Brie 3 14/10/30
Room temp 19.2C
4.5L 3.25%
500ml 35% whipping cream
Morge of brie
60ml distilled water 1.3ml CaCL
60ml distilled water 1.3ml rennet
2g starter Meso Arom type B
16:00 18.9C added brie morge, starter, CaCl solution.
16:25 19.1C started warming to 32.0C
16:55 23.9C
17:15 30.3C
17:25 32.7C start 30min ripening
17:35 32.7C
17:55 32.7C added rennet, started floc timer
18:10 floc timer stopped? Estimated 12m floc.
18:49 31.8C
19:10 31.8C cut curd, let settle
19:25 31.8C stirred gently.
19:35 41.8C burner got turned on max accidently. Removed from boiler, stirred gently.
19:45 37.8C transferring curd to cheesecloth,
21:10 flipped
00:45 flippedo
05:50 flipped
19:20 salted and moved to ripening chamber
Sometimes, just on the odd occasion, I feel the universe is out to sabotage anything I do. This cheese, I expect, will be evidence of this.
I figured I'd make another brie, and hewing to the good Doctor Hamm's advice, going less fat. Heck, I'll even make a respectable sized cheese, in an 8.5" mold.
Everything was proceeding to plan right until some 6-8 minutes after adding rennet. That's when my iPad timer reset itself to zero without me seeing exactly when. So my floc time was a guesstimate. Judging by the curd, not a half bad guess, as it stayed relatively firm, no shattering really. It a guess all the same.
Then after letting the cut curd settle and seeing that I may have dodged a bullet, it seems the handle on my double boiler, when turning its insert to fully stir, managed to turn the element knob to 'high' without my awareness.
Now, I wasn't gone that long, perhaps 5-6 minutes, but when I returned to a steaming double boiler, I may have used some profanity. After removing the insert and quickly filling my sink with 32C water to cool it down, the curds and whey still hit nearly 42C.
Best let it cool in the mold.
Anyway, it's in the ripening chamber now. Time will tell.
