Hi,
Well, my first attempt a brie ended up with two liquid messes, contained, at least, in a thick PC rubbery rind. I hope this attempt will be better. I've made a few tweaks to the make, and I'm using a better quality milk this time with a higher fat content (and cream line). I decided to only make one this time, as then I can flip the large cheese inside the two moulds (I put one mould inside the other and it works really well). Also, probably best to work at minimizing my maximum loss right now. Of course, this is a 5 litre make, and that's probably a bit much for one cheese, but that's fine.
Anyway, the make seems to have gone quite well. The cheese feels much firmer this time, and I can even hold it in my palm without it feeling like it's going to just rip itself in two. Hmmm, the cube of "buttermilk" I put in came from an unlabeled bag of starter cubes (I had one rip a while back, and put the cubes in a new bag and promptly forgot to label it). It could be they are ST-B01, which is just Strep. Therm. but I don't think so. Shouldn't hurt the end result and may help stabilize it.
Well, rambling aside, here's the make I followed and a photo at the end of the result just before salting. I'm letting it air dry while the salt works its way in and it will go into the cave at the end of the day. Fingers crossed.
- Jeff
Brie (from 200 homemade cheese) Sunday, Feb 24, 2013: Barm 1009, 25C, 79% humidity
5 Litres Silver top (4.0% fat, 3.3g protein/100 ml; pasteurized creamline)
4 ice cubes meso (3 MM MW3 + 1 buttermilk)
¼ tsp CalCl (50%)
0.3 ml 750 IMCU Rennet
Section of rind from existing brie or cam (mashed about in boiled/cooled water – remove chunks)
1) add mould solution and culture and warm to 31 C (7:57 ; 32.0 C)
3) Ripen 30 minutes (7:57 - 8:27; 31.4 C) – I added a ripening time
4) add CaCl and then add rennet (8:27:00 ; 31.4 c)
5) floc time = 8:37:30 = 10 m 30 s 6x mulitiplier = 63 m 00 sec = cut time of 9:30:00
6) cut into 2.5 cm cubes
7) let heal (5 minutes in book; go for 15 9:35 - 9:50)
8) stir very gently 15 minutes (9:50 - 10:05) or until curd starts to shrink a bit
9) let settle
10) remove whey (to level of curd – I just used a slotted spoon, no whey removed)
11) ladel curds into to one ½ brie molds (10:05-10:20) Filled one mould
12) settle 2 hours, then flip (flipped at 12:20 – put other mould on top, easy peasy)
13) settle 2 hours, flip (flipped at 3:30.)
14) flip every couple hours, then leave to drain overnight (flipped , 5:30, 7:00 pm)
15) 6:00 am sprinkle the top of cheese with 1.5 tsp salt flip salt other side (1 tsp)
16) air dry for the day (until 5:30 pm)
16) put in the ripening box (on chopsticks and mat) and flip daily (removing any whey)
17) should see mould in 7 to 10 days, about day 12-14, wrap and leave in cheese fridge another week
18) after 1 more week (week 3 from make) move to cold fridge for 4-6 weeks
At salting was 826g. Much firmer feel than the previous batch. Fingers crossed will hold shape.