Ripening Temperature For Penicillium candidum Cheeses

[george13]

I was wondering if someone could shed some light on this subject.  Once I drain the curds which were inoculated with PC, and after shaping them , I usually place them in my refrigerator
(35 degrees)  rather than the cave (50 degrees) so that they may perform their thing.  My thought process is that they are still a fresh cheese, and at this temperature I am maintaining their freshness, and safeguarding against unwanted molds, before my intended mold takes over.  It has worked for me so far, but it does take some time (understandably the colder temp inhibits growth).  What is the norm for ripening temperatures for these types of cheeses.  And also, at what point in the ripening process does one start the shelf life clock.
Thank you

[Cheese Head]

While the prime driver in getting a white mold bloom is humidity, 35F in your kitchen fridge is way too cold, you want warmer to get an earlier bloom and enable the white mold to out compete any other mold. I ripen at ~50F until get good bloom and then wrap and drop to ~45F to age the interior.

Shelf life starts from the day you start making the cheese, the Wiki: Camembert Cheese Making Recipe article has some info on affine and a point ages if you are making Camembert the traditional way. If you make it stabilized like the ones exported to US from France the shelf life is maybe a year?

[JeffHamm]

Interesting.  I just read the thread on stabalised brie and cams.  In the cheesemaking course I took last year we used thermo for camembert, and I've made two batches of it since.  I used the rind from a store bought for the mold source for the first batch, and ripened it in my fridge (veggie crisper).  It tasted ok, but the texture was a bit off - not runny or soft at all.  At the time I thought I was too rough on the curds and had toughened them.  In my 2nd batch I used rind from my last cam, and set up a "cave" in a chilly bin thinking that my temperature was probably too low and too dry in the fridge.  I had a lot of curds, and had to make one large cheese as I ran out of small molds.  The 8 small cheese went in the chilly bin where I kept them cool with 2 litres of ice (milk jug).  This turned out to be too warm, and too humid, and my white mold quickly went green.  I fought a loosing battle with them, and eventually just scrapped them down.  They sort of recovered, and I've eaten them (no rind) and they were tasty - but more like a mild cheddar.

I just found the the large one in the fridge the other day, wrapped up (after the mold had bloomed; which took 2 weeks to show up).  It's now about 2.5 months old.  I cut into it, and it's soft, and the flavor is much better.  It's not liquid or anything though.  I had come to the point where I figured the recipe was "wrong" as all others for cam I've seen are meso.  I think we were taught one that would keep longer.

- Jeff

[FRANCOIS]

Stabilisation has nothing to do with shelf life.  It just gives you a passable paste from day 1 to day 60.  It allows us to sell the cheese as soon as the white mould has bloomed up until it does and turns brown, at which time funky yeasts take over.  Shelf life is comparable to traditional make.

[Cheese Head]

Francoise, thanks, now I/we understand better!