New to cheese making and decided to jump right in and try to make one of my favorite styles of cheese, Cambozola.
I am using the Camblu recipe from New England Cheesemaking (
https://cheesemaking.com/products/camblu-recipe) as a starting point. I have read several other recipes and watched several youtube videos as well.
I used store bought blue cheese that I enjoy to make a slurry in a blender. I tried to use mainly the blue mold and a small amount of the milk I was using for the cheese. Right or wrong I let the slurry sit out covered for two days before using.
I decided to go with the sink and sous vide method for temperature control. I used an infrared thermometer to measure the milk temperature.
I again deviated from the recipe by cutting the curd and allowing about a five minute “healing” time after cutting and stirring. I only stirred gently for 2-3 minutes each time.
Then I used a mesh screen in the whey and ladled off some of the curd. I then ladled 2-3 ladles into the mesh screen and then ladled it into the three molds. I did this until the three molds had about two ladles in each.
I then used a small syringe (3cc) with the needle removed to suck up some of the slurry (2-3 cc) and put that on the layer of curds trying to stay away from the edges. The slurry also developed a blue “skin” on top so I used part of that for one of the molds to see what the difference would be.
I then followed the same procedure to add another layer of curds and then another application of the blue mold and finished with the third layer of curds.
Unfortunately, I started my cheese making in the afternoon. So I stayed up until 4 am flipping the molds every two hours. I then flipped it again about six hours later and again just before the initial salting. I had them out of the molds for the initial salting of the tops. I flipped them after six hours and did that top and sides. I might have been better off leaving them in the molds. I got a slight bulge on each of the cheeses.
I then moved them to my tupperware style boxes with the lids open on bamboo mats. I flipped them twice a day for the 24 hours they were salted and drying. I used paper towels to remove moisture from the boxes and placed paper towels under the bamboo.
I then moved them to my dorm fridge in their boxes. I have it plugged into the ITC-308 temperature controller and set it at 54 F.
I flipped the cheeses twice a day and continued with the moisture control.
After two days of this I used the cheese thermometer to poke holes in the top, bottom and sides. They were then moved back to the cheese cave in their boxes. I moved to flipping and moisture control once per day.
I made the white mold solution as directed, and allowed it to hydrate overnight in the spray bottle. Two days after the holes were made, I sprayed the top and sides as directed. I left the cheeses uncovered and at room temperature for two hours. They were then moved back to the cheese cave in their boxes and I continued flipping and moisture control once per day.
At the time of the hole poking, no blue mold was evident. Four days after the white mold application, I am starting to see some exterior blue mold, and not much white( at least that I can see)
Questions I have:
1. how long to wait on white mold before either respraying or wrapping?
2. When to change temp in Cheese cave (these CamBZola are the only ones in the cheese cave/fridge
3. Wrapping or not wrapping, when and why?
Thank you in advance!
Brian
