I realised that I've only ever once attempted a Brie/Camembert style and that it was over a year ago so I decided to try again using the recipe from Caldwell's book.
I don't have a suitable form for a Brie soI decided to improvise and use the same trick that I used to make my 'stinky' cheeses (an idea suggested by someone on this forum). That is, to use a 5 inch diameter form with a divider so that I make two cheeses in the same form.
My estimate of when it was time to stop ladling and place the divider could have been better, and the divider didn't quite settle into a horizontal position but I have at least ended up with two cheeses which are roughly Brie-shaped which I couldn't have achieved otherwise. The surplus curds went into a pyramid form and a basket form.
The cheeses are now three weeks old (third photo) and the edges are softening much more quickly than I would like whilst the centres are still firm. I moved them to the cold fridge at 14 days and I'm now thinking that I should have done it a little earlier - maybe at around 10 days (second photo).
I've also realised that Caldwell says that aging in the cold fridge should be at 3-4 degC (38-40F) and my fridge is running at 7 deg C (45F). Just wondering what other people do?
I seem to have reduced the size of the images by rather too much :-[
Trying again...
Try this.. http://alewis64.blogspot.com/2014/02/triple-cream-brie.html (http://alewis64.blogspot.com/2014/02/triple-cream-brie.html) If you want your cheese to be very soft in the center, without heating it, leave out the extra cream and use 2% milk. Quit trying to split your cheeses into two. They will settle down to the correct thickness after flipping. You can make four cheeses with two gallons of milk. I make three. The more butterfat in the cheese the less chance of it softening. If the cheese is too thin it won't have a middle to soften. As for the ones you have, just heat them up a bit, one minute in the microwave, and they will get soft enough to eat and be delicious.
Hi Al
Thanks for posting the link. That's interesting. I had imagined that filling the 5" mould to capacity would result in the 'Brie' being too thick for its diameter. I might try your way next time. Since posting I have eaten the cheese which was softening most quickly. It tasted pretty good :)
I've had more variety in my milk's yield depending on the time of year. From silage fed in the winter I could only get 2 wheels from 2 gallons. Grass fed in the summer with the same herd and I got 4 nice wheels from 2 gallons. From a different source I got 2 oversized wheels from 1 gallon and should have split it to 3. I'm hoping with more experience I'll know how to properly split it for nice wheel size based on what I'm seeing in the curd and timing.