All about mould

[kyliecoast]

I'm in the process of making my first camembert cheese and I thought I'd ask you all about the mould.

I've read that there are 3 main ways to get your white mould growing -
1. Adding the Penicillium Candidum spores to your milk at the same time as your culture.
2. Spraying the Penicillium Candidum on 16 hours after reactivating with a salt/sugar water solution.
3. Using a piece of mould from another camembert cheese.

My questions are:
- are there any more techiques to add the mould (like maybe a cheese bath instead of a spray or direct sprinkling of the Penicillium candidum spores on the cheese, adding the spores to the milk at later stages, etc.
- which of the various techniques are most successful at getting good mould growth (assuming the right conditions for growth re: humity/temperature)?

Thanks!

[Cheese Head]

I think I've direct puffed some spores onto my formed cams before but only as I forgot to add to the milk and didn't want to go the hassle of making a spray bottle for a single batch. If I remember it did work but uneven across surface of cheese.

For small hobby sized makes most people here go with option 1), I think as gives more even distribution and thus germination. Don't worry, given the right humidity & temp (mold doesn't like to have it's feet wet) P. candidum grows very robustly!

[kyliecoast]

Thanks John. I did not add the candidum spores during the inital phase (I didn't know any better) so I thought that my only choice might be to do the spray thing. (I only made one cheese because its my first attempt at camembert and I didn't want to try a new recipe on a large batch).

[Cheese Head]

Welcome, I had the same question initially and at that time there were very people on this forum to ask.

Once mold starts don't forget to turn often so you get more even development and so the mold doesn't stick to your mat!

[kyliecoast]

Thanks for your tips John!

Today I bought a sprayer bottle and I have made it up, but I am a bit late, the recipe on these forums said to put the camembert in the fridge for 24 hours and then spray with the solution which has spent 16 hours in the fridge. If I wait the 16 hours then it will have been closer to 48 hours before I spray. Is that ok or should I spray now? Theres only 1/8 T of spores in 8oz of water but I would be spraying the equivalent of 1 teaspoon or less of water, so it makes me wonder if that amount is enough to start it off?