When I saw the recipe for neufchatel in making artisan cheese I was excited to try it. Searching here I found little in the way af make write ups but I did find a post with links to the AOC website and watched their promotional video. Now I just had to try this. So off I went. Well the texture looked nothing like what was on the video, The taste was like chevre (actually I set some of the make aside and ate it as if it was, mixing in garlic and basil and chives), and at refrigerator temperatures the PC just wasn't going anywhere fast. Well I think I must have messed something up. So I made another batch, this time 1 gallon instead of the 2 gallons I made the first time, and I upped the rennet amount thinking maybe this would give me that granular texture I saw in the video. It did not. Being pretty sticky stuff the first time it really didn't do great in molding, so the second time I wet my hands and made patties. Giving up on them ever doing anything in the fridge into the 55 F cave they went, the second batch for a week. The first batch I just left in there until now and I have come to really love this cheese, the second round is almost eaten up. I may have had a rocky start with this cheese and may have doubted that it would ever amount to anything but I am a convert, it is lovely and creamy, the candidum flavor has penetrated through to the core, hasn't gone liquid like a well ripened cam might, just creamy goodness with a bit of that original tang there to balance things out. It may take me a few more batches to really learn this cheese, and maybe it isn't a neufchatel at all, but I am gonna keep making this one. Ok, so here's a rough description of the make ( my notes on this one aren't very good.
4/19/15
2 gal p/h milk
6 Tbsp meso culture
6 drops calf rennet in 1/4 cup water
smidge of P candidum
warm milk to 80 F, mix in cultures, rennet, and sprinkle candidum on top, let sit 2 minutes to hydrate and give it a stir.
leave to ripen at room temperature for 24 hours
drain in butter muslin lined colander and then tie and hang to finish draining overnight. press in the colander under a plate and 1/2 gal jar of water in the fridge for several hours.
Mold into rounds and place in aging area
first it was 2 weeks in the refrigerator, then it was moved in mini caves to the 55 F cave and was given a spritz of morge from a commercial brie (the geo in this may have really helped deacidify the cheese and allow the PC to get a foothold, I have a hunch that the high acid levels were as much or more to blame for the slow PC growth as the early temperatures).
And here it is as of a few days ago or what is left of the second round, and after is a pic of the little ones from the second batch minus the one I ate (gotta test it)
