So, 6 weeks ago I got my first packets of molds, and I wanted to start using them right away. Being impatient, I chose Camembert as my first mouldy cheese, figuring that it would ripen faster than a blue, and, if I managed to fail utterly, at least I would know about it within a few weeks. Had I done a bit more reading, I would've known that despite the short affinage, Cam's are tricky to age well. So I've been a bit concerned about this little cheeses. They didn't really get off to the best start:
*I forgot to turn them enough their first few days out of the molds
*They were kept at too high a temperature for their first week - the PC went a bit rampant
*They were at normal fridge temp after that, requiring a long time to age
*Three out of the four cheeses got stuck to their mats (due to the inadequate turning) and tore off half of their skin - see the photos, it was pretty bad.
*Their humidity control consisted of damp paper towels in lunchboxes
So, considering all the things that had gone/could go wrong, I didn't have high hopes. The torn skin ended up healing over beautifully (I just tapped the PC gently on it whenever I turned them), but the PC had grown so fast in the first week that I was afraid that the rind would be more of a crust. When they still felt firm after 5 weeks I figured that it was never going to happen and was planning to treat this as a learning experience.
But they started feeling soft this week, so I cut the first one open today and it's just fine. Not the best Cam I've ever tasted, but I didn't have any geo, so it was never going to be perfect. I'm pretty happy with the result.
The first photo shows them at 5 days, the others were taken today, at 6 weeks. In the second pic, you can see the mess of rind that had peeled off. The third shows the wonderful recovery they made, and in the fourth you can see my lunch