Hi- My Brie is coming out earthy in flavor. Any idea why? I'm using the recipe on New England cheese. The texture is awesome buttery smooth and silky. Is it the milk?
Wait I just realized it's only 5 weeks old maybe it needs longer.
Brie is supposed to have a mushroomy/earthy flavor.
Susan
Some cultures are like that , is this a commercial culture ?
Here is the recipe-
- 1 Pack of Rick's Mesophilic C101 culture OR 1/4 teaspoon of MM100
The next 2 cultures are surface ripening molds and should be added to the milk when culture is added.
- Geotrichum C7 - just a pinch (about 1/32 tsp.)
- P.candidum C8 - 1/16 tsp.
- Calcium Chloride 1/4 tsp- If having problems with forming a good curd using cold stored milk then this can help. We do not use this with fresh milk.
Hello,
I typically use Flora Danica for brie since it's more buttery. I've found the mm cultures to produce a rubbery texture in Brie and Cams.
Sam
I was at a restaurant last night and had a Brie that was like eating a buttery cheese with no earthy. ..wish I knew the producer
I would definitely give Flora Danica from Danisco or Probat 222, or even Meso B from biena a try. These all produce more butter tastes.
Sam
When you say earthy .... do you mean like dirt ? Or barn yard , hay ? Or mushroomy ?
A good cam should have a coliflower type taste also
The cheese taste creamy smooth mellow then you are left in your mouth a bitter taste at the end. Not mushroom I like mushroom
For what it's worth - I read that bitter peptides are a result of proteins breaking down too quickly and one of many causes is an aggressive strain of PC. I went down to a more moderate PC (ABL) and I stopped having that issue.
Sam
thanks all..
Too bad I can't send out samples.
I agree a less aggressive will help a lot
But I also find that the bitter ending mellows as they get older , geo can be a little acrid on the finish notes .
Thank you everyone .. back to the lab lol
Hi- I'm back. So I cut a blue cheese I made and it has the same musty basement taste as my brie. It was of course covered with all kinds of colors where the brie only the white.
This could be where it came from on your brie, my wife had a jar of kefir in my cheese fridge dormant as a back up . One day I noticed all my cheeses with this acrid after finish , and dumped a whole bunch of them .
Months later it was still happening so I washed the fridge down , and noticed this jar , popped the lid and bam! That taste but in smell form . Her culture has made it out the plastic screw on lid and all over my cheeses .
As hobbiests that make many types of cheeses we have to expect cross contamination and cheeses that do not match in flavor the true form of the cheese we are trying to emilate .
I think I'm smelling ammonia as earthy...should I be airing out my brie like some advocate for blues?
Ammonia is part of the process that produces the softening of a brie or cam. The trick is to have enough, but not too much. Airing it out will help, especially airing it out for an hour or so before consumption.