Ok, this is a weird query and probably a non-starter, but what the heck. As I posted a few days ago here:
http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,19160.0.htmlmy first attempt at cams was an abject failure, culminating in their being frozen because I screwed up the thermostat setting in my fridge/cave.
I found them in this sad state about 12 hours later, reset the cave to 50 deg f and left the cams, in their aging box, in the cave, more out of curiosity about what would happen than anything else. With some moistened paper towels below the "draining rack" (plastic egg holding racks cut to size) to maintain humidity. No PH readings for any of this as I cannot get my new meter to work.
For the last couple of days when I open the box I initially get a sour, acidic smell. Then it mellows to a kind of milky banana-ish smell after a minute. No mold growth of any kind, but I guess it's too early for that even with healthy cams, just four days after the make?
I know that even if the cultures had remained active in their frozen milk matrix these would not be cams, so is there anything I can do to conduct a productive or interesting experiment? Eg, I was thinking of waiting a few days and spraying them with a PLA wash, PLA is the only version of linens I have. It's not straight BL, rather a mix of linens, DH/yeast, geo and ARN, typically used for washed rind makes.
Is this a remotely viable use of my precious PLA, or should I just trash the batch? I have another batch of later-made (unfrozen
) cams going in the cave (in aging boxes) so I do also have a slight fear of cross-contaminating them with BL even though I'm pretty careful with handling, I wash hands and spray them and fridge handle with star san before each check.
I guess I'm hoping for some kind of somewhat edible, semi-stinky, sort of washed/mixed-rind cheese. Wow, that's a lot of qualifiers!
The board is so slow these days it makes me feel guilty to add to the load of those who usually take the time to answer (thank you, kind Bantams and Mike Char) so if this is just a really stupid idea, no need to do so. I'll just take it as a "give it up and learn some more before you head off the ranch, lady."
