Making Camembert today

[boothrf]

My cams from 17 September are going along beautifully. Still quite firm so won't be cutting into any just yet. Beautiful mould growth and no sign of slip skin at all. Will post some photos later this week.

Made some mores cams on the 8th October, this time using my meso recipe. This has a much shorter syneresis time before hooping, and my previous attempts resulted in very moist cheese, prone to skin slip and short shelf life. This time I paid more attention to the stirring steps, ensuring I stirred all the curd well, and I also left them to drain for 30 hours. The results look fantastic and the weight of the cheeses indicates my moisture levles are much lower this time. As an experiment, I left some of the curd in the whey for 30 minutes longer before hooping, to see if there was much difference in the end product. At this stage, they all look the same and are now happily sitting in my maturing container in the cave.

I'll update with some photos when the mould growth starts in 6-7 days tiime.   

[boothrf]

An update on my 17th September thermo cams. They are now 35 days old and looking beautiful. Cut one open today to have a peek. Still not really soft yet, but the flavour is very, very good.  I have attached some photos.

My meso cams from 8th October are now fully covered in PC and have been wrapped. They too look very, very nice, as you can see.


I'll update on the tastings soon.

[OzzieCheese]

GReat looking cheeses.. I have tried two different recipes and both have been failures.  Any chance of a description of the 'brined' methode and recipe ?

[Boofer]

Sweet cheese, Bob!

I really like that contrast between the colors of the paste and the rind.

I enjoy your cheese "travelogue". Looking forward to more.

-Boofer-

[boothrf]

  Thanks boofer! The cams are still maturing, after 8 weeks. The paste is getting nice and soft now, no sign of ammoniation yet and very tasty! I'll post some final pictures soon.

My other cams, from 8th October, are now 5 weeks old and also progressing well. They are ripening faster that the previous batch due to their higher moisture content and slightly thinner height. I'll be cutting into them soon too. Thanks for your interest.

[boothrf]

Cut open my last Cam from 17/9 make, 63 days old. This is my Thermo recipe, and it has quite a long synerisis time. This batch I stirred quite well too, so the result has been a much "drier" cheese then my previous makes.

The rind has faded from a brilliant white to a creamy colour. It is just starting to get some darker discolouration on the rind, but there is still no hint of ammoniation yet. The paste is now getting soft almost to the centre, but certainly no where near gooey. The flavour is very creamy, camambert flavour, with a nice earthy flavour from the rind. Overall, I am pretty happy with it: a nice, very edible creamy camembert without the rich custard like texture that I aim for. 

PS I'll post some photos of my meso cams from 8/10 shortly.

[boothrf]

Here are some photos of my meso cams, made 8/10. I made them in two slightly different thicknesses, as part of my experimentation with stirring times.

The first two photos are of the thinner cam, 196g. It was already starting to show signs of some ammoniation, with some darkening on the rind, and a slight ammonia aroma. When cut, the cheese was very soft and almost runny. The paste was creamy, with a slight bitterness on the aftertaste. This cheese is definitely ripe and needs to be eaten now. 

The last photo is of the slightly larger (thicker) cam at 277g. This cheese had only the faintest ammonia smell on the nose. Cutting it revealed a lovely soft, gooey exterior with a line of chalky, harder paste in the centre. The flavour was particularly good, classic creamy, earthy camembert flavour with just the very slightest bitterness on the after palate. This cheese needs another week or so to fully ripen into the centre.

[Boofer]

Drool....
Yeah, thinner is better. Man, they do look tasty! Good work.

Now, where's that crusty bread?

-Boofer-

[boothrf]

Thanks boofer 

Yes, they are very, very tasty. Enjoying every mouthful with crackers, fresh bread or just plain naked cheese! It's great to taste the result of all my hard work and patience!

[medomak]

Bob,

Beautiful cheeses.  Can you elaborate a bit more on the differences in your make between your september "thermo" cams and your October "meso" cams?  Particularly the stirring and the ripening temps, if indeed there were any differences?

I'm just trying to get a sense of what made the October batch runnier compared to the September batch. 

Thanks.

[boothrf]

Thanks for the compliments medomak. 

The main differences in the make are as follows:

• Thermo cam recipe has half the pre-ripening time, 45 mins vs 90 mins
• Thermo cam recipe has a much longer syneresis time (time from cut to hoop), 130 mins vs 50 mins.

Ripening temps were the same for both cheeses, as were all other steps, apart from the different cultures. I must admit, I don't fully understand the affect that using the different starter cultures will have, apart from flavour differences.

Also, I had a bad expereience previously with very moist cams ending up with skin slip, so when I made these thermo cams I was stirring quite aggressively by the end of the syneresis time. I suspect I overdid it, and expelled too much moisture during this step.

Hope this information helps, and if you have any other ideas, let me know.

Bob