This is an American brie of the common variety I made for my wife (she likes the simple stuff). I wasn't going to post when I made it because (1) I screwed up on the forming badly and (2), well, it's a brie
. However, I just pulled it out and cut it for the first time (after two weeks in cave and two weeks in cheese-paper in the fridge) and I have to say it is one of the best I've made so I wanted to give the ugly-duckling details.
I had the "good" idea to do a truncated conical shape like the bloomy rind "Summit" in Caldwell's book (pg 187). However I had the "bad" idea to make one cheese with a gallon of milk. You can tell from the pictures pretty much what happend, and by the time I poured the curds into the funnel I realized this wasn't going to work with the cross section being so large. I decided to try to save so I plopped the little mountain top side down in a 2L Kadova gouda form. It made for an unconventionally dish-shaped cheese but after I cut it I thought this would be perfect to put a layer of blueberry or other sauce in the "dish" when serving.
Next time if I try an ash-coated conical I'll split into 4.