Author Topic: Question about when to add rennet to my milk for Brie?  (Read 4307 times)

murmur

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Question about when to add rennet to my milk for Brie?
« on: April 12, 2014, 07:05:22 PM »
I have been successfully making Brie from a kit I ordered online about 2 years ago.
Although quite happy with the result I decided to try the Petit Brie recipe in Ricki Carroll's book"Home Cheese Making"

The major difference in the recipes is that in my kit recipe once my milk is at 90F I make the culture/candidum additions and wait 90 minutes for acidification before I add rennet-then it sits an further 90 minutes before cutting the curd.

In the Petit Brie recipe once the milk hits temp the culture/Candidum additions are made and only 15 minutes are allowed until the rennet is added. Then a full 3 hours is allowed for coagulation.

I am confused. I always thought that rennet was not to be added until full acidification was reached.
But this recipe adds rennet almost immediately after the cultures.
I am 2 hours in and all looks good, but the suspense is killing me :)
What is going on? ???

Spellogue

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Re: Question about when to add rennet to my milk for Brie?
« Reply #1 on: April 13, 2014, 12:17:08 AM »
Not sure if my 2 cents is a point of reference close enough to your intended mark to help, but I thought I'd weigh in anyway.

I normally make Camembert, not Brie, and use raw goat milk rather than cow's; the resulting cheese is an approximation of Chèvre du Poitou.

I play around with the times a bit, but my standard is as follows:
Culture with meso (usually MM100 with the occasional addition of Aroma B) for 75 to 90 minutes.
Floc multiplier of x6 usually has me cutting between 45 and 60 minutes.  Raw goat milk however tends to coagulate quickly, so I would expect renneting times to take longer if using pasteurized cows milk.  A floc method will typically give you more consistent results than using a straight time method.   I use straight time on my lactic coag cheeses though.  I normally culture/rennet them for 12-20 hrs.  If you are using a renneting stage of 3 hrs or more your cheese could easily be considered a semi-lactic.  Although Bries and Cams use longer culturing times than many other cheeses particularly long renneting times will likely take them into a different style than you are targeting.  They may turn out to be wonderful cheeses though.

I've been happy with result from my typical formula above. 

Spoons

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Re: Question about when to add rennet to my milk for Brie?
« Reply #2 on: April 13, 2014, 02:57:20 AM »
As Spellogue points out, those two recipes are from two different types of Brie.

The one in the kit (being from Alberta, was it the one from Makecheese.ca?) is a Rennet curd style. This is the one style that is highly commercialized. The other one is a lactic-set style where some even let ripen for up to 24 hours after adding rennet. It's a totally different approach.

So there's no right or wrong between both recipes. It's just two different Brie styles.

murmur

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Re: Question about when to add rennet to my milk for Brie?
« Reply #3 on: April 13, 2014, 04:03:56 AM »
Thank you Gentlemen.
Both responses are quite helpful to me.

Spoons- My wife got me the kit for my birthday and I believe it was from Makecheese.ca. You are correct in a very commercial style- also their technical support was lacking and a response took 7 weeks on some early issues.
When I saw the finished result, I decided that they were more suited for baking ::)

 So, now I generally smoke them lightly and they are used for baked Brie topped with green chilis..
I am hopeful that this lactic-set style( news to me :) ) will be more suitable for ripening and yield a creamier result.

I do like to experiment with salting the rinds.
One will be rubbed with Truffle salt.
The other will be finished with Juniper salt.


murmur

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Re: Question about when to add rennet to my milk for Brie?
« Reply #4 on: April 13, 2014, 04:47:07 PM »
I contacted the technical advisor who works with the author of the book.
He was very helpful and gave me more insight into my question.
He also indicated that the recipe I was using had a typo and the 3 hour culture/renneting time should actually be more in the 12-18 hour range. This would explain why my curd was on the soft side.
I am back on track.
« Last Edit: April 13, 2014, 05:00:14 PM by murmur »

Spoons

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Re: Question about when to add rennet to my milk for Brie?
« Reply #5 on: April 13, 2014, 05:01:56 PM »
The 12-18 hour hour range is totally dependent on the actual ambiant temperature. The warmer it is the shorter the time.

murmur

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Re: Question about when to add rennet to my milk for Brie?
« Reply #6 on: April 13, 2014, 05:41:49 PM »
The 12-18 hour hour range is totally dependent on the actual ambiant temperature. The warmer it is the shorter the time.
I asked if maintaining the 86F inoculating temperature was critical and he indicated that after inoculating he lets it drop and coast for the long haul at 68F-72F.

Of course I can only imagine that way more control would be gained with a PH meter.
Could you recommend a good meter?

Spoons

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Re: Question about when to add rennet to my milk for Brie?
« Reply #7 on: April 13, 2014, 06:00:39 PM »
For a lactic-set brie, you want to ripen until 4.5-4.6 ph. Some cheeses are more strait forward and don't need a PH meter as much. But this one is PH driven due to the extended ripening time.

A lot of people here would agree that the Extech ph100 is your best option. It takes a bit of getting used to, but you'll get the hang of it. The big advantages of this ph meter is the flat probe giving you the possibility of measuring curd ph level and it's 0.01 accuracy.

murmur

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Re: Question about when to add rennet to my milk for Brie?
« Reply #8 on: April 14, 2014, 07:50:24 PM »
Thanks Eric
A few pics
Curd
Juniper Brie
Truffle Brie

Spoons

  • Guest
Re: Question about when to add rennet to my milk for Brie?
« Reply #9 on: April 14, 2014, 07:56:48 PM »
They look real nice!!! Let us know how they turn out!

Geodyne

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Re: Question about when to add rennet to my milk for Brie?
« Reply #10 on: April 14, 2014, 08:12:47 PM »
They do look nice! A cheese to you for such lovely looking cheeses!

murmur

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Re: Question about when to add rennet to my milk for Brie?
« Reply #11 on: April 14, 2014, 10:03:34 PM »
They do look nice! A cheese to you for such lovely looking cheeses!
They look real nice!!! Let us know how they turn out!

Thank you