If, instead of buttermilk, I had added chocolate syrup at the end to the curds, would you then say that chocolate syrup was necessary to make cottage cheese? If I make a cake, and put icing on it at the end, would you say that icing is necessary to make cake?

Many writers say that when they write, they imagine that they are writing to their ideal reader. I seem to have conjured up the opposite. If they gave a Nobel Prize for patience, I'd be a shoo-in. And I would certainly thank you in my acceptance speech. Until then, I'll have a hard time feeling grateful.