Brie & Camembert - Wrapping > Innoculate vs Spray Penicllium candidum Recommendations

[george13]

I was wondering if there is a set time frame during which wrapping is reccomended.  Also, is there a downside in not wrapping them until they are ready for consumption.  I always felt that I can monitor them better in a well drained  tub where I can also control humidity, and flipp them, as I observe mold development.  I have read posts where some people wrap them once mold is established.  Any opinions?  Thanks

[iratherfly]

Rule of thumb is to wrap them when they have a nice PC coverage all around.  That being said I would experiment with wrapping papers and environments. Many of these wrapping paper suffocates the rind and ammoniate it, causing too much geo to propagate and causing the PC to recede. This can give you loose skin, undesirable aroma and bitter flavors. Many cheesemakers choose not to wrap them at all until storage. You just move them in an aging container to a normal fridge (at the same time you would have otherwise wrapped it) and then turn them every day or two, using your hand to tap down the growth, making it nice and dense.

My best advice is to make a single batch of several identical cheese wheels (same shape, size and weight all from the same batch). Then, wrap in different papers (or do the no wrap method) so when you get to ripe period you can compare them apple-to-apple side by side and see which method works best for your recipe and aging environment.  For me the 3 best results are with perforated cellophane, with no-wrap at all, and with Expaco paper.

[george13]

Thank you very much Iratherfly, I am becoming more and more meticulous with my surface mold rippened cheeses, as I want to perfect them.  Just out of curiosity, when it comes to inocullating these type of cheeses, which school of thoght do you follow, spray the surface or innoculate the batch.  I am making a Saint-Marccelin and wanted to keep it very authentic.  Thanks

[iratherfly]

Both are authentic and will give you similar results.  The only exception is spraying something that you want to develop inside the body of the cheese too and not just on the surface (such as aromatic yeasts).  Inoculating the milk directly is easy and it saves you the extra step of making a morge cocktail and spraying it later.

The more cheese you have however, spraying makes more sense and could save you a lot of culture. Spraying also give you more control so for example if a cheese is not draining fast enough you can delay the spray another day or two instead of having the cheese growing premature mold. Or in another example, if you have a bold spot you can spray it directly. If you have mold overgrowth spot - you just can skip spraying that spot. It also gives you the flexibility to change mold in the middle of aging based on the cheese response, or doing successive affinage. (such as in Pont L'eveque; washed red rind is sprayed with PC later in aging so you get a mixed rind). Another thing I like about it is that I can make a small bottle that will last me through 3 batches of different cheeses and I can spray from two bottles on one cheese to create a cocktail without actually making one.  The only thing is that it could be very wasteful to make these spray cocktails if they are just for one cheese. You need to make them and think about using them for as many cheeses as possible over their 2-3 week refrigerated lifetime.

Just make sure to sanitize the bottles and mark them with their date and contents diligently:

[george13]

Outstanding information as always.  Thank you.

[iratherfly]

Any time George! Would love to see what you are working on

[george13]

I'll try to post some pictures later this week.  Thanks again.