my Camemberts

[kayaknell]

I had a failure on my first attempt at making Cams. Second time they worked even if I think there might have been too much Geotrichum added which contributed to the "toad skin" appearance? This was also my 6th cheese style I have made. My Blue turned out, the Taleggio was really good, Gouda and Edammers are still aging. So far I am learning quite a bit and positive feedback from folks who have tasted the cheeses has been good encouragement.

cheers,   Lawrence

[garbetsp]

I just finished my first batch of Camemberts and they look about the same or a little worse. Best I can tell is we both ended up with the dreaded slip skin. The Geo overgrew on the surface. My skin had a soapy flavor due to the high pH. The inside was delicious. There are several possible causes of this I've read:

1) too much Geo culture.
2) too high humidity when working on bloom. Should be 90%. I think mine was closer to 100%. Still working on this. I think this is what caused it for me.
3) too much moisture left in cheese when starting to flip. I.e., insufficient salting.
4) too warm when working on blooming.

I'm got my 3rd batch aging now. There are notable improvements in the consistency of what I've made, and it's been tiny tweeks across the batches. I've cut the humidity back when working on a bloom, got a tiny measuring spoon for consistent measure of culture and salt a bit more aggressively. The differences in appearance already is noticeable. Fingers crossed it turns out better in the end. So I feel like we're both close to a wonderful Camembert.