cam #3

[jmason]

Allrighty then, back into the frey in an attempt to keep myself in cams
was supposed to do this yesterday but I got kidnapped and forced to cook for Memorial day
but all is well I got steak and strawberry shortcake even though I had to make everything, oh and I was further plied with wine.  In the end I was released stuffed but otherwise unharmed and carrying some leftovers.

5/26/15
2 gallons of p/h milk, was supposed to be 3 but 1 got used to make yogurt, and I am not going to the store
1/2 tsp cal chlor
1 Tbsp buttermilk culture
2 Tbsp meso culture
a smig PC neige
1/2 tsp calf rennet

brought milk to 88 F, oops, was supposed to be 86
added cal chlor, cultures and PC, left to ripen, probably 1 hour
actually 1 1/4 hour, added rennet, floc in 17 minutes
45 minutes after adding rennet cut curds to 1" and let rest 10 minutes
stir ever so gently and briefly and let rest 10 min.
repeat brief stir and rest 10 (normally I don't do this 3rd rest but the curds are really fragile so I'm giving them a little more time to expel whey before I try to ladle them into the colander for a brief predrain)
take a break and have a cup of coffee and a piece of lemon/coconut ricotta cheesecake (this is an important step, and should not be left out of the process although it can be inserted anywhere along the way)
ok, curds predrained, and cheesecake eaten, ladle curds into the moulds and tidy up and level the tops out a bit, let drain.......
After 30 min I flip the first time, before the flip i even out the curds in each mouold, moving curds from one to another as need be to get them all about the right form factor.  (I hope)
30 minutes later flip again
1 hour later flip again
2 hours later flip and move my whole contraption to the room temp box and go to bed
in the morning I will unmold and salt
and now it's morning and the cheeses have drained quite a bit overnight
salted by hand which immediately caused them to start weeping more whey, so I'll let them sit a few hours and let the salt do it's thing and then give them a spray of morge from a commercial brie to get the Geo and at least one more strain of PC in on the party.
more pics to follow

a work in progress, updated as the process continues

While we wait I will toss up a pic from my last batch of cams, and the 2nd is of one of my neufchatels.  Really gonna have to take another pic of that cam I probably got too close to it.

[OzzieCheese]

@J
Looks like your well on the way.  One thing that might help.  I wouldn't pre-drain the curds.  Once I have stirred for ten minutes or so and let settle I drain to the level of the curds and ladle directly into the molds.  It's a bit tough when you use different sized molds but letting them just drain under their own weight sets them up nicely.  I leave them about 60 minutes between flipping.  But 30 should be ok. As you are ladeling i would jiggle the molds as well as this can help prevent whey pockets - especially in the larger forms.

here is my method.
http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,13412.0.html

Sounds like you had a great day - forced to eat cheesecake 
-- Mal

[jmason]

Thanks Mal,
yeah last time I ladled directly to the molds and it worked well.  I predrained really because with my homemade molds, the short ones I end up having to marry 2 together.  which actually worked quite well last time.  You could see the seam after unmolding but a week later when they went into the fridge you'd never  never know it was there.  Basically I really need to make a few more cam moulds.  Something I will talk about before my make description is finished.  My first make I followed the video from promisedland farm, and she predrains and it worked ok for me. 

Since I am making cams about every 2 weeks to keep up with my consumption I am trying things and getting comfortable with my method.  The other reason I predrained this time is that the cutting board that I use as a drain board will spill over the sides if there is heavy drainage so predraining solves that issue.  I basically need to figure out a better drain board setup.  And BTW I have learned alot from you already from reading your cam threads.  So thanks again!

John

PS. Yeah the cheesecake eating is a tough job but I'm up to it.  And I am seriously thrilled to be making my own cams.  You can't buy good camembert anymore.  Can't wait to see how much better they are when i can make them from raw jersey or sheep milk.

[OzzieCheese]

Oh once you make and eat your own, the commercial ones are - gag worthy.

[jmason]

yeah they are, making my own reminds me of the cams I learned to love when I was younger and we were still getting camemberts that would continue to age and had real flavor.  I don't think the new ones age, they just go bad.

John

[jmason]

A note on my camembert molds.  2 months ago I wanted to make camembert and had the PC and meso cutures, but I need molds.  Trip to wally's (as much as I hate to go there) found 97 cent 1/2 gallon beverage pitchers that looked the trick, so I bought 3 and cut the tops and bottoms off.  Now this gave me 3 molds 4 7/8" top diam, 4 5/8 bottom diameter, and just over 4 1/2" tall.  Looking at the cut off bottoms, I sayz to myself "self, those would make a dandy little mold for something", so I cleaned those up and ground off the little plastic ridge that they had on one side, and ground c shaped indentations which allow the drainage from the bottom to run away.  All the molds were drilled, although more holes probably would have been a good idea.  On the first make I used all 3 tall molds and one of the little puck molds.  The tall ones gave me 3 cams ranging in weight between 12.5 and 14 oz ea., and the little puck mold gave me a 9 1/2 oz cam.  The second make was 3 gallons and all the tall molds and 2 of the puck molds were used initially.  I ladled without predraining, and strangley the Pucks were too tall, so I sliced some off the top of each and married them in 3rd puck mold.  Initially you could see the seam but after the geo and PC covered them there was no sign the seam ever existed.  Yesterdays make was 2 gallons and I haven't weighed them yet.  I also used the cam mold to make 2 blues described in another  thread, these were unpressed, and I made a caerphilly with one of the tall molds last Satuday.  It seemed to handle the 20 -25 lbs of press I subjected it too with no problem.  When I build a proper press I will do another caerphilly (assuming I like the first) and press it to a higher weight, if I can press it to 50 lbs my caerphilly will have just become a lancashire.  I hesitate to describe the method I used to cut them, it was a bit sketchy but gave a nice accurate cut.  I don't want someone else trying it with my method and lacerating the bejesus out of their fingers.  In short these were cheap to make, serve my purposes nicely and are made of food grade polypropalene, and they take boiling without any problem (from what I understand PP will even tolerate autoclave temperatures).  The only problem is I am making so many camemberts that I need to make another 3 of these things.  The tops of these things also work pretty well as little supports when draining cheeses in my room temp box by putting a round of embroidery mesh (whatever that plastic grid stuff is) on top of it.

[John@PC]

Since I am making cams about every 2 weeks to keep up with my consumption ...

Let's see,  two gallons for yogurt twice a week and 2 gal. for cams every two weeks !  That is some serious consuming goin' on there! 

[jmason]

John, yes it is but actually the yogurt is down to 2 gal 1x/week now, which yields just under a gallon of greek style yogurt after straining, my son loves my yogurt and eats huge bowls of it, and he is a growing boy.  I have been making cheese once a week and sometimes twice a week.  Having lots of fun doing it and so far they have all turned out nice.  Not sure how the blue will turn out yet so it may be my first flop (well other than that first misguided attempt at mozzerella ).  I really need to find another fridge or freezer to increase my cave space so I can start making things that need to age longer.

John

[awakephd]

Oh once you make and eat your own, the commercial ones are - gag worthy.

Amen! I absolutely loved my recent camemberts, but haven't been sure how they compare to "the real thing," so I thought I'd buy one from the local grocery store. Closest thing I could find in the deli section was a "brie" (4" diameter ... ??) for $10/lb.

Absolutely awful. The rind has the consistency of pasteboard (like a cereal box), and doesn't taste much better. The paste is just kinda blah -- not the least bit gooey, not creamy (though it claimed to be a "double brie"), and not much taste (other than the cardboard rind). If this is the "real thing," then I'm obviously doing something wrong, since mine is nothing like this!

[jmason]

OK, peeked in on them this morning and they seem ready to go into individual minicaves and into the cheese cave.  I think I am seeing the first hints of the geo coming on.  The last time it showed up unmistakably on the 3rd day, too soon I think for PC to be evident so I believe I am getting the geo from the morge that I wanted.  I am planning an order in another months time and will be buying more cultures then but in the meantime the morge is working for me.  During their time in the room temp box, they have been flipped a few times a day.  During their cave time they will be flipped once daily, and once they have a full coat of pc on they will be loosely wrapped and transferred to communal living in the cold fridge to finish ripening turning 1x daily.

Om another note.  The last bit of my first neufchatel, shown in the second pic of my original post, is breakfast today, and being that I have only a half batch of #2 I see a remake in the picture for this weekend.  I will make a few changes to the process based on my experiences from the first 2 makes.  It is really a very undemanding make, but a long draining process.  Probably true of most lactic coagulated cheeses for which these are my only experience.  Being that I kinda liked the unripened cheese for it's chevre like character I will probably make a 3 gallon batch and use a 3rd of it as a consumed fresh/herbs added cow's milk p/h chevre'ish cheese.  Might help me to keep my grubby paws off some of my other cheeses.

John

PS
OK, they are moved into the minis and there is definitely geo goin on, I don't think PC could get started that fast, and tasting my fingers after handling them tasted like what I think geo must taste like.  Total weight of the 4 cheeses is 2 lbs 8.8 oz.  Everything seems fine, on target and on schedule.  Clean up my mats and ripening box and done and done.

[jmason]

So at today's flipping they were close to being ready for the cold fridge, tomorrow probably.  In the meantime I will post a couple of fotos of the last of my first cams .  I baked bread today and couldn't resist bustin into that sucka on a freshly baked bread, it is perfectly ripened to my taste.  Strangely it was the smallest of that batch and took the longest to ripen, go figure.  The one previous to this would have been considered over ripe by many but man was it good.  The 6 cams from batch 2 are not ripened yet at least not to the center, and there is now only half of this ripened cam left (it's a goner), so I moved 2 back to the cave lest I run out of ripened cheese.

[Boofer]

Sweet-looking cheese!

The clarity of your pics allows tight zooming so we can vicariously taste that exquisite paste. Excellent.

A cheese for your success.

-Boofer-

[LoftyNotions]

Nice looking cheese ... and bread, John. AC4U.

Larry

[jmason]

Boofer and Larry, thanks!
That cheese is not long for this world, doubt it makes it through the day.  Put 2 from my second batch back into the aging cave to speed up their ripening.  Seem to be making 2 batches of cams a month to try to keep up with my personal consumption.  This batch was supposed to be a 3 gal but 1 gal got used for my son's yogurt so a 2 gallon batch.  Gonna have to stay on point with those 3 gal batches to keep me in cheese.  I am so spoiled now with my own cheeses I'm not sure I can really do the store bought thing anymore.  REally gonna have to step up the hunt for a bigger "cave" so I can do those long aged cheeses I want to try.  Got a few ideas that appeal to the tinkerer in me, but I'll discuss those in an equipment thread.

John

[OzzieCheese]

h that looks nice and I can smell th efresh bread from here.

A Cheese is necessary as well - to encourage the make of more - looks like you've got these nailed - well Done..

-- Mal