I used the recipe from cheesemaking.com, and was hoping for something like this, picture from their website:
(https://tiabr.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/bf6416e2add023676fa023ebe66275ee.jpg)
All seemed to be going well, according to the recipe:
(https://tiabr.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/DSCN8377-e.jpg)
Two gallons of whole milk + 8 oz. of whipping cream, and I got three cheeses, all between 400 and 420 grams. But, six weeks later, ended up with this, almost hilariously different from their pic:
(https://tiabr.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/DSCN1384.jpg)
Toadskin, plus it was attacked by a very productive strain of Geo (I assume it's Geo), so productive that just touching it leaves your fingers covered in spores:
(https://tiabr.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/DSCN1386.jpg)
I know it looks pretty dry, and it probably is, that problem has been fixed going forward.
Disappointingly, after two months, there was very little growth of blue:
(https://tiabr.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/DSCN1392.jpg)
But, you ask, how did it taste? Actually pretty darn good. Not at all Camembert-ish, in the sense of having a goopy texture; rather, the paste was pretty dense. Just at the limit for my enjoyment of sourness, with some complexity, and there was a subtle "blue-ness," which changed from bite to bite, and maybe is the point of a CamBlu. If I hadn't had different expectations (more blue flavor), I probably would have been very happy with this.
(https://tiabr.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/DSCN1395.jpg)
I'm trying an experiment . . . of the remaining two cheeses, one got brushed (litterally, I used a dish brush under the tap), then dried and re-skewered. T'other I left alone. They will both now go down for refrigeratization for a month.
(https://tiabr.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/DSCN1413.jpg)
Cheers,
-Lance
Yep. That's geo, I think. It's pretty much exactly the same geo that I get -- very powdery. It's great as a base for natural rinds, though.
There are a couple of things, though. First Cam blues/Camzolas are almost contradictory. To get it to work, you need to get your timing almost exactly right. Blue, geo and PC all compete for the same food source and depending on the environment, you will usually select for one, which will dominate. When doing natural rinds and avoiding blue molds, this is wonderful, but trying to get a mixed mold culture with any of those, it's basically always going to be tricky.
The one thing I noticed right away is that your cheeses are very tall. This is important because the shape of your cheese actually makes a difference. Assuming you had a total of 1250 grams of cheese from 7571 ml of milk (2 gallons), this means you got about 16% yield. That's slightly under what they state in the recipe, but seems perfectly reasonable to me. Your cheeses are about the same height as they are wide. Judging from the pics that would be about 3.5" (8.9 cm) in diameter. You are using 3 molds and Jim is using 4 molds. So your cheeses are about 7.5 cm tall, while his cheeses are 3.5 cm tall. This makes a big difference for the PC growth, and especially will completely change the way the paste develops. So, if you wanted to go for this small format size, I would cut the cheeses in half so that you get 6 disks, each 3.75 cm tall.
Next, is the blue. I was just reading about this and there is apparently a trick (and true to form, Jim is using it). It is very, very important that the salt is completely distributed through the cheese *before* you pierce it. If it isn't, there will be gradations of salt, some of which are too salty for blue mold (which is only happy up to 8%). This is probably where you ran into troubles: your cheese was twice a thick (or another way to put it -- had half the surface area per height) and so you had twice as much salt on the tops and bottoms of the cheeses when you salted it.
The timeline here is important. Make the cheese. Drain to get acidity, salt. Wait for the salt to distribute. Let it dry. And *then* pierce. So it should be on about day 5 or 6 that you pierce. Then you have to let it go blue. So you wait 2 days before adding the the PC (and I've even heard of waiting more). The idea is that you need to get the blue in the centre blooming *before* you get the PC going on the outside of the rind. If you don't, the PC will close the holes an choke out the blue. Similarly, you need to be careful of spraying the geo in the holes because geo will compete ferociously with the blue and often win out.
Your humidity is absolutely crucial as well. Blue and PC seem to like some moisture. So when Jim is talking about drying out the cheese, it's not to the point of getting a rind. You want to dry it only to the point where it has a mat finish, rather than being shiny. As soon as it stops being shiny, then you need to get it in to the 90%+ RH (and, personally, I would probably do it a bit earlier). Geo will tolerate much drier conditions than the other 2, and this is probably why you ended up with only geo.
And finally, I will share the biggest dissappointment I have on the cheesemaking.com recipes. The pics in the thumbnail (i.e. the finished version) are almost *never* the cheese that Jim made. They are often cheeses that he has photographed on his many journeys and are the goal he's trying to hit. There is a big tell in this pic: the piercings are made horizontally, not vertically. Very clearly not his cheese. If you read his write ups of the style, he's very up front about it, however, I get the impression he publishes these writeups somewhere else and they are then inserted into the cheesemaking.com website because he often references pictures that are not on the site. It's very frustrating at times.
Thanks Mike. As usual, your comments are helpful in my cheese journey :)
I misspoke in my post. The original weights were between 477 and 500g, for a total of maybe 1.4 kg. The weights I mentioned were from three weeks later.
I haven't had such an aggressive (in the sense that it covers your fingers with spores) type of Geo on my other cheeses.
Understood about the shapes - - another thing I've still learning about. The cheesemaking.com recipe suggests using three of their Camembert molds, from their website: "Actually I find it provides a taller cheese which I like better for this style." Theirs are 4-1/4" in diameter, whereas mine are 4" in diameter. Dunno what that means.
As for the timeline, I followed the website:
Day 2: Salted, flipped 6 hours later, more salt, flipped 2 hours later, rest of salt
Flipped daily until
Day 5: Poked
Flipped daily until
Day 8: Sprayed with Geo/Pen
Then cellared. As I've mentioned, probably with too low humidity.
Thanks Mike, you've confirmed my growing suspicions that some of the pics on that site are more inspirational than actual.
It seems like one of the ways to eliminate some of the too-many variables in cheesemaking (like size) is just to make bigger cheeses.
I've just cellared a four-gallon Flor Azul/Gorgonzola type, following Caldwell's recipe. Interestingly, after a week of flipping, then you pierce the cheese but DON'T flip it for a week, then flip, pierce and DON'T flip it for another week. I assume that's to allow the holes to stay open so you get better internal blue growth?
-Lance
I managed to hold off for three months!
Brushing one of them was useless. The strain of Geo I have is so aggressive that, even though they were both in the fridge, I couldn't tell which was which:
(https://tiabr.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/DSCN3622.jpg)
Inside looks pretty much the same:
(https://tiabr.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/DSCN3625.jpg)
But, you ask, how did it taste?
Very nice, very edible. Any sourness is gone, and it has a nice, mellow flavor. And even though there doesn't seem to be much more visible blue, the flavor is now stronger (some where between mild and medium) and consistent throughout.
(https://tiabr.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/DSCN3635.jpg)
-L