Blue Brie 2

[Andrew Marshallsay]

I tried this once before but the white mould didn't grow. My guess is that I was not careful enough with re-hydrating the PC. Anyway, I decided that it would be a good time to try again so that I have some around Christmas.
I started yesterday. The process so far is:

(From "Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking" - Gianaclis Caldwell)

3L Fleurieu Jersey Pasteurised, Non-homogenised milk. P = 3.3% F = 4.8%
I00 ml Fleurieu Pouring Cream F = 35.5 %
• 1⁄12  teaspoon ( dash ) of M235 culture
• 0.36g (pinch) Penicillium Candidum (rehydrate 16 hours before use in 150ml of cool, boiled water with 1⁄12  teaspoon of salt and 1⁄12  teaspoon of sugar added)
• Approx. 1/4 drop(0.015g) Geotrichum Candidum
• 0.6ml of 200 IMCU rennet in 12ml of water.
• 1.0 ml of CaCl2 in 20ml of water.
• Morge of blue cheese (LA Vera Adel Blue)blended in cool, boiled water

Warmed combined milk and cream to 31C
Added cultures and leave for 2 min.
Stirred culture in for 3 min. and ripened for 20 min.
Stirred in CaCl2 and rested for 5 min.
Stirred in rennet for 2 min. Flocculation occurred at 14 min. Coagulation time = 6x = 84 min.
Cut to 15 mm. Rested 5 min.
Stirred gently for 10 min. Rested 5 min.
Drained into cloth-lined colander and allowed to drain for 20 min.
Ladled a layer of the curds into two 95mm lined moulds. Sprinkle on a few drops of the blue cheese morge.
Drain for 10 min.
 Added further layers of curds interspersed with morge.
Allowed to drain for 21 hrs. Turned at 30min,  2 hrs, 5 hrs, 8 hrs and 11 hrs  and 23hrs. Temp kept in the low 20s.
Salted ½ tsp per cheese per side with 2 hrs between sides. (pH of whey at start of salting ~ 4.5 / target 4.7-4.

[AnnDee]

Looking good Andrew. Love the pics!

[Andrew Marshallsay]

Thanks, Ann. Here's hoping...

[awakephd]

Andrew, if you don't get the results you're looking for this time, I'm wondering if you're using a bit too much salt. If I understand correctly, you're using a total of 2 tsp salt for cheese made from 3.1 liters of milk+cream, for a ratio of .645 tsp of salt per liter of milk used.

By comparison, when I make a camembert, I use a total of 4.5 tsp of salt per cheese for 8.044 liters of milk+cream, for a ratio of .559 tsp of salt per liter of milk used. Not a huge difference, but ... you might try cutting back your salt a bit.

[Andrew Marshallsay]

Thanks for the suggestion, Andy.
On checking Caldwell's recipe I find that she only uses 1/4 tsp per side, so you may be onto something.On the other hand, the amount I have used is the same as I use for Camemberts and I have not had any problems with them.
We'll see what happens, but I will bear your suggestion in mind.

[Gregore]

Cams are 1.2 to 1.7 percent salt to weight of final cheese.

[Andrew Marshallsay]

Thanks for the information Gregore.
As I didn't weigh the cheeses, I don't know just what percentage of salt I've used but some rough calculations would seem to indicate that I have indeed oversalted them.
I will be making some Camemberts in the next week or so, so I will give this some consideration.

[AnnDee]

I use 2% of salt on my cams as we like it slightly saltier. It still make good cams. I doubled that by mistake once, and PC was not forming properly and it wasn't ripening for a long time.

[Andrew Marshallsay]

I use 2% of salt on my cams as we like it slightly saltier. It still make good cams. I doubled that by mistake once, and PC was not forming properly and it wasn't ripening for a long time.

This discussion made me curious, so I weighed the cheeses: a total of 574g in two of them. That gives me a surprisingly high yield of around 18% but means that the salt will be around 2% which, hopefully, will be alright.

[Gregore]

2% should be okay ... Some will have come off with the whey .

They might take a few days longer to get PC so try increasing the temperature to 60 until they start to get it .

[Andrew Marshallsay]

2% should be okay ... Some will have come off with the whey .

They might take a few days longer to get PC so try increasing the temperature to 60 until they start to get it .

Not much did come off with the whey. They have not lost hardly any whey since I put them in the aging container straight after they were salted.
I pierced them yesterday and sprayed the PC on today. They are currently at 13C but the idea of raising the temperature a little sounds worth trying.

[Gregore]

I some times take mine out of the cave for a few hrs per day to give them a little  tropical vacation ,  to help increase the PC growth .

[Andrew Marshallsay]

PC starting to burst out all over these little beauties (and on the Cams which I made a few days afterwards).
No sign of any blue in the holes though, but who knows what is happening on the inside. I don't intend to worry about what I can't control.
I've turned the temperature down again and I will probably re-pierce them somewhere down the track.
Once I get a good white overcoat I'll move them to a colder location.

[awakephd]

Looking good ... eager to see the final results!

[AnnDee]

Me too, waiting to see how this one turn up.