TheTInCook

What about contacting a member of one of the cheese forums out there (or contacting one of the managers who might know who to put you in touch with), who happens to live in NYC and is working with the gentically engineered rennet, and asking whether you could buy a small amount from him or her? Steve Sharpson sells it on his website. http://thecheesemaker.com/cultures.htm It's the 100% Chymosin Liquid Rennet-

Made a some huge batches of rice at work this week using the ratio of 5# rice to 6.5 qt water. Cooked it in a hot oven. Rice was a touch softer then I would liked, but acceptable. They used a dang ice cream style portion scoop, and it just messed up the grains

Tried it for the first time tonight. Good exercise in heat manipulation. Dcarh is right that you need good top ventilation. If you just set the wok on top, it seals it, and you might as well be cooking on a stove. So for the most part, I was either tilting it on the edge of the starter or holding it above the top to allow for air flow. I will need to figure out a way to rig it. I had no problems with stability. The chimney sat on my concrete driveway, and I got to sit on my stoop while I cooked. Very cool experience. I'll need to get a little caddy so its easier carrying all the ingredients and paraphernalia outside. Also going to try adding a fan or hairdryer to the equation. Didn't get what I would call wok hai this time, but I did get that campfire flavor. So it's a step in the right direction. I didn't have the heat control figured out. The best part of it was I was cooking with it for the neighbor girl. She looked at me like I was crazy, until she tasted it.

Disaster. It looked like it was cohesive and there was an atypical separation of curds and whey (couple inch thick cap of curds floating on the whey). The curd shattered when I went to scoop it into the drainer. I succeeded in replicating Fat Guy's results. The milk I used wasn't anything special, just a gallon of moo juice I picked up at the 99 cent store. I used 1/16 teaspoon of powdered rennet per package instructions. I need to do some more research before I can say what went wrong. ATM, I'm thinking it's a fault with the method or amount of acidification.

I'm thinking it has something to do with the citric acid method of acidification. I was getting some partial acid coagulation after I added the acid. AFAIK, acid coagulated curds aren't melty. I note that both fat guy and I added the acid while the milk was warm.

10 minutes later, I got something like this: Not exactly encouraging. Gonna let it sit for a bit to see if I get something cuttable.

Initial results are discouraging. I got some instant curdling when I added the diluted citric acid (1.5 t citric acid in 1 c bottled water). Possible cause: recipe calls for the dilute acid to be added to COLD milk. I had left the milk on the counter when I got home this afternoon so it would warm up a little bit. It was around 75-80 degrees when I added the citric acid. I wonder if I'll get a clean break.

I'm going to try this in a little bit, using the same method as Fat Guy http://www.cheesemaking.com/howtomakemozzarellacheese.html

The most I've ever used is 1.5 to 1, and that was for basmati and long grain (which could probably benefit from a little less). Tried making rice with the one knuckle rule the other day. My hands are too big

Seems like every single bag of rice (different kinds even) and rice maker I've seen calls for 2 cups of water per cup of rice. This makes horribly soggy rice. A friend of mine was convinced her new rice cooker was broken because it made mushy rice, but the only thing wrong was that she followed that rediculous 2:1 recipe. So what gives? Do most people like mushy rice, and I don't know it?

I recieved some new dry calf rennet (powdered, ~8% pepsin) and some cultures from Steve Shapson's website yesterday. I'm going to put this 30 minute mozzerella to the test once I get some milk.

LOL, you guys are too funny. In a serious vein, I don't really have a preferred recipe for stone soup, since to my mind, it's a soup made from left over bit of stuff that you've managed to scrounge up. That said, most of em lately feature a white chicken stock (sometimes fortified with pork bones) and sometimes a sofrito. At the soup kitchen I volunteer at, I whipped up a stone soup from canned diced tomatoes, some left over roast pork from the day before (and the jus it leaked), and a bunch of shelled edamame donated from the local school district. The first time we ever ran out of soup, lol. Sadly, it was lightning in a bottle.

Also too much butter.

Too much flour.

I think there might be a double effect going on here with the '30 minute' citric acid mozerella. Pasteurization reduces the amount of available calcium in the milk, and the citrate in the citric acid sequesters calcium. Leading to poor curds. For this kind of cheese, you want something that looks like this http://cheeseforum.org/articles/wiki-cheese-milk-coagulation/rennet-coagulated-good-quality-curd-checking-with-finger-clean-break-method-cheeseforum-org/ Not ricotta. I thought the problem with the high temp pasteurization was that it messed with the casein micelles.

Microbial rennet. Most internet cheese supply retailers sell it.

Vegetable rennet tends to make a softer curd.

Looks like the milk is too warm, and not enough time for the rennet to work. You need to let it sit until it makes a 'clean break'. Could take a couple hours. Could also not be enough rennet. Guessing from your pictures you used 1/2 tablet to 2 gallons of milk? Is it Junket rennet? It also could be an issue of improper stirring when adding the rennet, or disturbing the milk once the curd begins to form. Both can cause small broken curds.

Good point. IIRC, the science is the same as with making the modernist process cheese.

That you had good curd formation leads me to suspect that milk pasteurization isn't the problem. Could you post your procedure and temps?

The overwhelming sentiment of people reporting online about their mozzarella projects is that you need rennet. Acid coagulation much different from rennet coagulation. Also the pH needs to be lowered slightly for the rennet to do it's thing, hence the acid or culture. Have you tried adding calcium chloride to the milk? That helps a lot in solving the over pastaurized milk problem.

Sounds like it could be a pH problem. A pH meter really helps. You need be in a certain pH range so the proteins are in shape for the stretching process. If you're using culture, you'd need to age your curds some more. Or if you're using the direct acid method, need more acid.

Nice info on the bolting. I had no clue it had different leaves as it got older. I've gotten a stem or two of weed (or so I think) in with my cilantro. Looked kinda like wheat grass.

Did kind of an interesting soup today at work. Made a sofrito with onion, tomato, and garlic. Added a bunch of sweet paprika. Then chicken stock. Kidney beans (cooked from dried, not canned) and some of their liquid. Diced tomatoes (canned, I think they hold their shape better in soups because of the Ca++ treatment). And some diced left over roasted chicken. Herbs were thyme, bay, and oregano (because I didn't have marjorem) I called it Hungarian Chicken and Bean soup.

Does wholefoods sell cultures too?