Old Rennet?

I've got milk to make cheese into. I need to use it soon, but I didn't realize that my rennet might be kind of old. I must have bought it 2-3 years ago.

So I'm going to try using it tonight, but I wondered if I should double the amount or something. I figure I have nothing to lose, but I want to have the best possible chance of getting it right.

It's liquid rennet I've kept in the fridge.

Ok, well I went ahead and used what I had. I used 50% more than the recipe calls for. Time will tell how it works out, but everything seemed fine.

I turned 2 gallons of milk into 2 lbs (roughly) of beer cheddar. I was looking for some information on cheesemaking.com and browsed their recipes for a cheddar. I saw the beer cheese recipe and had to try it!

I soaked the drained curds in 1 bottle of homemade Belgian Golden Strong Ale. I hoped it would add a bit of fruity character to the cheese and maybe not be so bitter. I really kind of wanted to add some hoppiness, but wasn't sure how to do that without adding too much bitter and not screwing up the cheese.

Anyway, I put 10# on for 20 minutes, flipped it and 10# for another 20 minutes.

Then rewrapped it, flipped it and 20# for an hour, then flipped and went to bed.

This morning rewrapped it and upped the pressure to 50# and I will flip when I get home.

Everything seems fine and the cheese looks like it's pressing nicely.

Oh, and I took a few pics. I meant to document the whole process, but I needed my wife's help to shoot pics and then I got busy and forgot to snap pics for parts of the process.

So I got pics til about when I tested the curd, and then a pic of the cheese being pressed.

It was still pretty fun, so I may do another batch soon. Maybe some Wisconsin Cheese Curds next time.

Let's see those pics!

passedpawn said:

Let's see those pics!

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OH jeez, I forgot to post them! Hold on...


Oops, I took them with my good camera, not my cell phone. I will have to wait until I get home and get time to upload them.

Homercidal said:

OH jeez, I forgot to post them! Hold on...


Oops, I took them with my good camera, not my cell phone. I will have to wait until I get home and get time to upload them.

Click to expand...

We're still waiting

Still don't have my camera at work! I will probably not remember to grab the flash card.

I do want to make another wheel very soon. Maybe one night this week.

I'm wondering what kind of cheese hops would go good with. I would like to get some hops flavor in my cheese without the bitterness. I could try mozzarella. Quick and easy.

Well, I never got the pics. The cheese turned out bad. Smelly and too much Belgian funk flavor. Started to mold under the wax too.

I used it for cheese soup where the flavor would be masked better and that worked out great.

I think I will get some coloring and try making some more. I think the orangish tint will help people accept it as cheddar better.

Homercidal said:

Well, I never got the pics. The cheese turned out bad. Smelly and too much Belgian funk flavor. Started to mold under the wax too.

I used it for cheese soup where the flavor would be masked better and that worked out great.

I think I will get some coloring and try making some more. I think the orangish tint will help people accept it as cheddar better.

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Buy anatto extract to make it orange. Don't try to use the anatto spice that you can buy at the store, it's impossible to do a proper extraction at home with that stuff.

Skip the wax and use a vac bagger if you have one. I haven't had any problem with cheese getting moldy under the bag. And if it did, it's really quick to remove, brine, and re-bag.

The wax was neat, but after using it, I'm ready for quick and easy. I may wax some cheese if I gift to friends, but if my sealer still works I'm definitely going that route for MY cheese.

Homercidal said:

The wax was neat, but after using it, I'm ready for quick and easy. I may wax some cheese if I gift to friends, but if my sealer still works I'm definitely going that route for MY cheese.

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Yep, I used red was and it looks very cool. I'd do that for gift cheese, too. I also have bought this cool cheese paper that you can just fold/tape around the cheese. It's fairly presentable, but not airtight in any way.

I think I need a good pan for dipping. I currently brush it on and it gets all lumpy looking. If/when I want to gift, I can sample from one of my wedges, then wax another one to gift. Fancy it up a bit, yeah?

I can't find any good info on how to do that Cahill Porter cheese with the veins. Their marbling is incredible! I feel as though they let the curds set a small bit before adding the porter and pressing. The curds really stand out. I wonder if they press a small bit first, then cut the cheese and repress after adding the porter...