First of all, hats off to this forum and the many of you that have posted on the topic of camemberts. I am very grateful. The recipe I decided to follow was taken from Mal's "malembert" recipe and also Andy's "camembert #2 post. These on top of reading Peter Dixons recipe, Gianaclis Caldwells recipe, and watching Gavin Webbers video made me feel like I could attempt a shot at it...
Recipe:
2 gallons whole milk - Pasteurized but non-homogonized
3 cups of heavy cream - Pasteurized but non-homogonized
1/4 tsp Flora Danica
1/16 tsp PC - ABL
1/32 tsp Geo 13
1/4 tsp CaCl
1/2 tsp calf rennet in 1/4c non-chlorinated water
Started at 12:00 noon
Starting PH was 6.67
Milk and cream into the vat and stirred well to blend
Lowered into the hot water bath. Water at 120f
12:40 milk arrived at 90f (temp had stalled at 80f because the bath had gone too cool so I had to warm the water bath to bring it up to 90f)
Sprinkled on the cultures and molds and let sit to re-hydrate for 2 minutes.
12:42 stirred in cultures and molds well then let sit for 90 minutes. Vat was out of bath on counter and wrapped in towel to try and preserve temp.
At the end of 90 minutes the PH was 6.61 and temp had fallen to 86. I set it back into the bath for a few minutes and heat climbed back close to 90f. Pulled it back out on the counter.
2:22pm - added the diluted rennet and stirred for a minute or so
Flocculation at 8:25 x 6 = 49.5. I took it 50 minutes from 2:22 and cut at 3:12pm.
Cut into 1" columns and 1" horizontal to the best of my ability.
Stirred for 15 minutes bringing bottom to top slowly then rested for 15 minutes. Prepared the forms to receive the curd.
PH=6.41 after stirring
After 15 minute rest, drained the whey down to the level of the curds then ladled them into the forms. I filled the forms as much as they could take and kept filling them until they just wouldnt take anymore. I had enough curd to fill 6 x 4" forms, 4" tall and still had a little left over that I had to toss. Not enough to fill half of another form so I like the yield of curd I got.
The forms I used I had created earlier out of some cheap food storage containers that didnt have too much of a sloping side to them. I was worried about their height not being tall enough to receive enough curd as to produce a final 1.5" disc. The forms were 4" in diameter but only 2-7/8" tall. My worry turned into an idea and I went and bought more at the store, came home and cut them about 3/8" below a little shelf they have built around them as a stacking stop to give me an "extension" ring that is also threaded. This extends the height of the form another inch and fits snuggly into the first form. It also allows me to screw the lid with drain holes onto it and I was able to flip the entire form with basically 4" x 4" of curd over easily. Once the curds drained enough below the "extension", I could remove them and place the lid on the lower form. At $.60 each, I think they worked out well, but time will tell as I am a long way away from success.
3:50pm forms filled as much as they are going to take.
4:18pm draining had lowered the curds down a good 1/2" - 3/4" from the top
4:28pm put lids on "extensions" and flipped for first time
Flipped every 15 minutes until 6pm
6:00pm curd was firm enough to allow me to double flip in my hand to turn the curd upside down to round out the top side of the discs with the rounded bottom of the form.
Turned again at 6:30 before I left the house with the family for the evening.
Flipped again when I got home at 10:15pm
Covered them with cloth and left them overnight - ambient temperature was set at 68f
9:00am next morning. turned them over by hand to keep the rounded edges prominent on both sides.
PH=4.62
Disks measure about 1-5/8" tall
2:00pm took them out of the forms and weighed them. Average = 10oz each
Placed them on rack with draining mat and measured a level 1tsp of diamond crystal kosher salt and placed it on top of each disc. Placed disc in my hand at an angle so all salt fallout would land in the cupped palm of my hand and started to rub the top, then turned the disc over and poured the fallout on the bottom side and continued to rub the salt over the bottom, then placed the disc on its side and rotated it into my palm to rub the sides. Then over the sink I just rubbed the disc all over removing any areas that I thought received more that other areas and evening it out as much as possible.
2:10pm salting is complete
Placed on rack/mat and covered loosely with cloth to sit overnight. Tomorrow morning I plan on putting them into my ripening box and into my 55f cheese cave before I go to work.
This is where we sit now ... I will follow up tomorrow as I continue... -Ken
(pics to follow)
