Ash brie pic for Brie

[Tea]

Hi Brie I didn't want to derail the other thread so have put the pic here.  This is a triple cream brie, made two large wheels.  This is day three of the mold growing.  Will wrap soon.  Hopefully these will turn out well. 

The other cheese is a white/blue that has been wrapped for a couple of weeks now.  Just a few more and then I will try.  Not supposed to see the blue on the outside, and one is like that.  Two though have the blue competing with the white.

[Bishop]

Love your work Tea!

I'm a big fan of the blue brie, is this due to a blue invasion in your cave or did you plan it that way?

[Cheese Head]

Tea, great looking cheeses (not the bamboo mat, ). I just bought a bunch of ash, so hopefully soon I'll be following you, interested to see how it works out for you.

[Tea]

Bishop, the white/blue isn't exactly a Brie, but I am wanting to have another go at doing that, so thought I would try this first before giving that particular cheese another go.  For this cheese however, the blue is supposed to stay on the inside and the white on the outside.  It is immersed in hot water to kill off any exterior blue mould, to allow the white to grow.  But I have found after dunking a few the water has cool somewhat, so the first cheese has no exterior blue growing, but subsequent cheeses have more and more.  This was the middle cheese, the next cheese is almost taken over with blue.

John, sorry about the look of the mats, but I usually ash the cheese on them, and I have found that, for me anyway, the ash on the mats help stop the cheese from sticking when turning, so I leave it there.  I am really hoping that these turn out too, so will keep you posted.  The last lot that I did, I had wrapped and were 3 weeks into their aging, when my grandbaby turned off my fridge.  Only discovered it 5 days later.  What a stinking mess.  sigh

[Brie]

Thanks, Tea--looks as though it's coming along famously. I have found that using ash really helps prevent slipskin and the pc grows more evenly. I have made brie and ashed half of the batch and left the other without--cool experiment! The brie with ash was much more consistent in pc. Also, interested in what recipe you are following for your blue brie; specifically the "hot water wash" you are speaking of--I've never heard of that and wonder how it will work out. It seems as though it would close the holes, and I assume you are piercing. Let us know on this one!

[Tea]

The recipe that I am flollowing for the blue/white from from the "Home Cheesemaking" book by Neil and Carole Willman.  I pierced before the water wash, and the holes stayed open, so I didn't bother to repierce.  I thought that these would be a harder crumblier (there's that word again) than a brie, but I opened the smallest one yesterday, two weeks early, as I was anxious to see what was going on, to find that they just might be a beautiful soft centre, and it also has blue growing right through.

Next time though I think that I might repierce at least once more, maybe twice, before wrapping at the two week mark.  Will open the large wheels first before I decided.

[Brie]

Sounds very interesting--dying to hear (and view) how it turns out. Sounds like a Cambazola recipe (Margaret Morris) that many of us have tried, that never seemed to show the blue veins. I am liking your idea of brining that probably helps in keeping the holes open so that the blue will develop. Please post pics, when available.

[Tea]

CH and I have been on a mission to perfect a cambazola for years, and I know that I tried a recipe from there that didn't work too.  Just to soft and the holes closed over.  That why I decided to see what success I had with this recipe before venturing back to the other recipe.

I was reading a post in the "blues" section and I think LB said that a cheese could be pierced more than once.  So that got me thinking about these cheeses, and whether another piercing or two during the white bloom period, might help with the internal blue growth.  Worth a try anyway.

[Tea]

Ok here are the cut pics of the blue/white.  Very happy with how the cheese looks, but for some reason, the cheese tasted off.  Had a strange after taste and smell.  Aged for the time given, so wondering if maybe the fridge was too warm.  It was around the 9-10C.
Anyway, I feel like I am finally getting somewhere with this cheese, so will do this again, and see if I can get the flavour right.

The ash brie is still ripening.

[Gürkan Yeniçeri]

Hey Tea,
How are you going to get rid of off taste on your next try? What sort of off taste was that, is that because of ash, P. Roqueforti, PC or combination of these things? Or something completely unrelated?

What sort of strange after taste, can you describe a bit? Is there any chance of cross contamination with other cheeses.

I have no solution but trying to understand the particular off taste.

[JeffHamm]

Hi,

Could it be that after cutting, the cheese just needs to air out longer?  I made cams a couple times, and found that if I didn't let them "air out" they could taste a bit off.  Airing them, however, tended to take care of that.  By airing, I just mean leaving it out on the counter, unwrapped, and room temp for an hour or two.  Have you tried that?  The cheese certainly looks fantastic.

- Jeff

[Tea]

Thanks everone for their imput.  I truely think that this is a fridge issue, which includes my grandson turning off the fridge for me.  I had thought that I had caught it early, but this cheese makes me think that I didn't.
Jeff I did let the cheese sit for 1/2 hour unwrapped before we tried, so I don't think that it is an airing issue.

So going to try this again.

[Brie]

Looks good, Tea--although the paste looks a bit too firm--what do you think?

[Tea]

This cheese as I originally said, is not a true blue brie.  The curd was left to sit and mat, then broken up by hand before molding.  Having said that, as the paste warmed up, it was very soft, so for me it was much softer than I expected.  Those pics show straight out of the fridge.

So I am tossing up whether I will do a blue brie this time round, using some of the steps from this cheese, or perfect this cheese before moving onto the blue brie.  I learnt alot from doing this cheese, and it has certainly given me the courage to try the blue brie again.

[JeffHamm]

Hi Tea,

Oh, that's right.  I forgot about the unplugged fridge.  I think that this one looks so good that it would be worth doing it again after gluing the plut into the wall to perfect it, then move on to the blue brie.  That way, when it comes to a taste test, you have a proper example of this one as a benchmark.  Who knows, you may prefer this version when the aging goes as planned!

- Jeff