My first attempt at Camembert

[ksk2175]

Ha!  Thanks for the cheese H-K-J.  I sure hope you are right.

Andy, thanks for the geek talk... I'm right there with ya.  I use an old program called Easy Thumbnail to re-size my photos but youre right, it doesnt change any metadata.  The pictures above have actually been re-sized down to 600 dpi and re-uploaded but still rotated. 

Kern, thanks for the tip on Iphone orientation, I will try that next time. 

I think my little hockey pucks are ready for the cold fridge.  Not a ton of white covering but the sides and edges are starting to feel that there is a little give there. 

[ksk2175]

Day 9 ...

The flat sides are matting and turning a bit tan color ...

They have developed such a strong smell that my wife thinks "stinks up the whole house" ...

[awakephd]

All of that is very interesting

Always happy to entertain!

[ksk2175]

Day 11 ...

[ksk2175]

Day 13 ....

When I press on the middles, it feels similar to clay.  Firm but gives.  Time for cold fridge .... wrapped and into fridge at 5c. 

Very smelly cheese.  Hope that calms down a bit or they wont stay in that fridge for long.

[awakephd]

<snip: discussion of why pictures come out with the wrong rotation, and/or size>

For this and other picture-manipulation purposes, I use a suite of programs called imagemagick -- this is on a Linux machine, but the same thing is available for Macs and I believe for Windows. Unfortunately, these are command-line programs, so you have to be willing to "geek it" to use them. I guess one of these days I need to write a little GUI wrapper around this program that would allow folks to deal with this issue more easily ...

Okay, so I decided to do exactly that -- or rather, not exactly that, since I wound up not using imagemagick as the underlying library; it was unnecessarily big and complex for this simple task.

Announcing RoShrink (not to be confused with RoGain!). Details here: http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,15452.msg118166.html#msg118166

[ksk2175]

Update - week 6 this weekend ... these discs have not gotten much softer than they felt on March 19th ... I have had them wrapped and in a 3c fridge but they havent developed much and still feel "clay like" when I press into the middle ... the sides and corners are definitely softer but wondering if the fridge has been too cold and where I should go from here.

[Kern]

When you are ready to eat one take it out of the cold fridge and put it in the cheese cave for a couple of days.  It will get noticeably softer.  Then take it out of the cave for a half dozen hours before you plan to eat it and it will develop lots of flavor as it comes to room temperature and get much softer still.  Enjoy!

[ksk2175]

You were correct Kern, I took a couple out of the fridge and into to the cave on Friday and even today they are very noticeably softer. Tomorrow I will put them out to get to room temp any cut into one to try. Because of the stinky b.linens takeover, I don't know how they will turn out but I'm looking forward to it. I will post the results.

[Al Lewis]

Many people heat these in the oven slightly prior to eating them.  I've tried it both ways.  The warm paste is delicious and heating seems to dissipate any lingering ammonia.  Pretty much the same thing you do with the Vacherin Mont D'Or but without the white wine added and the stirring.  Those look beautiful BTW.  I quit putting the b linens in mine after the first make when it took over mine.  Tastes great without it.   They certainly deserve a cheese of their own so here's one from me!

[ksk2175]

Al, that looks delicious .. soo many options with this cheese.  I will need to try that.  Unfortunately I did not plan on the b.linens ... it is thought that I picked up some while leaving them out on my counter overnight at room temps during the salting phase just covered with some cheese cloth in lieu of in a ripening box.  The PC never really developed as much as the Geo did.  I need to check my measurements and next time be more concerned with keeping them concealed.  I dont know where else they would  have picked up the b.linens but it sure made them smelly while they were aging.  My wife was very tolerant. 

[ksk2175]

Week 6 ... I have had them in the cold fridge for the past month.  Sometime the fridge got down to 2c and 3c and they weren't softening up very much.  I decided to move a couple of them to my cave at 55f for a couple days and today took them out to warm up to room temps and cut into ....  here are the results....

These cheese have been stinking because of the unwanted b.linens infection I picked up but I aged them out anyway figuring it may not turn out to be camembert but would still be a delicious edible mold ripened cheese. When I unwrapped them the rind had a strong ammonia smell the closer my nose got to it.  They had softened considerably since moving to the cave and even moreso out on the counter.  I cut into one and the knife fell through it easily.  Below are the pics.

The flavor is earthy, nutty, with just a twinge of sour on the back end...a taste similar to a hint of blue.  I can taste the salt but wouldn't describe it as necessarily salty.  There was a semi-solid core still in the middle with the perimeter very soft and gooey but not runny.  It had the consistency of very soft butter.  I was able to cut some small wedge pieces off the half wheel and spread it on some bread and some apple as if it were butter. 

I am trying to decide what to do with the other 5 wheels I have and cant wait to make another batch and try to improve on the PC development and keep the b.linens at bay. 

For a first attempt, I am pleased because I learned a lot and ended up with a very edible cheese.  Looking forward to the next batch...

[H-K-J]

Way to go
AC4U  a very nice and delish looking Cam

[Andrew Marshallsay]

What a great looking cheese.
Have a cheese from me.

[awakephd]

And another C4U!