Latest try at Camembert, not as nice as usual.

[Shazah]

I had such high hopes for these Cams when they were first made but alas, they didn't ripen up in the centre and the rind became chalky.  I also didn't like the flavour as much but couldn't put my finger on why they would be so different from my first good results. (made at home straight after attending a really good cheesemaking class)

When I first started making cheese a couple of years ago, I didn't know what type of rennet I was using so when it came to replace it, I purchased vegetarian rennet.  I have since replaced that with a double strength calf rennet.

Is the rennet likely to be the cause of the differences I've experienced in flavour and texture?  My milk is Farmhouse pasteurised, unhomogenised, store bought milk, which is what I use for all my cheesemaking.  Everything else in the process is the same.

I thank the forum members for their great knowledge base and advice so far in my cheesemaking adventures.

Cheers
Sharon

[JeffHamm]

They certainly look good.  Your mould growth looks very nice.  I take it you used Silver Top milk?  That's a good full cream milk, around 4+% cream.  Not sure if that could do it.  How long have you aged them?  And under what conditions?  Are these a purely meso make, or a mix of meso and thermo cultures?  A few more details about the make and storage will help focus the advice from people with more experience with cams than me!  I think they look pretty good, and would suggest you continue to age the other one for a week or two more at least.

- Jeff

[Shazah]

Hi Jeff

Yes, I used the Silver Top (Farmhouse) milk but something your comments have prompted me about is that when I first started making Cams I also added 100mls of cream to every litre of milk, which I forgot to do this time around.

This pic was taken after four weeks in my cave at 12C

I used a meso and STB01 culture as well as the Penicillium candidum.

This pic was two of six that were in the batch.  I jammed the cut one back together and wrapped it to age another two weeks.  We opened one each week thereafter  and ate it even tho they never softened at all in the centre.  We couldn't eat the last one as it had that horrible ammonia smell and the rind was quite brown (and I was quite over Cams by that stage too)  Normally I would feel quite confident to give them away but didn't want to risk giving any of these out 

Cheers
Sharon