I started out on Sunday morning, making a half batch of chaource as per 200 Easy Cheese Recipes. Using Meso Aroma B, geo 15, and PC-ABL. Everything went according to plan until time to gently scoop the curd into the crottin molds. I had purchased 4 crottin molds specifically to make this half recipe of chaource, but there were several different molds all called 'crottin', and I know now that I picked the wrong ones. The recipe said that it would take a while, but that all the curds would fit. NOT A CHANCE! I switched to camembert molds, and even that took quite a while to get all the curd in there, since the recipe doesn't involve any cutting/stirring/cooking of the curds. So, they're much bigger than they should be. The pic is of them just before salting.
From here on out, it seems like the treatment for chaource is pretty much the same as for camembert, so I'll carry on and see what I end up with. I assume that because they're so much larger than they're intended to be, they will not be ready to eat as quickly. Does that sound right? The recipe says that they won't soften like cams would. Anyone know why that would be? At first I thought that it was because of the acidity, being a lactic cheese, but it seems to me that cams sit and drain for quite a long time too and they would become fairly acidic in that time, no?