After an almost 3 year hiatus from Camembert making today I start my 9th batch based on Wiki: Brie/Camembert Cheese Making Recipe (https://cheeseforum.org/articles/wiki-brie-camembert-cheese-making-recipe/) updated with learning's from fellow member's posts. This batch uses 3 US gallons / 11 liters of store bought Pasteurized & Homogenized cow milk.
MAKING
- Feb 4, 2012:
- 6:30AM: Placed three fresh 1 US gallon jugs of store bought pasteurized homogenized cow's milk from fridge into sink to warm.
- 8:00AM: Poured milk into ~4 US gallon stainless steel stockpot on cooker, milk at 54°F, turned gas heat on low. Tricked and stirred in 3/4 teaspoon diluted CaCl2 to help get good curd set. Measured and sprinkled ~0.6 grams Danisco's Choozit Brand Mesophilic Starter Culture MM100, 4-5 puffs of Choozit Penicillium candidum VS strain spores, and 3-4 of Choozit Geotrichum candidum Geo 13 strain spores onto milk and stirred in with skimmer.
- 8:35AM: Milk at 92F/33C, turned gas off. Melted ~0.7 grams powdered rennet crystals in 1 cup room temperature filtered reverse osmosis water, trickled into milk and stirring in 1 min with skimmer. Note, forgot to wait 90 min for pH to drop!
- 9:15AM: Checked curd set, still too soft.
- 9:30AM: Checked curd set, good, cut curds into ~1 cm/0.5 inch diamonds, set aside for 20 minutes for cut curds to heal and start expelling whey.
- 9:50AM: Stirred cut curds gently to minimize clumping and to cut any large pieces.
- 10:10AM: Started ladling cut curds into hoops until full.
- 11:00AM: Finished ladling all curds into hoops, should have used more hoops.
- 11:30AM: Turned hoops, sticking to mats, partially peeling off.
- 1:30PM, 2:10PM, 4:00PM, 6:30PM, 10:30PM: Turned hoops.
- Feb 5, 2012:
- 6:00AM: Turned cheeses out of hoops onto course weave food grade mats on wire racks on paper towels to wick whey away, on baking trays to catch whey.
- 8:45AM: Salted top's with 1/2 Teaspoon dry salt.
- 12:30PM: Turned cheeses, replaced paper towel, salted other side with 1/2 teaspoon dry salt.
- 8:00PM: Placed in new Sistema Klip It brand Deli Storer Plus model with tray ripening containers in cheese cave to bloom with one side lid fully cracked by propping with 2 clips.
BLOOMING
- Feb 6, 2012: Age 2 Days, turned Camemberts, still moist.
- Feb 7, 2012: Age 3 Days, cheeses starting to dry, cracked lid on only one corner by propping with clip.
- Feb 9, 2012: Age 5 Days, slightly moist to touch and bloom starting, left with boxes cracked at one corner.
- Feb 10, 2012: Age 6 Days, slightly too dry to touch and bloom not advancing, left with boxes cracked at one corner propped by small piece of yard string trimmer plastic. At end of day found humidity still too low so closed containers completely.
- Feb 11, 2012: Age 7 Days, bloom getting better after closed lids fully to get humidity higher.
- Feb 12, 2012: Age 8 Days, bloom still poor, added little water into bottom of closed ripening containers.
- Feb 14, 2012: Age 10 Days, bloom good, condensation in containers indicating humidity too high, drained off water, hand patted cheeses down, small amount of slip skin at edge, replaced in containers with lids adjar to dry out a little overnight.
- Feb 16, 2012: Age 12 Days, bloom good, still very soft at ages indicating part slip skin, placed in kitchen fridge at 45F/3C to ripen.
RIPENING
- Feb 19, 2012: Age 15 Days, bloom now minimal, patted mold down, rind around side is loose and feels thick but no longer liquidy inside, turned and placed back in ripening containers with lids off to reduce humidity in kitchen fridge at 45F/3C to further ripen.
- Feb 21, 2012: Age 17 Days, bloom now minimal to pat down, cheeses firm, not yet soft, turned and placed back in ripening containers with lids off in low humidity kitchen fridge to continue ripening.
- Feb 23, 2012: Age 19 Days, bloom now minimal to pat down, cheeses semi firm, turned and placed back in ripening containers with lids cracked in low humidity kitchen fridge to continue ripening.
CONSUMING
- Feb 24, 2012: Age 20 Days, cut and ate first cheese with most slip skin (loose rind) cheese, texture still too firm, slight liquid around perimeter, taste good, slightly too salty.
- Feb 29, 2012: Age 25 Days, cut and ate second cheese, texture still too firm, slight liquid around perimeter, taste good, slightly too salty.
- Mar 4, 2012: Age 29 Days, cut and ate third cheese, texture still too firm, significant liquid after cutting and sitting at room emp for 5 hours, taste good, slightly too salty.
- Mar 10, 2012: Age 35 Days, cut and ate fourth cheese, texture better, minimal liquid around perimeter as drier, taste good, slightly too salty.
- Mar 12, 2012: Age 37 Days, cut and ate fifth cheese, liquid around perimeter and top as cheeses not turned lately, very runny at room temperatures, tastes great, albeit slightly too salty.
NOTES
- Need better draining system for hoops, current draining tray not big enough for more than 6 hoops and bows in center so waterlogged hoops tend to drift towards center and due to widely separate ridges, leak curds our side.
- Next batch don't air dry so long, were too dry when placed in ripening containers to bloom fully, do not need lots of bloom.
- Next batch don't let bloom so much - as long as 12 days age, place earlier in cold kitchen fridge @ 1 week to surface ripen earlier.
Consuming pictures . . .
OK, starting to have problems, see records in original post and slight slip skin in last picture.
I just patted the mold down and replaced in containers in fridge cave with lid adjar to dry out a little overnight, any advice appreciated!
PS: Happy Valentines day to all!
John, thanks for posting all those pics. You know me...I'm a sucker for pictures. A little vicarious thrill being there looking over your shoulder....
Sorry, no advice to give. Never done a Cam yet.
-Boofer-
Happy Valentine's Day to you too! I think if you can keep the humidity down in your containers you can keep the slip skin at bay. They are looking good. I have had pretty good luck just leaving my cams out on racks exposed in the fridge to age. They don't collect the humidity in the boxes and seem to still age quite well. But, if you have other cheeses aging in the fridge, you probably wouldn't want to do that.
Good luck with your cams.
Bonnie
Thanks both, just added two more snaps, looking good but still very soft around top and bottom "corners", bloom pjhase done, just placed in kitchen fridge to ripen to da core!
Going to make another batch this weekend, which of course means I'll be eating cam's until I'm sick of them.
Open the door and let the air in!
Cut first one today, chose one with most slips kin around perimeter, pics above, small liquidy around edge, nice taste and texture but still firm and lightly chalky, no gooyness yet.
They look delich!
Thanks Deb, I've now eaten 4 of this batch of six, thoughts in first post and pictures above, as you can see still fighting ripening issues of partial slip skin and uneven development, but they do taste way better than the store bought stuff!
Looks like a cam assembly line. I like those ripening boxes that hold a pair.
They look good. Are you cam'd out or do you plan to make some more and conquer the slipskin problem?
-Boofer-
I would suggest:
-no geo 13, not unless you can drain them better.
-use MA4001 instad of MM100, it will get your whey off faster and allow you to brine and dry. You should be designing the recipe to get your cheese as dry as possible from thelooks of the slip skin issue you are facing.
-more air!
-brine them, it will give you much better rind development and uniformity.
Your pH markers should be:
-rennet at 0.15 - 0.2 pH drop from start
-30 min set, not 60
-stir to a pH less than 6.3 (6.2 is best)
-Leave to drain in a warm area to pH 4.8 or less, this should take about 12 hours if you can keep the cheese at 70F. Immediately brine them in a cool (55F) brine and place in your ripeneing room.
Good luck.
Boofer, I've made three batches in last month so yes getting there, I currently have 15 in fridges at different stages of ripening and yes trying to get these better!!!
Francois, thanks for ideas, will try to incorporate as many as possible on next batch. Problem with giving them more air is in fridge it's very low humidity so cheeses dry out.
Way back in time now...I installed a laptop cooler in the back of my cave to circulate the air inside. Maybe you could fashion something similar. It's just a couple fans in a flat plastic enclosure.
-Boofer-