Author Topic: Too much curd?  (Read 1065 times)

headcheese

  • Guest
Too much curd?
« on: March 12, 2011, 07:14:41 PM »
Hi,  I'm right now in the process of making some cams. (second try) Seems to be going well enough except the curds generated from 1 gal of milk are a bit too much  to ladle into 2 standard cam molds.  Can I add the left over curds into the molds after the initial filling settles down before the first flip?

Same thing happened the first time and I just discarded the extra curd.  Foolish?

Oberhasli

  • Guest
Re: Too much curd?
« Reply #1 on: March 12, 2011, 07:58:39 PM »
I would ladle the extra curds in as long as the curds in the molds aren't too settled.  I would just keep adding the extra as soon as there is some space at the top as it drains.  If you are talking about a lot of extra curd you want to make sure you don't over do it too much and you have a monster cam to try to flip.  If it is really thick too, it will age at a different rate than a thinner cam will. 

Bonnie

Tomer1

  • Guest
Re: Too much curd?
« Reply #2 on: March 13, 2011, 02:45:30 AM »
I just did that added some curds maybe 30min after main drain (kept the curd in the whey meanwhile), the addition kneated really well to the earlier drained curds.
I did a 4 gallon batch and also didnt preper enough draining molds, had to improvise with some square plastic basket and cheese cloth since the hole opening were so big the curd would slip out.

Dinerdish

  • Guest
Re: Too much curd?
« Reply #3 on: March 13, 2011, 01:58:02 PM »
This happened to me the first couple times I made Camembert type cheeses. I quickly sanitized a small tomme mold and ladled in the excess curd. The whey drained out to leave a very short cheese that didn't seem to knit together well. I almost tossed it but,  let it ripen with the rest of the cheeses. It actually worked out pretty well. As it aged, all the layers oozed together. It ripened quickly, about 3 weeks, which is almost instant gratification. I would encourage you to just throw that extra curd into anything you have that will let the curd drain. I've seen people make their own molds by poking holes in little yoghurt containers. If you make your Camemberts too thick it takes longer to ripen and you either end up with a chalky, not fully ripened, disk in the center, which is not a terrible thing, or the cheese at the outside edges are almost over-ripe by the time the center is ready. I also like to make mini Camemberts in crottin molds. This is a really nice size for a couple people to eat at one sitting or to give as a gift. You also get to open one, see how ripe it is and still have more to let go longer. The little ones do ripen a little quicker than the traditional sized ones.

Dinerdish