Author Topic: Rotten smell during unmolding\salting - Raw milk camambert  (Read 1230 times)

Tomer1

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Rotten smell during unmolding\salting - Raw milk camambert
« on: March 13, 2011, 08:37:23 PM »
Made some yesturday using peter dixon's recipe and a homemade meso starter, and all went well. the milk was very fresh and kept at 4c before getting it up to temp and inoculating with the ripening starter.
After third flip of the moulds before retiering to bed and letting them acidify over night (8 hours maybe after last flip  at around 18-20c) I unmolded the cheeses and noticed a very funky smell which wasnt there the last time I fliped.
It was like that of uncooked meat which was left in the fridge for too long to spoile.
I tasted the curd and it was very acidic (didnt test TA or PH) which should have controled any spoilage.
I salted to stop fermentation and went ahead thinking i'l ask for a second opinion of someone alse later on.
Heres the weird bit, 3 other people said they dont smell anything wrong. (didnt comment or lead them to that conclusion, just ask them to smell it any tell me what they think)

smilingcalico

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Re: Rotten smell during unmolding\salting - Raw milk camambert
« Reply #1 on: March 13, 2011, 10:15:05 PM »
Maybe you're just catching a cold! I'd say continue with it, maybe isolating it from other cheeses until you can determine if it's ok. What is your homemade starter? I made a traditional Lancashire cheese which required making curds 3 days in a row. The first and second days curds had a really sour smell, which was caused by acidity, and sounds like your description. After combining with fresh curds, and salting, the smell was gone. We're clearly talking about very different cheeses, but you might find that the acidity will mellow out. Give the cheese at least a week before deciding to throw it out.

Tomer1

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Re: Rotten smell during unmolding\salting - Raw milk camambert
« Reply #2 on: March 13, 2011, 11:45:33 PM »
I used a locally produced lactic curded buttermilk type thing as a starter at 2% dose, maybe I should have used less? (I heard raw milk requires less starter)  hense I got too much acidification? 
Well its on a rack now with some plastic cover to keep RH high,
If its just acidity the ripening stage should lower (up the PH) it.