Author Topic: John's Cheese #036 - Cambozola #1  (Read 8881 times)

Cheese Head

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John's Cheese #036 - Cambozola #1
« on: February 21, 2009, 03:17:57 PM »
Today I start my first ever Cambozola Cheese making based on the recipe here.

MAKING
  • Feb 21, 2009, 9:00AM:
    • Poured 2 US gallons/7.8 litres of store bought pasteurized homogenized whole cow's milk from that had been waiting, sitting in fridge 1 week :( into stockpot on smallest gas burner ring on stove. Milk's label still had 2 weeks to "best by" date
    • To standardize milk, trickled in 1/2 teaspoon of DairyConnection.com's diluted CaCl2 as using pasteurized milk, and whisked in for ~30 seconds.
    • Warmed to 85 F / 29.5 C while whisking occasionally, pH at 5.75, turned gas off.
    • Measured and whisked in 0.67 grams Danisco's Choozit Brand Mesophilic Starter Culture MM100.
    • Puffed few spores of Penicillium candida onto milk and whisked in.
    • Melted ~0.5 grams powdered CHR Hansen rennet crystals in 1/2 cup cool bottled water, trickled into milk while stirring with whisk thoroughly for 1 minute.
    • Covered and set aside for curd to set @ 9:50AM.
  • Feb 21, 2009, 10:15AM: Checked for curd clean break, poor, possibly due to the milk being little old and lower pH.
  • Feb 21, 2009, 10:45AM: Checked for curd clean break, good, cut curds into ½ inch/1.5 cm cubes, let rest 5 minutes, ladled half cut curds and whey into 4 standard sized Camembert Hoops on mats on draining board. Filled 80% full as curds very fresh, no warming in stockpot to expel whey.
  • Feb 21, 2009, 12:00PM: Spooned ground up Amish Brand Blue Cheese crumbles and water as innoculant onto middle of 4 Camemberts and then started ladling last 1/2 of cut curds and whey into hoops as room available.
  • Feb 21, 2009, 2:00PM: Finished ladling remaining curds into hoops, turned hoops, found that curds had glued into mats as 3 hours before 1st turning as curds very moist. Turned hoops several times over day.
  • Feb 22, 2009, 9:00AM: Removed hoops, found less voids around outside, sprinkled cheeses with salt, placed in cooler box to start ripening stage.

Ripening
  • Feb 23-Mar1: Changed ice packs every 1/2 day and turned cheeses almost every day.
  • Mar 1: One of four has severe case of slip skin, inside was moist, tossed in garbage. Wrapped other three corner first, then clockwise from both sides at same time, held ends in place with sticky tape.
  • Apr 18: Cheese very very smelly and feel soft on inside. Unwrapped one, normal albeit over ripened Camembert style rind. Cut while still cold from fridge, insides all liquid and instantly flowed out onto wrapper. Didn't try to taste, thew all 3 away.


NOTES
  • Cut up new hoop end mats from craft mats. Softer, more flexible than other cut mats I normally use. When placed very soft curds into hoops on theses mats, the rigidity wasn't high enough vs width between draining board's ridges, thus if wasn't careful, curds burst out bottom. Especially if loaded hoops too quickly with curds and pressure at bottom got too high. Need better draining board and should not load hoops up that quickly especially when using very moist cut curds.
  • Curds very moist and thus very large and did not all fit in hoops, had to wait for curds to drain to refill, maybe use an extra hoop next time, good news is did result in cheese having less voids around sides than in previous Camembert makings.
  • Think main problem is 1st aging for mold growth is at too high a temp too fast, resulting in too thick a rind and very soft > runny pate.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2009, 04:15:09 PM by John (CH) »

Cheese Head

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« Last Edit: March 01, 2009, 11:50:15 PM by John (Cheese Head) »

Cheese Head

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Re: John's Cheese #036 - Cambozola #1
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2009, 03:18:35 PM »
Pictures #3 to go here . . .
« Last Edit: March 02, 2009, 12:22:54 AM by John (Cheese Head) »

Cheese Head

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Re: John's Cheese #036 - Cambozola #1
« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2009, 03:18:57 PM »
Pictures #3 . . .
« Last Edit: April 19, 2009, 04:07:55 PM by John (CH) »

Tea

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Re: John's Cheese #036 - Cambozola #1
« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2009, 09:45:08 PM »
Well you beat me too it.  Just got my blue mould a couple of days ago.  I will be watching this with interest.

Cheese Head

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Re: John's Cheese #036 - Cambozola #1
« Reply #5 on: February 21, 2009, 09:51:02 PM »
Tea, I screwed up a little (yeah again).

I was trying to go for softer curds to get no gaps on sides like I've gotten with previous Camembert cheeses so I 1) warmed at lower temp than when making Camembert and 2) only waited a few minutes after cutting the curds to start ladling into the hoops. Thus the curds were very moist and have resulted in very tall moist cheeses that I'm worried even with time to gravity drain, will be too moist.

Tea

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Re: John's Cheese #036 - Cambozola #1
« Reply #6 on: February 21, 2009, 09:56:58 PM »
Ok I am not sure how much time has elasped from putting them into the moulds, but if you think that it is not going to work, I wonder if it would be possible to put the cheese back into the pot and "cook" a bit longer?

Do you think it would be worth the experiement?

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: John's Cheese #036 - Cambozola #1
« Reply #7 on: February 21, 2009, 11:48:54 PM »
Looks good your set looks good too. How much CaCl2?

Likesspace

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Re: John's Cheese #036 - Cambozola #1
« Reply #8 on: February 22, 2009, 12:13:30 AM »
John,
You certainly have my interest with this post. I'm just a little jealous that you beat me to the punch. :-)
Man, I really hope this one turns out for you. This is the ONE that I want to perfect (of course I'll have to try it before I can perfect it.)

Dave

Cheese Head

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Re: John's Cheese #036 - Cambozola #1
« Reply #9 on: February 22, 2009, 12:20:12 AM »
@Tracey: Good idea but they are now 6.5 hours since I cut the curd, please don't let me stop you from making some, would be fun for us both to have a batch going at the same time.

@Carter: 1/2 teaspoon of DairyConnection.com's diluted CaCl2.

@Dave: I thought you were going to make this last weekend? I waited to let you try first so I could learn from you . . . like Tea, why don't you give it a try this weekend that way we could have three batches all going at the same time ;D.

Cheese Head

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Re: John's Cheese #036 - Cambozola #1
« Reply #10 on: February 22, 2009, 03:46:39 PM »
Observation

Unlike my normal Camembert makings, I left only few minutes for cut curds to heal before starting to ladle into hoops, this meant my curds were very wet as still full of whey. The consequence of very soft and large volume of curds was 1) they didn't all fit into the Camembert hoops like normal, thus I had to wait for whey to be released before topping up, and 2) I had a bit of a blow out problem on bottom as using soft mats on draining board with wide ridges, my problem.

The result after hoops removed is significantly reduced amount and size of voids visible around sides of cheeses, which I think is preferable. Actually I have read some Camembert type recipes that don't call for any cutting of the curd, just cut with ladle when ladling into the hoops.

Tea

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Re: John's Cheese #036 - Cambozola #1
« Reply #11 on: February 23, 2009, 09:38:33 PM »
Well I haven't made cheese for two weeks (I am in withdrawals) due to getting the Christening gown finished, and as I have just had my blue mould arrive, I might just do that.

Cheese Head

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Re: John's Cheese #036 - Cambozola #1
« Reply #12 on: March 02, 2009, 12:34:23 AM »
Well Shazbut as Mork from Ork 70's TV Show used to say.

My Camozola's are not working out well, especially one, I think the problem is that I was ripening them at too warm a temperature and I got bad case of slip skin around the side of one of four cheeses, see pictures posted above.

I think I need to take FineWino's advice and age at lower temperature of 7-10 C / 45-50 F.

Advice from anyone appreciated.

Captain Caprine

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Re: John's Cheese #036 - Cambozola #1
« Reply #13 on: March 02, 2009, 03:18:32 AM »
John,
I would probably agree with FineWino on this one.  I have a Cambozola experiment going right now where I have acidified with a meso starter and ladled whole curd like a St Maure into the mold in layers adding blue spores in 2 separate layers.  After flipping the mold for a day and a half I move into the cave and spritz with a P. candidum and G. candidum mix, twice a day at each flip for the first 3 days.  I'll keep you posted as it moves along.

Tea

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Re: John's Cheese #036 - Cambozola #1
« Reply #14 on: March 15, 2009, 08:53:10 PM »
Watching this thread, so giving it a bump.
Anyone with progress photo's ... please...