Camembert for beginners

[maluco]

Hi! My name is Mario and I'm from the south of Brazil, I'm starting to make homemade cheeses for consumption.I would like a tip over my camembert cheeses that I make with the scraping of other cameberts.I wonder if this wrinkles are normal in 20 days. This is a camblue.
Thank you

[Susan38]

Welcome to the forum, Mario!  Your cheeses sure look interesting.  I have no experience making camembert, but I'm sure you'll get responses to your question from others in the forum who do.

[awakephd]

Hi Mario, and welcome to the forum!

What you are seeing is the effect of Geotrichium Candidum on the cheese. While the primary mold used to ripen camemberts (and bries) is Penicilium Candidum, which gives the white coating, Geotrichium Candidum (actually a yeast rather than a mold ... not that I know exactly how that is different!) also plays a role. The Geotrichium gets established first, bringing down the pH on the surface of the cheese; then the PC gets going, and completely covers over the Geo. Geo generally produces a slightly tan-to-pink color and a slimy feel to the surface, and if allowed to flourish (i.e., without PC taking over), it produces the "brainy" look that you are seeing. Some varieties of Geo tend to give more of a brainy look, and others less. As I understand it, some cheeses are ripened entirely with Geotrichium; I believe this tends to produce a pretty strong, "funky" flavor and smell.

One possibility is that in your cheese scrapings, you are not getting enough viable PC to take over from the Geo. Another possibility may be the amount of salt, or pH level, or the ripening temperature, or so on -- the conditions may favor the Geo over the PC (though I don't recall off the top of my head exactly what Geo prefers as compared to PC).

[EugeneCol]

I take it this is your first camembert, Maluco?

[maluco]

 It was meant to be a cam blue. and this is a second..https://cheeseforum.org/forum/Smileys/default/smiley.gif