Author Topic: My 4th Brie  (Read 10559 times)

JeffHamm

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My 4th Brie
« on: July 01, 2013, 05:59:11 AM »
Giving Brie another go.  The cheese was very wet, and quite a bit softer when I finally did salt it.  It may have retained more moisture than any of my previous makes despite letting it drain for an extra 1/2 day.  I thought I had stirred more this time, but perhaps not.  I'll have to keep an eye on it, and hopefully it will ripen properly.  Fingers crossed.

- Jeff

Brie (from 200 homemade cheese) Sunday, June 30, 2013: Barm 1009, 20C, 70% humidity

5 Litres Silver top (4.0% fat, 3.3g protein/100 ml; pasteurized creamline)
3 ice cubes meso (2 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; Whitestone Brie, 2013 “champion”)

1) add mould solution (wasn’t ready with this) and culture and warm to 31 C (7:28-7:32 ; 31.0 C)
3) Ripen 30 minutes (7:32 - 8:02; 29.5 C) – I added a ripening time (added mould during ripening)
4) add CaCl (7:51, during ripening) and then add rennet (8:02:00; 29.5 c)
5) floc time = 8:18:00 = 16 m 00 s 6x multiplier = 96 m 00 sec = cut time of 9:38:00
6) cut into 2.5 cm cubes
7) let heal (5 minutes in book; go for 15 9:41 - 10:02)
8) stir very gently 15 minutes (10:02 - 10:17) or until curd starts to shrink a bit
9) let settle
10) remove whey (to level of curd – I just used a slotted spoon to shift curds, no whey removed as the curds don’t sink far anyway)
11) ladle curds into to one ½ brie molds (10:25 ish - 10:40)  Filled one mould
12) settle 2 hours (3 this time), then flip (flipped at 1:25 – put other mould on top, easy peasy)
13) settle 2 hours, flip (flipped at 3:25.)
14) flip every couple hours, then leave to drain overnight (flipped , 5:15, 7:00 pm)
   - flipped again at 6:00 am.  Still quite thick.  Will continue to drain until evening.  Feels quite soft at 5:30 when salting
15) 5:30 pm sprinkle the top of cheese with 1.5 tsp salt flip salt other side (1 tsp)
16) air dry for the day or 2? (until ?:?? pm); moved to cave after salting.
16) put in the ripening box (on chopsticks and mat) and flip daily (removing any whey)  was very wet and soft on day 1 flip, dried with paper towel and resalted the previous down side that was wet as salt probably washed off.
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 1604g (but that includes box cover, mat, and chopsticks; which weighed 280, so 1324g of cheese). 
First mould spotted on :
Good coverage.  Wrapped in foil:
moved to regular fridge (wrapped in foil, in box; flip daily):

Tasting: ???day, ??? ??, 201?: cut day.  ???g.  . 
« Last Edit: July 01, 2013, 06:20:59 PM by JeffHamm »

Offline Boofer

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Re: My 4th Brie
« Reply #1 on: July 01, 2013, 01:33:20 PM »
Looks good, Jeff. I'll be watching this one too. Haven't done any PC-ripened cheese yet. Maybe I should one of these days. :)

1) add mould solution (wasn’t ready with this)
What do you mean here?

How would you sum up your previous three Brie efforts?

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JeffHamm

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Re: My 4th Brie
« Reply #2 on: July 01, 2013, 06:19:26 PM »
Hi Boofer,

The mould solution is just a morge (sp?), you know, take some rind from a store bought Brie, mash it about in some warm water, remove chunky bits, add to milk.  I forgot to do that when I was warming up the milk and so had to quickly prepare it and add it later.

My first Brie effort, where I made a 10 Litre make for 2 cheeses, was a disaster.  They over ripened, turned to liquid, and never really progressed properly.

My second Brie was an outstanding success.  Beautiful rind, ripened to perfection all the way to the middle, great flavour, exactly what I would like to do again. 

My third Brie was comci comca (so-so in French).  I cut into it a bit soon, although it was the same time frame as the second one, and it was showing some signs of slipskin.  The centre was still chalky.  It was edible, but more like a lactic cheese.  However, after another week or so, it did ripen and was quite good.  It ended up over-ripened though, as I wasn't sampling it thinking it wasn't going to develop given the slip-skin. 

This one has that overly moist feeling that the first make had, so I'm worried already.  I've flipped it this morning and more whey had been expelled overnight.  I've drained that, wiped it down with paper towel (if it stays too wet then wild geo goes wild on it, which was the problem with make 1.  I've salted the previous wet down side again, as most of the salt would have washed off due to the seepage).

So, armed with my previous failures, but buoyed by hope from my success, I soldier on.  We are marching to Breitoria ...

- Jeff

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Re: My 4th Brie
« Reply #3 on: July 02, 2013, 01:47:32 PM »
Yeah, that's rather what I figured, but I just wanted confirmation.

This "rind developing the inner paste" idea can be rather elusive, huh? ::) You might think you have a sense of how things should progress, but then things don't happen the way that you expect and you're left to scramble to figure out the corrective course of action. Like rolling the dice.... :P

Thankfully, I think we both have a couple repeat performances in other styles that contribute a modicum of confidence that we know what we're doing. (Yeah, right.) Still a lot of learning going on here, huh? Good stuff. 8)

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JeffHamm

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Re: My 4th Brie
« Reply #4 on: July 02, 2013, 06:42:21 PM »
Hi Boofer,

Yah, I've had some good repeats in hard cheddar types, and in washed curd as well.  My mould ripened ones are less consistent.  It seems, though, that with these Brie getting the curd to the right moisture level before moulding is critical.  This one might have been slightly under renneted, which may result in a slightly softer curd?  Or, more likely, as we're going into winter, the milk may be processed differently?  Perhaps they add cream (this is a cream line milk) and it's been higher heat pasturized?  All guess work here, and all ideas to help deflect responsibility away from me of course! :)  Anyway, it's still draining a bit of whey, and the mat is soaking when I flip (so I have to dry out the box, wipe the cheese dry with paper towel, but I'm not adding more salt anymore, the extra salting should have ensured it has enough by now).  If it is too wet, bad things will happen and it won't develop mould properly.  I might air dry it a bit this evening, and add that to my routine, to try and get this one on track.  The curds should be firmer - I think anyway. 

- Jeff

JeffHamm

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Re: My 4th Brie
« Reply #5 on: July 03, 2013, 08:31:30 PM »
Ok, it's Thursday morning here and I think we've got this on back on track.  I've got it sitting on two large hole mats, and those on top of chopsticks.  I put a piece of folded paper towel between the mats to help wick out the moisture from the bottom of the cheese.  This morning, when I flipped the cheese, the paper towel was still wet but the mats were not saturated with whey.  I've been doing this morning and evening since it's gone in the cave on Monday evening.  Until this am, the mats would be soaking, holding the moisture in the holes,a nd the cheese would be dripping wet with whey on the down side.  I would remove that with paper towel (just place it over the cheese and soak up the moisture), dry the mats, replace the folded paper towel between them with a new sheet, and repeat.

On my previous good makes the cheese can sit on these mats and just be flipped each day, there was no excess whey getting stuck in the mats and resulting in the cheese sitting in a puddle all day and all night.  I think I've now got it safe, and I'll continue trying to soak up excess moisture, but hopefully we'll see mould soon.  If it's too wet when the mould shows up the geo goes nuts and slipskin becomes a real problem.  That's what I'm trying to avoid.

- Jeff

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Re: My 4th Brie
« Reply #6 on: July 05, 2013, 06:39:38 AM »
Sounds like you've got a handle on the situation, Jeff. That's good. I've had that "whey stuck in the holes" problem myself. Thank goodness for paper towels and their wickibility. ;)

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JeffHamm

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Re: My 4th Brie
« Reply #7 on: July 05, 2013, 07:03:01 AM »
Yah, the towel works a treat.  I'm thinking I might take an exacto knife and cut the holes larger so each is the size of 2x2 current holds (just cut out the inner crossing bars).  Would take time, but, well, we're talking cheese making here not the 100 metre dash! :)

- Jeff

JeffHamm

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Re: My 4th Brie
« Reply #8 on: July 07, 2013, 06:57:10 PM »
Normally I would have seen some mould by now.  So far, the moisture is better (not perfect yet, but better) but no signs of mould sprouting.  Still, it's only just over a week, and some do say that it can take 10-12 days (though I often get mould around 4 or 5 days).  We'll see.

- Jeff

JeffHamm

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Re: My 4th Brie
« Reply #9 on: July 08, 2013, 07:06:40 PM »
Ok, yesterday evening (Moday, July 8th), I saw what might have been a few threads of mould on the side.  This am, we can confirm, two small patches of white mould have shown up on the sides. I've moved the cheese to the top shelf of the cave (it was on the 2nd, so not a big shift) to get it to the warmest location to encourage growth (to quell superstitious thinking as well).  Now, hopefully this progresses well and we get good coverage.

- Jeff

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Re: My 4th Brie
« Reply #10 on: July 09, 2013, 12:59:22 PM »
Now, hopefully this progresses well and we get good coverage.
<And the crowd waits breathlessly with anxious anticipation....>  :)

-Boofer-
Let's ferment something!
Bread, beer, wine, cheese...it's all good.

JeffHamm

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Re: My 4th Brie
« Reply #11 on: July 18, 2013, 06:08:39 AM »
Just an update.  The PC is coming along slowly, but nicely.  It's just about fully covered both sides, but there are some bare patches still.  This seems like a very slow developing PC, or, perhaps, the extra salting I had to do early on may have slowed down the development.  It did grow and fill in on the sides more quickly than the faces, and it was the faces that got the extra salting.

Anyway, whatever the reason I'm thinking slow is good and, fingers cross, will be less prone to developing slip skin.  I've been patting down the mould daily.  I'm also pleased that there is no blue contamination this time.  If all goes well, this could be quite a nice outcome.  If ...

- Jeff

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Re: My 4th Brie
« Reply #12 on: July 18, 2013, 01:38:42 PM »
Looking good, Jeff.

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Spellogue

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Re: My 4th Brie
« Reply #13 on: July 19, 2013, 11:35:15 AM »
Nice bloom.  I'll take slow and steady over fast and furious any day when it comes to moldy cheese.

JeffHamm

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Re: My 4th Brie
« Reply #14 on: July 19, 2013, 07:36:24 PM »
Thanks both!  I agree, slower is usually better with cheese.  This is just about ready for wraps and shifting to the regular fridge.  The rind is not too thick.  I know some ripen the entire time in their cave, but I'm thinking of making a cheese tomorrow and I'll need the room in the cave when it's time for that one to move in. 

Oh, and as an aside, I picked up a piece of Tomme de Savoy yesterday.  The rind was very ammoniated, so I cut that off, but the paste was so smooth and had a wonderful flavour with not even a hint of ammonia.  There's a French cheese monger on my way home from work and they have a wonderful selection.  This could be dangerous! Part of me thinks I could steal some of the rind moulds from this, but I think it's probably aged past the use by date for the moulds?  Has anyone tried harvesting from a Tomme?  I've never had a problem with blues or brie/cams, but I've not tried longer aged cheeses.  The rinds go through a series of stages, and all I would be getting is the final stage at best, or all at once fury at worst.

- Jeff