Camembert - Andrée's first try !

[Andree]

I'm stealing John (CH) template for my first camembert attempt ! 

MAKING
•   Mar 30, 2012:
o   8:30AM: Poured 4 L of Lactancia purefiltre 3,25 % pasteurized homogenized cow's milk into a stainless steel pot in sink filled with water to heat the milk at 88-90 F.
o   10:10 AM: When milk at 88-90 F, stirred in 1/6 teaspoon liquid CaCl2 diluted in ¼ cup cold water, 1/6 teaspoon  mesophilic starter culture (Abiasa aromatic B) and 1/12 tsp of Penicillium candidum SAM3.
o   11:45AM: Milk still at 88-90 F, stirred in 1/6 teaspoon liquid rennet diluted in ¼ cup cold water
o   1:00 PM (1h15 after adding rennet): check for clean break, there's a break, but not very clean (see picture).
o   1:15 PM (1h30 after adding rennet): check for clean break, there's a break, but nothing better than at 1:00 PM (see picture). I tried to check for physical flocculation point, but after 20 minutes, the bowl was still spinning freely, so I decided I would go with the time... I cut the curds in 0.5-1 inch cubes, let it rest for 5 minutes, stir gently, let it rest for 5 minutes.
o   1h30-2h00: Ladled the curds in two camembert hoops. Curds were VERY fragile. And did you notice... I forgot to remove the more whey I could before ladling. Result: most curds passed through the mat.  I was able to save most of it, but it was not nice curds, but mini-mini-curds, very wet, even if ladled with a draining spoon. After filling all the hoops, I removed the more whey I could from the "cheeses" by pressing them with my fingers and removing the whey with a baster (don't know if it's the good word... this). Temp of the room is about 72 F.
o   2:30PM: Turned cheeses. The two cheeses sticked to the mats, one more than the other, but it was better than what I was hoping for.
o   3:00 PM: Turned cheeses. No sticking.
o   4:00 PM: Turned cheeses.
o   6:00 PM: Turned cheeses.
o   8:00 PM: Turned cheeses.
o   11:00 PM: Turned cheeses.

•   Mar 31, 2012:
o   9:00 AM (19 hours in hoops): One cheese is 1inch tall and the other one turned out to be a little less than 1 inch. Salted cheeses on both faces and sides with 0,5 teaspoon of coarse salt per cheese. Turned cheese and put them  in a closed plastic container with a paper towel under a metal cooling rack with a mat on top of it. Put the container in the refrigerator. Normally the fridge temp is 39 F (4 C), but we have some problems lately and the temp is 48-50 F (9-10 C), not a very big problem for the cheese I think ? 
•   Every day: change the paper towel and turn the cheese. Let the cheese "breathe" at room temp for about 5-10 minutes each time. Cheese are looking good and smelling good 


QUESTIONS
•   I was wondering if you knew what I could do to have better curds. A friend of mine as already done some cheese with the milk I used. Use more CaCl2? Use more rennet? Wait longer for the curds to set?
•   Next time, I have to remember to remove the whey before ladling in the hoops...
•   Do you have any comments or advice for this batch or the next?

[Andree]

More pictures... 

[beechercreature]

i'm not sure those mats are the best for draining such a delicate curd. you could try covering them with cheese cloth before you ladle into the moulds next time.

[beechercreature]

how much rennet did you use?

[Vina]

I think they look good!
But in future I would use cheese mats with smaller eyes. (or use some cheesecloth as already suggested)

[Vina]

how much rennet did you use?

as said above stirred in 1/6 teaspoon liquid rennet diluted in ¼ cup cold water

[Andree]

Sorry I forgot to write it, it's 1/6 teaspoon liquid rennet diluted in ¼ cup cold water (I just corrected it )

Thanks for your advise on the mat Beechercreature and Vina, I wasn't sure when I bought it. I was afraid if I used a too fine mat or cheese cloth, the cheeses would not drain well enough ?

[Cheese Head]

Andree, looks good so far, if I may:

• Your precut curd looks good, don;t see a problem. Some ideas on causes of poor coagulation here and some different when to cut the curd methods here.
• Your curd cutting looks very uneven.

Good luck with blooming phase!

[Andree]

Thanks

It seems I'm not very good at cutting the curds evenly 
But also, a lot of the curds broke in little chunks when I stirred them, even if I did it very gently, is it normal?

How/with what do you stir the curds normally ?

[OudeKaas]

I just try to stir very very gently, usually and they don't break up too much if I am careful. Leads me to think, as others have suggested, that perhaps your curds were on the fragile side to begin with?

[tinysar]

If your curds are falling through the mesh when ladled into their molds, you can try this trick for handling delicate curd:
Put a sheet of baking paper over the mesh, then ladle the curds in on top of this. Put another sheet on top of the mold (underneath your 2nd mesh) before turning for the first time. Then remove the paper on the next turns, leaving just the mesh. This gives the curd a chance to knit a little first - it will drain a little slower, of course, but it's only for the first 2 turns, i.e. 30 minutes, so it doesn't make that much of a difference to the total draining time, and can make the molding step much easier.

[george]

To answer one of your original questions, I think you should have waited longer before cutting.  Even if the bowl was still spinning at 20 minutes, would have been better off just continuing with that method.  One time I had a 28 minute flocculation - I can't remember if it was on a cam or a Stilton, either way it was something with a really big multiplier, and boy did THAT mess up my day waiting all those extra hours!!

I'll admit that I didn't do the math on the amount of rennet you used vs. milk quantity.  But in general I'd say use a bit more rennet next time, and stick with the flocculation.   

[Andree]

Many many thanks to you all for your replies ! It will really help me a lot

[Andree]

Some news about my cheeses

- Blooming began on April 3 (4th day after making of the cheese)
- My refrigerator was repaired on April 4, so the temperature dropped to 4 Celsius instead of 8-10 C
- The cheese was fully covered by P. Candidum on April 12 (13th day after making of the cheese). You can see the pictures below

Cheese #2 has a different "rind", more wrinkled. Is it normal or not, should/can I do something about it ?

[DeejayDebi]

They are looking very nice!