I've made a couple bries and cams and, whilst they taste good are a bit firm for my liking (I like my cheese to crawl off the plate!). What can I do to get the interior of the cheese to be runnier at room temp?
Your most likly just need to change your make, its possible your over draining the cheese or\and aging at too low temp after completion of mold coverage.
Decrease fat in the milk to a milk PF level of .8-.9, or retain a tad more moisture at draining by cutting with larger curds/increasing floc multiplier, or wait longer before cutting so you hit a slightly lower (.05) drain pH. And make sure they acidify enough before salting.
Remember, in bloomy types, it is the protein that runs, and fat and calcium help to provide the backbone for the cheese. So if you want more runny cheeses, then up the protein, or lower fat, or lower calcium. Calcium balance is twofold: one, drain pH; two, terminal pH before salting (which should be 4.6-4.8). To support the runniness, you also need a decent level of moisture retention, which you control by floc and curd size.
Just want to say Pav, above all else, thank you for your generosity to everyone on this site, and elsewhere. I truly value all the help you've given over my relatively short time in this science and art, and take a good amount of pleasure in seeing others profit so much. Thanks, man. :)
So LB, am I correct then in thinking that a triple cream brie won't be any where near as runny as an ordinary brie?
Arnaud, I agree, the information on this site is awesome.
Absolutely, Tea, the paste will be totally different. It will be soft, though, spreadable, because of all that fat and moisture retention. And it takes longer to age out, but once it does age, it will be really decadent. Just will not "flow" the same way. Good example is the difference between say, delice de bourgogne from Burgandy, and regular cam from Normandy
Thanks all - I shall retry with some appropriate modifications.
One thing I can recognise as an issue was ripening at too low a temp (~6c) and in a sealed container, so it stated to whiff of ammonia. I've got a new setup now so hopefully that will help.
How much longer does it take for these to ripen? I have two large wheels of triple ash brie ripening in the fridge now, and I think the recipe said 7 weeks. They consist of 14ltr whole milk with 1.8lt fresh cream. They are at about week 3 of being wrapped now.
I would eat at 70 days, but depends on aging temp and exact form factor. I like aged bloomy rinds, though.
so that's how the brie flows :P
Ok I am going to do exactly as you advise. In the past I have only ripened then 6-7 weeks, and I was disappointed as I didn't think that they were ripe enough. I am assuming that they should feel soft, spongy, when ready?
Matnewman
Thanks for asking the question. My cam was runny where the ones in the shops arn't. Thought it must have been something the shopbought ones had to help preserve them.
Really interesting, will research some more. Thanks linuxboy.
Gemma
Manufactured Bries & Cams where milk has to be p/h ie outside of France are generally stabilized, search on Stabilized Camembert, one discussion is here: https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,1511.msg25134.html#msg25134 (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,1511.msg25134.html#msg25134)