Author Topic: John's Cheese #034 - Camembert #6  (Read 10252 times)

Cheese Head

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John's Cheese #034 - Camembert #6
« on: February 07, 2009, 05:23:06 PM »
Today I start my sixth Camembert making based on the recipe here, (interspersed with helping daughter #2 paint her bedroom), my other Camembert records here:

MAKING
  • Feb 7, 2009, 10:40AM:
    • Poured ~3/4 US gallon/~3 litres of store bought pasteurized homogenized whole cow's milk & ~1/2 quart/~0.5 litre ultra pasteurized homogenized cow's milk whipping cream from fridge into stockpot on smallest gas burner ring on stove.
    • Warmed to 35 C while whisking occasionally pH at 6.0, turned gas off.
    • Measured and whisked in ~0.25 grams Danisco's Choozit Brand Mesophilic Starter Culture MM100.
    • Puffed few spores of Penicillium candida onto milk and whisked in.
    • Melted ~0.25 grams powdered rennet crystals in 1/4 cup cool bottled water, trickled into milk while stirring with whisk thoroughly for 1 minute.
    • Covered and set aside for curd to set @ 10:50AM.
  • Feb 7, 2009, 10:55AM: Realized forgot to add CaCl2 as using pasteurized milk. Whisked in 1/8 teaspoon of CaCl2 solution, found curd already starting to set, whisked in anyway, probably should have stopped. Covered and set aside for curd to set.
  • Feb 7, 2009, 12:15PM: Checked curd set, very poor - grainy as stirred after setting started, cut curds, let rest 5 minutes, ladled cut curds and milky whey into Camembert Hoops on mats on draining board.
  • Feb 7, 2009, 12:45PM: Turned cheeses.
  • Feb 7, 2009, 2:40PM: Turned cheeses.
  • Feb 7, 2009, 10:30PM: Turned cheeses.
  • Feb 8, 2009, 8:00AM: Removed from hoops, sprinkled just top and bottom with little salt, placed on mats in plastic box in garage to mature.
  • Feb 16, 2009: Good white bloom, wrapped Camemberts in white mold wraps and placed in household fridge for long term ripening.
  • Mar 13, 2009: Unwrapped and ate one of two Camemberts at 34 days, pictures below, beautiful rind development, but when cut found very runny inside even when fresh out of fridge.
  • Mar 26, 2009: Unwrapped and ate second of two Camemberts at 47 days, pictures below, again beautiful rind development, but when cut found even runnier inside, tastes great but slightly too salty.

NOTES
« Last Edit: March 27, 2009, 07:12:22 PM by John (CH) »

Cheese Head

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« Last Edit: February 08, 2009, 03:02:56 PM by Cheese Head/John »

Cheese Head

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« Last Edit: February 21, 2009, 04:32:06 PM by John (Cheese Head) »

Cheese Head

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Re: John's Cheese #034 - Camembert #6
« Reply #3 on: February 07, 2009, 05:24:03 PM »
Pictures #3 . . .
« Last Edit: March 13, 2009, 06:27:51 PM by John (Cheese Head) »

Cheese Head

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Re: John's Cheese #034 - Camembert #6
« Reply #4 on: February 07, 2009, 05:24:14 PM »
Pictures #4 . . .

Cheese Head

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Re: John's Cheese #034 - Camembert #6
« Reply #5 on: February 08, 2009, 01:35:04 AM »
Ok, made a bit of a hash of this batch in making phase, forgot the CaCl2, so whisked in 5 minutes after adding rennet, big mistake, ended up with very poor curd set and vary grainy cut curds and milky whey.

Second time I've disturbed the milk after adding rennet, big mistake.

wharris

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Re: John's Cheese #034 - Camembert #6
« Reply #6 on: February 08, 2009, 01:59:56 AM »
I had a similar looking curd set when i added too much CaCL2 and a bit much Rennet.  I was coming off a previous curd-set failure and i wanted to "make sure" that my curd set.

I rebounded by adding too much of both, and this is the same looking curd set that i got.

From now I will work a bit harder to add just barely enough CaCL2 and rennet, but not too much.

Tea

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Re: John's Cheese #034 - Camembert #6
« Reply #7 on: February 08, 2009, 08:50:08 PM »
Well John that certainly was a bad set.  What do you think caused that?  Hope how that the curds are formed that everything goes well from here on in.

Strange this caCl thing.  I added some to my last batch just to see what I thought, and I noticed absolutely no difference to the batch that I didn't add it too.

Cheese Head

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Re: John's Cheese #034 - Camembert #6
« Reply #8 on: February 08, 2009, 09:19:01 PM »
Tea, the cause of the bad set was me whisking the CaCl2 in 5 minutes after I had whisked in the rennet, thereby shearing all the initial work of the rennet which resulted in fine grained curd. Bad decision by me. Interestingly it was obviously already setting quite nicely without the CaCl2 as you found.

Likesspace

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Re: John's Cheese #034 - Camembert #6
« Reply #9 on: February 09, 2009, 01:33:12 AM »
John,
Even though the curd didn't set too well, the cheese in the mold looks good.
Hopefully this one will turn out, despite the mistake.

Dave

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Re: John's Cheese #034 - Camembert #6
« Reply #10 on: February 09, 2009, 09:04:49 AM »
John, after making my 15 gal parmesan this past week, I noticed too I got a real good set without CaCl, I won't use it unless I start to get bad sets.

Cheese Head

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Re: John's Cheese #034 - Camembert #6
« Reply #11 on: March 13, 2009, 06:21:23 PM »
For lunch today, unwrapped and ate one of this two Camembert batch, my first batch wrapped, 4 pictures posted above.

Wrapped came away from cheese nicely, beautiful looking rind development, both bottom and top, but when cut the cheese at ~10 C / 50 F after 2-3 minutes out fridge where aged 25 days in wrappers at 9 C / 48 F (34 days total), found very runny inside :o.

Ate it anyway ;D.

The rind had the normal Camembert taste and nice thickness compared to my previous non-wrapped Camemberts with thicker fluffier rinds, bottom where wrap was folded had more unevenness that store bought Camemberts, I think as these wraps are thicker than those on store bought Cams. The pate did not have much of the Camembert taste and was a little bitter and a little too salty and while mostly very runny, did still have a small more solid part.

Any advice/thoughts especially on why too runny appreciated . . .

Tea

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Re: John's Cheese #034 - Camembert #6
« Reply #12 on: March 14, 2009, 08:38:35 PM »
John this is just from my trials.  When I made the St Maure, I cut one and the outside layer of the cheese was quite runny while the centre was still a little chalky in appearance.  I rewrapped and aged a few more week, and when I re-opened the whole cheese had firmed up and the center had ripened and it looked like a normal cheese.

So it made me wonder if part of the ripening process involved this very runny period before it finally firms up when ripe.

Do you have any more left so that you can leave them a few more weeks before opening again?

Cheese Head

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Re: John's Cheese #034 - Camembert #6
« Reply #13 on: March 15, 2009, 12:33:28 PM »
Hmm, I assumed that it went from hard to soft, but it could be hard to runny to soft!

I have one left, whích I squished and it felt very soft . . . I'll open it in 1-2 weeks.

Tea

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Re: John's Cheese #034 - Camembert #6
« Reply #14 on: March 15, 2009, 08:49:13 PM »
Well so did I.  Have a look at the St Maure thread, and on page 1 is the first time it was cut, then page 2 is the second time.  The difference is incredible.