cottage cheese is suppose to be so easy but....

[k15n1]

Acid and renet basically do the same thing. The renet method produces softer curds, acid, firmer.

You may have stirred too much.

It's hard to saw without looking at the recipe. Can you post a link?

 

[freemotion]

The curd from rennet and the curd from vinegar are VERY different. With a traditional cheese recipe, the culture acidifies the milk and the rennet coagulates it.

You can acidify the milk by clabbering it, just leave it at room temp overnight and let it sour naturally. Then proceed with the recipe, skipping the cultures. But you will get whatever wild bacteria cultures your milk and the flavor may not be as nice. I've done both, to know that I can make cheese if I can't get cultures, but I assure you that using a culture creates a much, much better flavor.

Adding vinegar basically sours or clabbers the milk quickly but does not act the way a culture does. A culture acts by the action of controlled bacteria that take some time and certain temperatures (depending on the strain of bacteria) to acidify the milk.

The rennet helps to create a better structure to the curd. Soured/clabbered milk will have grainy curds. Rennet will create one big block of smooth curd that then needs to be cut (in most recipes/methods) and usually stirred and/or heated slowly to release the whey, then hung or pressed to finish the process of draining.

Just sayin'.......it is very different and produces different results.

 

[k15n1]

The curd from rennet and the curd from vinegar are VERY different. With a traditional cheese recipe, the culture acidifies the milk and the rennet coagulates it.

You can acidify the milk by clabbering it, just leave it at room temp overnight and let it sour naturally. Then proceed with the recipe, skipping the cultures. But you will get whatever wild bacteria cultures your milk and the flavor may not be as nice. I've done both, to know that I can make cheese if I can't get cultures, but I assure you that using a culture creates a much, much better flavor.

Adding vinegar basically sours or clabbers the milk quickly but does not act the way a culture does. A culture acts by the action of controlled bacteria that take some time and certain temperatures (depending on the strain of bacteria) to acidify the milk.

The rennet helps to create a better structure to the curd. Soured/clabbered milk will have grainy curds. Rennet will create one big block of smooth curd that then needs to be cut (in most recipes/methods) and usually stirred and/or heated slowly to release the whey, then hung or pressed to finish the process of draining.

Just sayin'.......it is very different and produces different results.

I meant that they have similar results, from a biochemistry point of view. Milk proteins are arranged into spheres that have charged bits of some of the proteins facing out. Renet is an enzyme that specific clips the charged bits off, causing the repulsion to be lost and curds to form. Acid does the same thing, but with the protons (H+ ions) cancel out the repulsion, causing curds to form. And, there's no disagreement about the quality of the curds---they're different.

 

[freemotion]

Whatever the science, my taste buds told me it was rather different! But I do love science, so thanks for the brief lesson. Very cool.