1st Brie

[rkampa]

Ok - made my first brie last weekend.  This is my third cheese.  The first two were a gouda and caerphilly.

2 gallons of milk, 1 pint cream.  Put everything into the pot and started heating it.  Then I read the label on the cream and it had carrageenan added.  Nothing to do but continue.  45 minutes for the culture to mature; 90 minutes for the curd to form.  I didn't cut the kurd but started to laddel it into the forms.  Some, actually a lot, of the curd started coming through the forms so I put it back into the pot and cut the curd to try and get it to firm up.  After an additional 10 minutes started again and had the same problem so emptied the form again and lined the forms with cheese cloth.  This seemed to do the trick.  flipped it 3 times over 6 hours then left is sit overnight.  Flipped once more in the morning and went off to church.  Cam back and salted both sides and let is sit for about 1 hour at which point I put it in my aging box.  I checked it this morning and the cheese looks wet.  So here is my dilemma.  1.  How will the carrageenan affect the cheese.  I saw in other posts the it tends to make a fragile curk.  2.  Is the wet cheese at this stage normal?  Do I dry it with a paper towel and hope for the best or just leave it?

Thanks
Ray

[timsumrall]

It's sloppy but you should resist the cloth. It's supposed to be super moist for days.

Make sure your rennet is fresh and kept in the freezer. My first Brie's used an older rennet and when I bought new is was night and day.

You could cut your cream in half. Sorry i don't know about carrageenan. I wouldn't worry too much.

I cut my curds vertically at a big 1 inch, rest and then cut horizontal with the label straight in to the molds.

Here's me finally getting a consistent batch of 3 small Bries from 1 gallon. I use Walmart milk and ultra pasteurized cream.

https://imgur.com/gallery/7It6v9Y

[awakephd]

FWIW, I make my camemberts (or really, camem-bries - too big for true camembert, too small for true bries) from 2 gallons of whole milk plus 1 pt of heavy whipping cream. The only cream I can get around here is ultrapasteurized, with carageenan. I make use it anyway ... and the results are delicious, if I do say so myself.

With store-bought P&H milk, I never get curds strong enough to ladle directly into the molds. I cut the curds, rest, stir gently for 15 minutes or so (during which they often shatter - oh, well), and rest again, before draining them all into a colander lined with cheese cloth. Yep, I'm doing everything wrong - but I still get results that I love. Part of the problem for me is that my molds are too short, so I have to get rid of some whey before I can get the curds in. Note that I don't drain the curds completely, though - just enough to get into the molds.

Once they are in the molds, I flip two or three times, 30 minutes or so apart, then leave it overnight in the molds with a cloth over the molds. In the morning, I flip again, and leave in the molds, covered with a cloth, for all that day. I finally start salting about 24 hours after making - this ensures that the cheese has completely bottomed out on the acid curve.

Again, I am doing everything wrong ... but it works for me, so I keep doing it. All that to say, the proof is in the pudding, or in this case, in the brie. If you like the results ... you did it right.

[mikekchar]

I'm curious what you think is wrong in that (apart from the ultra pasteurised cream).  Sounds good to me...

[awakephd]

Well, a bit of rhetorical hyperbole at work.

But: Shattered curds, carageenan, draining in colander, wrong size and too-short molds ... none of these are mentioned in any of the recipes.

It goes to show that, while small changes can make big differences in the final cheese, the opposite is also true, to a point. Or maybe a better way to say it is, there are certain factors that really matter, and the recipes strive to meet those factors - but if one can achieve the same factors with a different procedure, all is well. In this case, we need a high-moisture, fully-acidified curd. Long flocculation times, large cut size, no cooking, only gentle stirring help ensure the former, and a long time in the mold before salting helps ensure the latter.

At least - as best I understand it. I make no claims to any great depths of understanding, and am always still learning!