Results Not Typical

So, Cheesemaking 2013 has been a debacle. I've tried four times to make neufchatel, the beginner rennet cheese. I haven't achieved a clean break once.

I followed Dr. Fankhauser's instructions to the letter. No dice. However, I'm using store-bought milk and rennet tablets (both of which, he says, are okie dokie). After scouring his site for possible causes of my failure, I realized he uses fresh goat milk, straight from the teat. And he makes his own rennet.

Here's what I've learned so far:

1. I let my milk sit overnight for the curd to form, as he suggests, but you really only need a couple hours to form a curd. 
2. Rennet tablets are designed for custard, not for cheese. For cheese you need liquid rennet. Liquid rennet has 80% chymosin and 20% pepsin. Chymosin comes from the fourth stomach of a calf where it curdles digested cow's milk. You can find pepsin in any stomach, it chops up proteins and digests food. The word pepsin comes from the Greek word pepsis, or digestion. Hence, peptic ulcer and Pepto-Bismol. Rennet tablets are 80% pepsin. They are not as strong and don't form the curd as cleanly.
3. It takes time to culture the milk. I'm using active buttermilk as a culture. Dr. Fankhauser suggests warming the milk and buttermilk, then adding the rennet right away. I think you're supposed to add the live culture, then let it sit for a while before adding rennet.
4. Store-bought milk is nearly pointless. Pasteurization heats the milk enough to kill bacteria. However, the bacteria gives milk and cheese made from that milk its flavor. Also, pasteurization wrecks the calcium content of milk, so that to make cheese, you have to add calcium to get the curd to form correctly. Homogenization mixes the fat evenly through milk, to give it a uniform (homogeneous) texture. This also adversely affects flavor and curd formation. 
5. Most serious cheese-makers online only use raw milk. So, I'm going to try again with store-bought milk. But I think I need to find a raw milk hook-up if I want to do this long term.

According to the Fankhauser website and instructions in the Junket Rennet box (written by Fankhauser), you need these ingredients:

You bring 1 gallon of milk and 1/4 cup of buttermilk with an active bacterial culture up to room temperature.

Then mix 1/4 rennet tablet in a 1/4 cup of cold water and add that to the cultured milk and let it sit overnight.

The next morning, you should get a clean break. The good doctor says if you don't, let it sit for another 12 hours. I've tried 4 times and not gotten a clean break.

I finally bought some decent cheese cloth, calcium chloride, and liquid rennet. If this next go doesn't make cheese, we're dropping the cheese experiment and we're going to start pickling.