I tried this once before but the white mould didn't grow. My guess is that I was not careful enough with re-hydrating the PC. Anyway, I decided that it would be a good time to try again so that I have some around Christmas.
I started yesterday. The process so far is:
(From "Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking" - Gianaclis Caldwell)
3L Fleurieu Jersey Pasteurised, Non-homogenised milk. P = 3.3% F = 4.8%
I00 ml Fleurieu Pouring Cream F = 35.5 %
• 1⁄12 teaspoon ( dash ) of M235 culture
• 0.36g (pinch) Penicillium Candidum (rehydrate 16 hours before use in 150ml of cool, boiled water with 1⁄12 teaspoon of salt and 1⁄12 teaspoon of sugar added)
• Approx. 1/4 drop(0.015g) Geotrichum Candidum
• 0.6ml of 200 IMCU rennet in 12ml of water.
• 1.0 ml of CaCl2 in 20ml of water.
• Morge of blue cheese (LA Vera Adel Blue)blended in cool, boiled water
Warmed combined milk and cream to 31C
Added cultures and leave for 2 min.
Stirred culture in for 3 min. and ripened for 20 min.
Stirred in CaCl2 and rested for 5 min.
Stirred in rennet for 2 min. Flocculation occurred at 14 min. Coagulation time = 6x = 84 min.
Cut to 15 mm. Rested 5 min.
Stirred gently for 10 min. Rested 5 min.
Drained into cloth-lined colander and allowed to drain for 20 min.
Ladled a layer of the curds into two 95mm lined moulds. Sprinkle on a few drops of the blue cheese morge.
Drain for 10 min.
Added further layers of curds interspersed with morge.
Allowed to drain for 21 hrs. Turned at 30min, 2 hrs, 5 hrs, 8 hrs and 11 hrs and 23hrs. Temp kept in the low 20s.
Salted ½ tsp per cheese per side with 2 hrs between sides. (pH of whey at start of salting ~ 4.5 / target 4.7-4.8)
Looking good Andrew. Love the pics!
Thanks, Ann. Here's hoping...
Andrew, if you don't get the results you're looking for this time, I'm wondering if you're using a bit too much salt. If I understand correctly, you're using a total of 2 tsp salt for cheese made from 3.1 liters of milk+cream, for a ratio of .645 tsp of salt per liter of milk used.
By comparison, when I make a camembert, I use a total of 4.5 tsp of salt per cheese for 8.044 liters of milk+cream, for a ratio of .559 tsp of salt per liter of milk used. Not a huge difference, but ... you might try cutting back your salt a bit.
Thanks for the suggestion, Andy.
On checking Caldwell's recipe I find that she only uses 1/4 tsp per side, so you may be onto something.On the other hand, the amount I have used is the same as I use for Camemberts and I have not had any problems with them.
We'll see what happens, but I will bear your suggestion in mind.
Cams are 1.2 to 1.7 percent salt to weight of final cheese.
Thanks for the information Gregore.
As I didn't weigh the cheeses, I don't know just what percentage of salt I've used but some rough calculations would seem to indicate that I have indeed oversalted them.
I will be making some Camemberts in the next week or so, so I will give this some consideration.
I use 2% of salt on my cams as we like it slightly saltier. It still make good cams. I doubled that by mistake once, and PC was not forming properly and it wasn't ripening for a long time.
Quote from: AnnDee on October 30, 2016, 09:00:50 AM
I use 2% of salt on my cams as we like it slightly saltier. It still make good cams. I doubled that by mistake once, and PC was not forming properly and it wasn't ripening for a long time.
This discussion made me curious, so I weighed the cheeses: a total of 574g in two of them. That gives me a surprisingly high yield of around 18% but means that the salt will be around 2% which, hopefully, will be alright.
2% should be okay ... Some will have come off with the whey .
They might take a few days longer to get PC so try increasing the temperature to 60 until they start to get it .
Quote from: Gregore on October 31, 2016, 03:00:09 PM
2% should be okay ... Some will have come off with the whey .
They might take a few days longer to get PC so try increasing the temperature to 60 until they start to get it .
Not much did come off with the whey. They have not lost hardly any whey since I put them in the aging container straight after they were salted.
I pierced them yesterday and sprayed the PC on today. They are currently at 13C but the idea of raising the temperature a little sounds worth trying.
I some times take mine out of the cave for a few hrs per day to give them a little tropical vacation , to help increase the PC growth .
PC starting to burst out all over these little beauties (and on the Cams which I made a few days afterwards).
No sign of any blue in the holes though, but who knows what is happening on the inside. I don't intend to worry about what I can't control.
I've turned the temperature down again and I will probably re-pierce them somewhere down the track.
Once I get a good white overcoat I'll move them to a colder location.
Looking good ... eager to see the final results!
Me too, waiting to see how this one turn up.
Thanks Andy, Ann. Me too.
I saw the first hint of blue today, so all is on track.
I now have a sparse and patchy white bloom on my Blue Bries. I think it's mostly Geo but with some small tufts of PC. I've had them sharing aging boxes for the last few days with some Camemberts. That has now stopped because the Cams, which were made later than the Blue Bries, are now fully covered and ready to be moved to a colder environment.
The good news is that the blue seems to be well established, so I should get something worthwhile out of this, even if it is not really Blue Brie.
Those look really good to me! Of course, I've not made a blue-brie before, but it looks to me like you've got all the pieces in place - blue, geo, and PC.
Anxiously waiting... :)
I agree with Andy, that looks nice and with a gooey paste it would be perfect.
Merry Christmas to all on the forum!
I opened one of these yesterday. The other one is going to my brother's today to be part of the festivities.
With the lack of PC, I'm not really sure that I could describe them as Blue Bries. They do, however, look pretty ugly and, as usual, that's a sign of a good cheese. These are really nice: soft and creamy with a good blue taste.
I would like to know why the PC didn't develop but, given the way they turned out, I'm not too worried about that.
Nice! A cheese for U... :)
Thanks Danbo.
Merry Christmas.
Lovely! A cheese for you and a Merry Christmas / Happy Hanukkah / Season's Greetings to all!
Thanks Andy and all the best to you.
Mmmm, looks tasty! :P Have a cheese.
Looks like you'll be repeating this effort to nail down the PC. ;)
-Boofer-
Quote from: Boofer on December 26, 2016, 02:29:27 PM
Looks like you'll be repeating this effort to nail down the PC.
Yes, definitely on the list.
Thanks for the cheese, Boofer.