Can anyone tell me why you're not supposed to use junket rennet in cheese recipes? I have tried it before and it seems to require 4-6 of the tablets, where the recipe calls for 1/4 a cheese rennet tablet. A friend wants to know what's wrong with using it instead, since it's cheaper and easily available.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), September 06, 2000

Answers

Rebekah, according to "Cheesemaking Made Easy" by Ricki and Robert Carroll, it states: Cheese rennet is not the same as the junket rennet sold in grocery stores. It is possible to curdle milk with junket rennet, but the resulting curd, while it makes a pleasant dessert, will not make an acceptable cheese. Cheese rennet is available as tablets or in liquid form." The paragraphs go on to describe how to make animal rennet yourself from a calf's stomach. Kathy in Kentucky

-- kathy baker (kbaker@duo-county.com), September 07, 2000.

i have used it in most of the cheese i have made however it is not consistant and will sometimes fail to sett at the same concentration so i use higher levels now which can make a tough curd .i use most of my cheese a s a fresh mozzerella on pizza .

-- george darby (windwillow@fuse.net), September 11, 2000.