# Milk will not curdle!



## Ozark Lady

I put 4 quarts of raw whole goat milk on in a stainless steel pot, heated it to 175, like instructions say, then I added 1 quart of buttermilk (raw homemade goatmilk), and 1/2 cup of lemon juice. It was suppose to curdle instantly... didn't happen, so I added more lemon juice. nothing. Finally I decided the lemon juice must not be acid enough, so I switched to vinegar, 1/2 cup, nothing, another 1/2 cup. Geez!

Finally, I decided, must be the thermometer, it is new, maybe it is wrong, so I heated the stupid milk to boiling... no curdling. Okay, I got rennet and dissolved it in water, should be instant curdle now... notta. I covered the pot, and went to bed in disgust... who ever heard of milk that won't curdle? grumble, grumble.

I got up this morning, and I have a thin layer of soft "cream" on the top, no curds... it looks like whey, but no curds at all.

Okay, what happened? I have had milk curdle when not wanting it to, but never had it refuse to curdle!
I am about to just dump it down the sink and wait for the cheesemaking book to arrive! :help


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## linuxboy

Um, okay, I've done a lot of things wrong over the years, but that's a new one to me. Heated to boiling, milk should start to curdle at a ph of ~6.2 and below. You didn't do anything wrong.

Adding rennet to milk that hot won't curdle it. Most rennet stops being usefully active around 130F.

If acid will not coagulate milk, something is weird about the proteins. When in the lactation cycle is this? Mid? Mid lactation has lower solids.


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## Ozark Lady

They are about 11 weeks fresh! I wouldn't call it mid lactation.
I may be in trouble here, huh?


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## linuxboy

You got me stumped. That much acid should have coagulated any milk. And if it was near boiling, that coagulation should have been really fast. No cheesebook out there will tell you why it didn't work. You'd need to test the milk and see what's up. No milk has that much buffering capacity as to absorb a cup of vinegar at boiling temp.


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## Ozark Lady

Okay, I decided to strain the whey and see just how much cream is on top... wait a minute, the bottom of the pot is full of 'something'.
I don't know what it is, it isn't curds!









It is small and grainy, hey I saw those tiny grainy things with the first lemon addition, but I was looking for curds not tiny grainy bits!

The only cheese I have ever made is goatmilk cheese, and it never did this!
They are not on any kind of medication at all.

No curds, but lots of milk solids...









Okay, it has to be something that I did wrong. And my cheese making book has just arrived! But I bet it can't tell me what I did that caused grainy stuff and not curds!


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## linuxboy

Wait, did you stir everything after adding the buttermilk and lemon juice? If so how long did you stir for? You did get curds, just not what you expected. I was thinking somehow there's mutant milk and it's still milk. Phew. Well at least the milk is fine. The pics helped a lot to figure this one out.

What you have are overacidified, overcooked curds that never had a chance to come together because there was too much acid right away. Curds come together because of calcium bonds. Without them you get small little flecks of protein unbonded to each other. Calcium is eroded by acid, and if you add too much, there's no "glue" left to bond the curds.

My guess is that your first addition overacidified the milk. You likely didn't even need the lemon juice. A quart of buttermilk will get the total ph down to 5.3 or so, and another half cup of lemon juice to 4.4, waaay too much acidity. Acidity levels are crucial to cheesemaking.


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## Ozark Lady

Okay, that helps, I knew it just didn't add up right.
When I made the lemon cheese before, it didn't call for buttermilk.
I think that is what confused me.
Aww well, the dogs, and poultry will eat it, maybe?
I have a brand new gallon of milk.
I still have several quarts of buttermilk or yogurt. I also made 3 quarts of yogurt last night, and it cooperated!
As soon as I get the equipment cleaned and mess all gone, I will try it again.
Don't stir it? Not even to mix in the buttermilk?
Do I still turn off the heat at 175, apparently my thermometer was right, because when the milk boiled it read 215, which is close with my elevation.
And no lemon juice or vinegar this time, just milk and buttermilk or yogurt.
I have both would one be better than the other? Both are raw goatmilk made.

I know photos are just so much more informative than what a novice can tell ya, huh?
I hung the 'milk solids' over the pot in cheesecloth to drip, looks like a good sized ball there.
But, I will remove it, it can't possibly taste good after what I did to it! ha ha

Thank you so much, Pav for your assistance, I just couldn't figure out, what is going on here!
Looks like when I order equipment a ph tester is definitely on a necessary equipment list!


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## linuxboy

It's either or. Either a quart of buttermilk or about half a cup of lemon juice or a third cup of vinegar will curdle the milk.

Yes, you do want to stir. Enough to incorporate everything in, and then wait for the milk to curdle. Don't overstir, or the curds will shatter.

Yep, 175 is a good temp for this style. Use whichever you want. The taste will be a little different for yogurt vs buttermilk.

It will taste OK in terms of the flavor, maybe a little sour, but the texture will be really grainy.


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## Ozark Lady

I think you nailed it Pav.
I definitely got curds tonight.
Interestingly, I wasn't really trying to.
In another thread I was concerned that I aged yogurt too long at 16 hours.
It was mentioned that 24 hours makes it nice and thick.
Here is last nights yogurt at 22 hours. I made 3, and 2 I put up already, was only experimenting with the third one!








This bowl has a lid, but it isn't airtight, and a skim was on the yogurt.
I added nothing, but the yogurt culture to fresh milk, and let it sit on top of the frig...








And there is my elusive curd!








But, I wasn't trying to make cheese, just thick yogurt without additives! It is thick!
I bet I can now drain it and have... yogurt cheese! So easy! And after the war of last night!


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