CheeseForum.org » Forum

Hi everyone,

I made some cam/brie the other day. 8L of PH milk. Used vegetable rennet and for the first time in a long time, got a good clean cut.

Anyway, I used an open ended " hard" mould for about half the curd and 2 round baskets for the other half. For 12-16 hours I struggled with the fact that, while the " hard" mould was doing its job and allowing for constant flipping of the cheese, the baskets were a failure. The curd was not forming properly and it was all falling apart when flipping, etc.

Finally I gave up and used two other small " hard" moulds. Of course, by then, and even though I did apply some mild pressure, the curd was hard and about corn size. I salted and set them out to dry however. One is looking like a stilton type of texture, grain wise, but I can manage, even though flipping is a nightmare, with curd sticking to my fingers. The other simply cracked in half. I put it in a tight ( for size) plastic container and in the normal fridge in the hope of recovering it for some other use, like a spread of fresh cheese for example.

Any ideas for something like this? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Recently someone on the forum (don't recall who, unfortunately) said that many of his/her early cheese making efforts resulted in a lot of lasagna.

Awakwphd: That lasagna, is certainly a very good option. Unfortunately in my minute Hong Kong apartment I do not have an oven.

I was thinking more on the side of adding some herbs or blue cheese for a spread. And also when would it be safe/unsafe to eat?

Oh, certainly you could add herbs/spices and use it as a spread. With refrigeration, it should last at least a week or so - at least, so I would guess; I don't have direct experience on this ...

I do this all the time with the curd from the cooked whey ,

I add either herbs , wasabi , or  hot spicy flavors .

It keeps at least a week or 2 , I have never tried freezing it . or you can roll it up as little balls  (golf ball size ) and let them age a little , the PC should still grow well.  If the curd is too wet  to hold its shape well , place them on a cloth over night and it should suck a fair amount of moisture from them .

If you age a few , taste et them at 2.5 to 3  weeks .

Great idea, Gregore - I like the idea of little balls covered in PC. If it ages at all well, it should turn into a mouthful of gooey goodness in one bite!

yes, very good idea. I will try some balls...