Truffled Camembert

[Marco]

Has anyone ever added truffles to a Camembert (or indeed any cheese make)

If so how did you do it, what form were the truffles before adding and how did it turn out?

Thanks in advance.

[mikekchar]

I've never done it, but I've heard of people using truffle salt.

[scasnerkay]

I did add truffles to a gouda make. I think adding truffle oil, or dry salting with truffle salt would have added to the flavor. It was surprisingly mild.
For 3 gallons of milk, I used 27 grams of fresh shaved truffle which had been frozen. Because I felt nervous about adding things to my cheese, I then simmered the truffle for 5 mins, adding the liquid in before renneting.
After the final drain of the gouda make, I worked the cooled truffles into the cheese before pressing.

[Marco]

Thank you both.

I have seen minced truffle products that contain minced up black truffle in truffle oil and truffle flavouring, this should be potent enough I think I just need to experiment with ‘amounts’.

I have some moliterno truffle pecorino cheese and the truffle flavour is quite intense.

[Marco]

Well I gave it a go!

I have eight 1lb forms maturing which should be ready for Christmas.

I also made a tiny mini one 70g with the leftover curd which due to its small size is ripe and ready at only 4 weeks.

The milk was organic jersey which has given a lovely rich colour. I simply layered some truffle paste in during the filling of the moulds.

[not_ally]

How did it taste? It certainly looks delicious. ACFU for your camembert efforts here and in other posts.

[Marco]

How did it taste? It certainly looks delicious. ACFU for your camembert efforts here and in other posts.

Thanks for my cheese! It tasted lovely! Still on the mild side but I could resist and the truffle added a little earthy flavour.

[Marco]

Just going to update this thread. I opened up one of my (eight) one pound cams that felt nice and soft. It seemed
Ready far earlier than I expected. Good news it seems to be working as it should, bad news it’s not ready yet with still a large plug of chalky cheese in the middle that hasn’t yet been converted to Camembert!

I’ll give them another two weeks and try again!

[not_ally]

At least you have lots more! Is that one bigger than the ones in your other threads?  It's good that you'll have a spread out period to eat them.

On another point, I am going to follow you on using ash on the next batch of cams I try, I think. After 14 days in the cave my second batch, while sufficiently covered in geo, only had a few random areas of pc coverage on top/bottom, though well bloomed on the sides. At 14 days I gave up and put them in the cold fridge.

[Marco]

At least you have lots more! Is that one bigger than the ones in your other threads?  It's good that you'll have a spread out period to eat them.

On another point, I am going to follow you on using ash on the next batch of cams I try, I think. After 14 days in the cave my second batch, while sufficiently covered in geo, only had a few random areas of pc coverage on top/bottom, though well bloomed on the sides. At 14 days I gave up and put them in the cold fridge.

Yes I have 3 mould sizes, the tiny 70g one above, 200g moulds and these ‘monsters’ are 450-500g! Probably a little too high if I’m being honest. Still experimenting with the big ones to get the initial fill level right.

[Marco]

Well quite a failure on these big (450g) truffled Camembert.

They took too long to ‘age’ by the time the centre paste was soft the outer paste had become too mature, very strong ammonia smell and the pc and geo on the surface looked exhausted and very patchy! Slip skin was starting to become apparent.

I’m afraid they were binned but the important lesson I learnt is the maximum height to go for next time!!

[not_ally]

Good thing you have those baby blues to eat! Hate to bin stuff, but it's not a waste when you learn something.

[Marco]

Well I also have some much smaller forms 170grams that were made a month ago and some are ready and these ones with truffle are a success and very nice they are too!

[mikekchar]

Marco, I think it's likely the opposite to what you think.  Ammonia takes time to be absorbed into the paste.  That's what is softening it, though.  If the outside is very soft while the inside is still hard it means that the mold on the outside is producing ammonia faster than it can be absorbed.  The solution is to reduce the aging temperature (or make shorter cheeses).  This slows down the growth of the mold, which reduces the amount of ammonia which gives the ammonia that's already in the cheese time to get to the center.  If you find that it's literally taking too long (like you've been aging for 7 weeks and it is still hard in the center), there are a few things to do.  First, make shorter cheeses.  This will make it easier to get to the center in a reasonable amount of time.  Second, if you have been adding extra cream, cut back a bit -- fat slows down the absorption of ammonia.  Third, make sure to go 24 hours at least before salting the cheese.  You need the pH to bottom out.  This removes some of the buffering in the cheese and means that the pH of the cheese will rise more easily (with less ammonia).