So i finally got round to making my cheese yesterday, well i tried too….

I followed the recipe to the letter, the milk (5 lires of)  was warmed to 32 degrees before i added the culture (which came from a batch i made and froze according to the instructions - i added 100ml from room temp). i left it for 45 minutes as instructed and then added the dissolved 1/4 of rennet tablet (the pack said 1 tablet was for 20 litres of milk so i divide into 4 and just used the 1/4 tablet). i left it again for 45 minutes….

When i went back to it expecting it to be ready to cut the curds it was still milk…....? i can’t fathom what i did wrong, any ideas anyone, i feel quite disheartened now :o(

I’m sorry to hear of your mishap.  I’ve had that happen to me; but in my case I realized later that I had forgotten to add the rennet.  I can’t speak authoritatively here, but personally I’ve never had much confidence in rennet tablets.  I much prefer liquid animal rennet. 

So, what did you do?  I’m hoping you left it longer.  There is always a lot of variation in times.  And I’m hoping you didn’t use UHT milk either - because that will definitely not work.  Also, what was your container?  It should have been either stainless steel, or enamelware.  Aluminum is a no-no.

Whatever you do, don’t give up.  Next batch, be sure to log every step into a journal.  It will help you keep organized, and it will give you information to refer back to in the future.