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CHEESE TYPE BOARDS (for Cheese Lovers and Cheese Makers) => ADJUNCT - Rennet Surface White Mold (Penicillium candidum) Ripened => Topic started by: JeffHamm on April 12, 2014, 08:01:23 PM
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Hi,
I was very pleased with how the curd formed up when I made a munster recently. It was much better than the curds I get when making brie and camembert. At the time I remember thinking I should replace the linens with PC and make a white mould version. Well, that day has come. I've made a morge from a small, 110g cam by Ornelle (a NZ cheese company). Anyway, I've increased the fat content, though it seems some of the cream has turned to butter in the bottles (the cream collects to the top and solidifies, so not really butter, but it doesn't come out). I'm waiting for it to floc now, and we're over the 15 minutes and finally floc'd after 20 minutes, though it still seemed weak. There was a lot of butter fat floating on the surface. So, things are under control and we'll see how it goes. I'm also hoping to make feijoa butter (feijoa's are also known as pineapple guavas in some places, and feijoa butter is like apple butter, only made with feijoa's - think really thick spiced jam or apple sauce). Could be a long day around the stove I think. But, according to the plan, this should be in the mould around 10 am, which means I should, in theory, have the feijoa butter in the jars around 1 or 2 ish.
Jeff’s Brie (adapted from Muenster - 200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipes) Sunday, Apr 13, 2014
5 Litres Silver Top (creamline 4% fat, 3.1% protein; 0.78:1 p:f ratio)
1 ice cube buttermilk; 1 ice cube crème fraiche
Small bit of cam rind in warm water (from Ornelle, 110g Cam)
¼ tsp CaCl2 in egg cup water
Rennet (0.8 mls 280 IMCU Calf rennet)
Salt
1) Add CaCl2 while setting up
2) Add culture and b.linens to milk and warm to 32 C (7:17 32.3 C)
3) Ripen 15 minutes (7:17 - 7:32 31.9 C)
4) Add rennet (7:32:00 floc time 7:52:00 = 20m 00s 4.5x floc = 90m 00s cut time 9:02:00) - note: floc was still quite weak.
5) Cut to 1.25 cm cubes (9:04 - 9:09)
6) Ensure temp is 32.0 C ( 29.2 C raised back to 32.3 C)
7) stir gently for 15 minutes (9:17 - 9:32)
8) Let curds settle, cover and rest 30 minutes (9:32 - 10:02)
9) Drain whey to level of curds, then gentle transfer curds to cloth lined colander (keep warm)
10) Drain 30 minutes (10:02 - 10:32)
11) Ladle soft curds into mould (no cheesecloth; but press them lightly to ensure they are spread evenly – used large coffee cup full of water) and drain 24 hours (flip several times over this period and remove any whey – keep cheese above the whey; a good curd (10:37 – flipped 11:26, fusing nicely – again 11:25 - 2:00 - 3:20 – 7:20 pm (and patted with paper towel before the night press, added a saucer on top of the coffee mug as well; looks very promising, though still a bit thick yet - 5:50 am – 5:48 pm – 868g 15.7 x 4.1 = 793 cm3 = 1.09 g/cm3)
12) If cheese still too soft to handle, continue to drain/flip for 6-7 hours more (??:?? - ??:??)
13) Sprinkle each face with ¼ tsp salt up to 1 tsp for larger cheese (6.25” tomme mould, used 1 tsp each face )
14) Place cheese in ripening container and ripen at 13 C, 85% humidity
15) Flip cheese daily, remove any whey until no more released (about 3 days; Munster was dry first day)
Sunday, Apr 20th, 2014: First sign of mould spotted today.
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I'll watch this with interest.
I'm intrigued by the feijoa butter though. I love feijoas, I met and learned to love them when living in NZ: you so rarely seem them elsewhere.
I've two small feijoa trees at my place, but it's yet to fruit.
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Hi geo,
I've never made feijoa butter before. I've seen reference to it, and I've found some recipies for apple butter online, so I'm sort of winging it. But, the basic idea is scoop out your feijoa pulp and cut it up, cook this with some apple cider vinegar (say, a kilo of pulp and 1/4 cup vinegar), and add some cinnamon and ground cloves. Cook that for 20 minutes, to get the fruit good and soft. Force it through a sieve to make it very fine. Then, add 1/2 cup sugar for every cup of pulp, heat to dissolve the sugar, then cook at high heat to reduce it to thick paste (get the water out), stirring all the time to prevent it from burning (will probably take an hour or so?). Put in warm sterilized jars, or can it "properly", but make sure you get a good seal.
I had never had them before either, until moving to NZ. Didn't care for them at first, but I quite like them now. We have two huge bushes at our place (as in 2 stories high; one was pruned back to a stump a couple years back, so it's just been regrowning, so no fruit this year, but before then I could pick fruit from our balcony). Once they get going they make great jam, muffins, and loafs. I'll let you know how the "butter" goes.
- Jeff
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I'd very much like to hear.
As an aside, I'll be using a similar approach today, to make pinot paste from some home-grown pinot noir grapes a friend has been kind enough to give me.
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Turned out very nice! Out of my kilo of feijoa pulp I ended up with 3 cups of mash, and in the end filled 2 1/2 250ml jars with feijoa butter. It's very nice. The spices give it a very "apple pie" taste, which I quite like. Feijoa's are high in pectin, so you don't need to add any liquid or powdered pectin to get it to set. Took about an hour to get it to reduce down and thicken (you can tell when it's ready when you can feel the resistance in the stirring, and the spoon leaves a clear trail behind it while the butter just oozes back rather than flows back - it will sort of whip up like meringue). It's the sort of thing that will pair very nicely with cheese.
- Jeff
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It looks and sounds amazing. Have a cheese for your accomplishment.
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Thanks. Just having a bit now, with some of my Wensleydale, and they do pair very nicely. The feijoa butter really has a nice apple pie and ginger flavour, with neither being too strong, and they meld nicely with the cheese. I'm quite chuffed. Now, must not eat the entire jar and wheel in one go! But, you know, hot buttered biscuits would go really nice with these (by biscuits I mean the bread / scone type biscuits, not cookies - being from Nova Scotia, where biscuits only mean a bread type thing, I still find it hard to call cookies biscuits).
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Just flipped this for the final time before the over night press. Fusing nicely, though still some crevices. Still, the PC will fill those in if all goes well and there's no gaping canyons. Wiped off the excess whey that coats the cheese in my tomme mould. Even though I don't use any cheesecloth in the mould for this make, the holes are quite small so it doesn't really drain freely. However, that's probably not a bad thing as it has to drain until tomorrow evening, then it gets a 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of salt top and bottom. It's still pretty thick right now, but if the previous munster forcasts this make (so far there's no difference except this make was all the creamline high fat milk, so quite possible things will go a different path), it will eventually settle to a good thickness. At this stage, I'm pleased with how the curd is doing and I don't think I'll end up with a puddle. My other Brie attempts have generally been much wetter. If this goes well, I think I've proved, once again, that yes, even monkeys can learn!
- Jeff
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Ok, just before 6 pm this evening, this is now out of the mould, salted (1 tsp each face), and in the cave. Weighed in at 868g, and is 15.7 x 4.1 cm, for a density of 1.09 g/cm3. A bit thick for a brie, but it will continue to shed whey over the next few days. Should do, as the munster ended up an ideal size for a brie, though I did use a higher fat milk this time. Anyway, hopefully will see mould in the not too distant future.
- Jeff
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Just checked the munster make, and it was about 200g lighter, and a cm shorter. It was denser too (1.15 g/cm3 compared to 1.09). So, I think this one has retained a bit more moisture, which is probably not too suprising as the curds were very good as it was all creamline milk, while the munster had 3 litres of slightly lower fat and p/h milk. The p/h stuff will break up more as the curds are much more fragile. So, I think this has retained more moisture due to better curds. But, I think it will shed whey and settle a bit. If it ends up too thick, I can make the next one in my 1/2 brie mould (which is much larger across, and drains better ; not entirely sure why I didn't do that this time actually?)
- Jeff
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as i live in the UK i have no idea what a feijoa is, is it a kind of sweet fruit like a plumb or a fig?
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They're also called pineapple guava's. You can see some in the background behind the jars (the green things). They have a very unique flavour, and when I first tried them I wasn't a big fan, but they grow on you (they can be a bit gritty). Still, they make good jam and this butter is great. They are wonderful in muffins and loafs (like banana loaf, etc). Apparently they make good wine too, though I've never tried that. I can't really think of anything they taste like to be honest, they are sort of their own thing.
- Jeff
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i might look around see if i can get them anywhere, i would be interested to try them, and maybe make a wine out of them.
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I think you can buy the plants in the UK, and apparently they will fruit (in a year with a long hot summer). I saw one report from a few years ago where they were about $4 NZ each in London! Might be a bit pricey for wine otherwise! :)
- Jeff
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Update on fruit shopping: i found out that i can buy feijoa vodka :o.... and feijoa trees i might buy a plant and see how it grows in my green house.
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Hi,
If you get a bush, you might need two (a male and female plant). Everyone here says you need two to get fruit, but it's hard to tell because they are in most yards here.
- Jeff
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before i get a bush i am going to look into it a bit more, i will update you if the small venture goes any further.
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They can get quite large too. The ones outside my place are 2 stories high, though they can be kept more manageable with pruning.
- Jeff
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Spotted white mould starting on the upper face when I flipped it this evening. The cheese is holding it's shape well, but still has a nice soft feel to it that is the texture I hope for when I'm making these. As long as the mould develops properly, and it doesn't get contaminated, this should be a decent cheese. If it's not too thick, and ripens all the way through, it could be a superb one. If ... well, you can see what can happen if I let myself if over this cheese too long.
- Jeff
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Grrrrr! It seems I'm also getting a lot of wild blue mould growing too! There's a lot of wild blue mould here and so I tend to get a lot. Normally not a big deal, but on cams and bries it is a pain. I was hoping the PC would come on fast enough to prevent the blue from getting a foothold, but to no avail. I've brushed it back, but of course that takes the new PC growth too. Hopefully the PC will come in faster.
- Jeff
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Well, this got wrapped before I could determine if the PC was going to out compete the blue mould (we were going on a family holiday, so wrapped and in the regular fridge for the last dash). It's coming up on 30 days, so I decided to have a peak today to see how the mould battle progressed. Turns out, the willd blue has definitely competed well with the PC and the two faces are basically blue and PC; a nice even sheet of both, though the sides are more PC than blue. Still, the cheese has a good feel to it, and it doesn't appear to have developed any slipskin issues. I'm hoping the paste will be good, though I'm expecting the rind to be disposable. Still, it was wrapped back up and will cut into it this weekend. Fingers crossed it's ok.
- Jeff
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Here's the blue contaminated brie. It weighs in at 808g and measures 16.5 x 3.3, for a density of 1.15g/cm3. It feels like it's ripened, but the wild blue has ruined the rind. Oh well, hopefully the paste still has a decent flavour. We'll see in a couple days.
- Jeff
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Ok, it's been about 4 weeks, which is when I expected this to be ready. And, sure enough, the paste is in perfect form! The rind is not nice, this isn't stray p.roc, but just a wild blue mould that tastes dusty and unpleasant. However, the internals are good. Has a nice cam/brie flavour, paste is gooey, not runny, and should ooze and slump once up to room temp. If I can get the rind development right, this will be a winner for sure. I think next time I'll also spay with p.cad in water, to really make sure the pc takes over and wild moulds don't come to the party.
- Jeff
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Looks great Jeff!! I tend to get that same blue mold after doing a Stilton in my cave but I found that if I spray the interior with a diluted chlorine bleach solution when cleaning, and then mist all of the interior surfaces with cognac I remove all resident molds and open the cave to a wonderful fruity aroma every day.
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Without wanting to hijack the thread - misting the interior surfaces with cognac is an intruguing idea. I came home a few days ago from three weeks away, to find wild blues rampant in my fridge, with the back of the wooden shelves (where they meet the condensation at the back of the fridge) and the cheeses covered in wild moulds. I brushed the mould from all the cheeses off and scrubbed then with a vodka-vinegar-brine solution, and bleach scrubbed the fridge. I may try the cognac approach. Do you do it with all the cheeses in the fridge, or remove them first?
I'm pleased the paste on the brie is still nice Jeff. Wild moulds or no, it's a lovely looking cheese.
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Hi,
Thanks. Yah, I got to thinking that I think I forgot to put the plastic mats in boiling water to clean them before putting this on top. Since most of my cheeses develop a wild rind, the mats would have lots of spores. I'm pretty sure the problem was due to that as I usually don't have quite this big a problem with wild moulds on my bries. Next time will ensure the ripening box is well prepared.
- Jeff
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Had some of this on my lunch today, which was a mix of potatoes, pumpkin, and chicken. I cut a wedge, removed the rind, and put it in the bowl before heating in the microwave. And, this is the best melting cheese I've ever had. It melted into a runny and gooey cheese sauce! Very tasty. Must work on doing this again, with proper rind development. Also, must get the b.linens muenster version perfected.
- Jeff
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Without wanting to hijack the thread - misting the interior surfaces with cognac is an intriguing idea.
Indeed it is. I never thought of alcohol (ethanol) but seems to be a logical choice and worthy of doing some tests.
Thanks Jeff for the updates and a cheese for your "best melting blue brie". You certainly have a "rind" for cheese ::).
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Fantastic looking cheese Jeff, I have got to do a wight mold ripened cheese, looks so yummy ^-^
A cheese for you ;D
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Thanks for the cheeses all! Not much of this left actually. Most definitely will be trying this again, but will ensure better cleaning of the aging box and mats before hand. I want to try another muenster too, but age it out and get a stronger rind next time (same protocol, just different rind treatment). This protocol seems to produce a very good base for these kinds of cheese. Nice.
- Jeff