# What happened?!



## marusempai (Sep 16, 2007)

So I had some milk culturing last night. I went to put the rennet in and it was already curded - very nicely in fact! Then when I cut the curd it was full of tiny bubbles! What on earth happened? I sterilized all my implements as usual, some of my milk was a little older than I usually have but still under a week old. Do I need to toss it? Probably because of the bubbles, right?

Maybe I am just magic, making cheese without rennet.


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## marusempai (Sep 16, 2007)

No ideas? I tossed it - as probable cause for bubbles is bacterial contamination (it was FIZZY!) - but I'm curious what could make it curdle like that. It was a really nice firm curd, like you get from rennet. But I didn't add any!


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## janij (Sep 20, 2010)

It could have just been carbon dioxide. I have had it happen when I have added a starter to cream to make cultured butter.
How long did you let it culture?


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## carellama (Nov 12, 2007)

I love making a natural cheese. I call it cottage cheese. No rennet or citric acid needed. A beautiful result. I will only use rennet and citric acid to make motz cheese again


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## marusempai (Sep 16, 2007)

janij said:


> It could have just been carbon dioxide. I have had it happen when I have added a starter to cream to make cultured butter.
> How long did you let it culture?


I had it culturing overnight - say about twelve house? - with a mesophilic culture. The trouble is there are LOTS of bugs that make carbon dioxide... it might have been safe, but who knows? We have lots of milk so I just fed it to the ducks.


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## marusempai (Sep 16, 2007)

carellama said:


> I love making a natural cheese. I call it cottage cheese. No rennet or citric acid needed. A beautiful result. I will only use rennet and citric acid to make motz cheese again


So how do you do this? Just leave out milk with a culture in it? I've made a fair amount of cheese and I've never had this happen, it curding up so nicely without any rennet. This is a new culture for me, but I made one batch with it before the weird one and one batch since, and neither of those curdled on their own. No bubbles either, although the curd did not quite sink right and was softer than usual both times.


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## carellama (Nov 12, 2007)

Leave it set for a day or two. Until it pulls away from the side of the pan. Cut the curd and raise temp to 104 degrees. Turn off and leave set for 10 minutes and then strain and enjoy


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