My first camembert on the way.

[Kern]

Looking good AnnDee.  Certainly worth your first cheese.     Be sure to get the Cams in the cold fridge as soon as the PC covers everything (about ten days out).  This will slow down the action of the PC on raising the pH and give time for the enzymes, et al in the paste to flavor the whole cheese.  I usually go six weeks in the cold fridge and when I want to eat one move it to the warmer cave for a couple of days and then to room temperature a day before dining.  In Malaysia you might want to lower the counter time to 6-8 hours unless your space is cooled with air conditioning.

[AnnDee]

Will keep my eyes on them, I have to fight the urge to take a look at them too often.
It is humid these days, I discard almost 1-2 teaspoon each day from the ripening box and I also wipe the ripening box everyday from the condensation. I might have to put dessicant pouches if the humidity too high.
Will post more development as I go along.

[Boofer]

I decided to just use powdered calf rennet and dilute it each time instead of make a large batch of rennet solution ahead of time to keep in the fridge.

Works for me. Good decision. 

-Boofer-

[AnnDee]

Update on the cams.
Batch 1 (pic 1) is 15 days old. I used pasteurised and homogenised milk. The texture is still firm and rind felt thin.
Batch 2 (pic 2) is 14 days old. Also P and H milk. These ones took long to drain and dry. Texture is firm but the rind felt thick. I am afraid they are going on slip skin direction. Is there any way to prevent that? Any suggestion is appreciated.
Batch 3 (pic 3) is 7 days old. I used raw jersey milk that has been pasteurised lightly at home. They have the best texture from the start and they are just covered with the white mold now.
All of these are in the cold fridge 4C now.

[awakephd]

Ann, moving them to the cold fridge once they are well covered with PC seems to help quite a lot with slip skin. At the time of transfer, I generally find the edges to be rather "loose" feeling; I have to handle them very carefully to avoid tearing the rind off. In other words, very slip-skin-ish. But after they ripen in the cold fridge for a few weeks, it evens out beautifully. Incidentally, this is one advantage of wrapping in the cheese paper at this point -- it reduces the risk of tearing the rind when handling (to flip periodically).

[AnnDee]

Thank you Andy, they are all in the cold fridge now. 2 of mine have that 'loose' feeling. Hopefully they turn out alright.

I wrap some of them around the rind inspired by a video on vacherin mont d'Or.

[awakephd]

Banana leaves? Should be an interesting experience -- I look forward to the taste report!

[Kern]

Banana leaves? Should be an interesting experience -- I look forward to the taste report!

How did the old Harry Belafonte song go?  "Hide the deadly black tarantula.... Day-O, Day-O"   

[SOSEATTLE]

That's cool! 


Susan

[Al Lewis]

Ann, having attempted a version of the Vacherin Mont D'Or I can assure you that you won't get much flavor from those leaves.  The spruce bark used on the Mont D'Or actually fuses with the cheese and provides a little woodsy taste at best.

[AnnDee]

They are coconut leaves, I sun dried some too and made a batch of Vacherin mont d'Or recipe, I will upload the pics later. I also wrap 1 triple cream cheese in a banana leave because my order of cheese wrapping paper has not come yet (almost a month, sigh....). Hopefully it turns out ok.

That's a bummer Al Lewis, I was hoping it would enhance it a little. Oh well, I think I will have to get spruce bark from artisangeek afterall.
I read your thread on making that cheese before too Al, so many times I almost memorise it by now. Inspiring me to make a version of it. Thank you!

[AnnDee]

After 5 long weeks, finally we crack 1 of this little white beauty opened today. This is batch no. 1 with local P&H milk without any addition of cream.

First, I moved 1 from the cold fridge to my cheese cave of 13-15 C. Then 3 hours prior to eating it was left out at room temp of 28C. I was going to leave it at room temp for 6 hours but it started to ooze out from 1 crack so we decided to cut it opened.

The smell of the cheese was good, mushroomy and earthy, no ammonia.
Texture wise it was oozy and runny with some soft solid in the middle which my 12 year old daughter likes.
Rind was not thick nor too thin.
It tastes like a camembert should taste. Smooth, silky, nutty, milky with the right amount of saltiness. I ate the rind which to me was delicious but my daughter said it has a slight bitterness to it but she managed to finish half a wheel on her own (how she stays skinny is a mystery to me).

Here's some pictures of how we devoured our camembert today.

[AnnDee]

Some more pics.

[awakephd]

Looks great! And sounds like it tastes great!

[Al Lewis]

That looks delicious! AC4U!