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Eleventh Camembert batch based on Wiki: Brie/Camembert Cheese Making Recipe. This batch uses new straining ladle and new extra large polyethylene cutting board as draining board for easier gravity draining whet from hoops of curds. Decided to make using 7 hoops vs 6 in last batch as their current height averages 39 mm vs two store bought in fridge (yes sad) averages 33 mm.

MAKING

• Mar 10, 2012:


• 11:30AM: Poured three fresh 1 US gallon jugs of Kroger cheapo brand store bought pasteurized homogenized cow's whole milk from store into ~4 US gallon stainless steel stockpot on cooker, milk at 50°F, turned gas heat on low. Tricked and stirred in 3/4 teaspoon diluted CaCl2 with new straining ladle 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 2-3 puffs of Choozit Geotrichum candidum Geo 13 strain spores onto milk and stirred in with skimmer.
• 11:55AM: Milk at 88F/31C, turned gas off, covered and set aside for pH to drop.
• 12:35PM: Melted ~0.8 grams powdered rennet crystals in 1 cup room temperature filtered reverse osmosis water, trickled into milk and stirring in 1 min with straining ladle. Removed skimmer and covered while waiting for curd to set.
• 2:30PM: Checked curd set, good, cut curds into ~1 cm/0.5 inch diamonds, set aside for 30 minutes for cut curds to heal and start expelling whey, stirred cut curds gently very 5 minutes to minimize clumping, help expel whey, and to break up any large pieces.
• 3:05PM: Ladled cut curds with new sieve ladle into 7 hoops, all curds used and 1/2" / 1 cm left at top of hoops.
• 4:00PM: Turned cheeses.
• 5:00PM: Poked 3 fingers four times around perimeter and into middle of curd to try and reduce amount of pockets of whey and resultant pockets in sides of cheeses based on, should have done this before first turning and curds less drained/cheese less formed.
• 5:50PM: Turned cheeses in hoops, no sticking.
• Mar 11, 2012:


• 7:20AM: Turned hoops, poured just under 1/2 teaspoon dry salt on tops while still in hoops.
• 7:00PM: Turned and removed from hoops, poured just under 1/2 teaspoon dry salt on tops.

BLOOMING

• Mar 12, 2012 Age 3 Days: Moved cheeses into large ripening box and placed in high temp cheese cave fridge to bloom.
• Mar 17, 2012 Age 7 Days: Small PC bloom started.
• Mar 18, 2012 Age 8 Days: Starting patting down small PC bloom and moved to cold kitchen fridge, still in large ripening box but without lid to reduce humidity.

RIPENING

• Mar 22, 2012 Age 12 Days: Medium PC bloom, still patting down, replaced lid cracked to reduce drying of cheeses.
• Mar 24, 2012 Age 14 Days: Medium PC bloom, patted down, replaced lid cracked to reduce drying of cheeses.
• Apr 1, 2012 Age 22 Days: Medium PC bloom, patted down, cheeses quite firm, replaced lid cracked to reduce drying of cheeses.
• Apr 15, 2012 Age 36 Days: Medium PC bloom, patted down, cheeses quite firm, replaced lid cracked to reduce drying of cheeses.
• Apr 25, 2012 Age 46 Days: Medium PC bloom, started eating cheese, thin rind, semi-hard, not correct paste, too dry and none pf the runnyness of previous makes, over dried vs too moist on previous makes.

---

NOTES

• Next batch insert fingers before first turn and vibrate with electric toothbrush and observe if any bubbles rise to surface and once hoops removed see if less holes around sides.
• Next batch do not reduce moisture as far.

More pictures to go here

Hi John,
My cams are still in the container and wrapped at 12DegC.  1 week in the paper... They are still emmiting a footy type of smell not bad just a bit strong.  I'm still a little concerned but prepared to go the distance. 3 weeks to go !
Doing a Caerphilly today I need to be still and empty my mind of the crap of the past week.

-- Mal 

Morning/Evening Mal, good to hear yours are still proceeding, I've now eaten 4 of 6 of my Batch #9, my Batch #10 is still ripening (I screwed that one up by I think forgetting to add PC & GC which I remedied by adding to surface at 10 days age).

Quote from: John (CH) on March 10, 2012, 05:57:28 PM
NOTES

• Next batch insert fingers before first turn and vibrate with electric toothbrush and obeserve if any bubbles rise tuo surface and once hoops removed see if less holes around sides.

This particular note caught my eye and...wait, what? Can you give a little more detail on what's going one here? You decided to brush your teeth while in the middle of a cheese make?   

They look pretty decent.

John, I wanted to make sure I complimented you on your precise make description with the indented bullet points. Nice.   I extend a cheese to you for your detailed efforts.

-Boofer-

Vibrating the cheeses with the tooth brush helps release trapped air bubbles between the curds.

Quote from: DeejayDebi on March 22, 2012, 04:07:23 PM
Vibrating the cheeses with the tooth brush helps release trapped air bubbles between the curds.

Yeah, I figured that. Very similar to thunking a cake batter filled pan down on the counter to remove the air bubbles prior to baking. Just having a little fun with John. 

-Boofer-

Hi Boofer, the fingers trick as Debi replied is to reduce whey or air pockets depending on your point of view in and around circumference of cheese, see the discussion here including link to commercial cam making video where they are doing it, albeit earlier than I did (duh). For this batch I was going to additionally use my electric toothbrush to try and further reduce the pockets but I forgot.

Thanks for the cheese (thumbs up) on formatting, they are just nested bullet points available in the menu above the post entry text box.

Quote from: John (CH) on March 24, 2012, 12:19:28 PM
they are just nested bullet points available in the menu above the post entry text box.

Yeah, I've used them myself. Very cool.

-Boofer-