Friday 3 April 2009

Update and More Production

Firstly a quick update on the camemberts: They were quite moist and slow to form a proper bloom so I took them out of the box for a few days. They have moulded up more but also become firmer. I'm hoping they didn't dry out too much but we'll see as I'm hoping to cut the first one in a week or so.

Today I've kicked off two pints of yoghurt, my first pint of buttermilk and another 8 pints of cheese which I'm planning to make into a brined feta-like cheese again. The initial stages look very similar to every other time so I haven't photographed them.

After two hours I suddenly realised I'd put half the quantity of rennet in. Argh. The milk isn't coagulating properly (no surprise). I've tried to rescue things by dropping more in but of course can't stir now. We'll see, but I'm guessing that this'll end up as a very loose curd and not suitable for making feta. Oh well.

Many hours later, I've pressed the curds and am cooking them in brine now. I can't really remember quite how the texture was last time but they still seem a bit soft. Still, they're holding together and I do remember that they firmed up considerably in the refrigerated brine later so perhaps all is not lost.

The ricotta was not all lost either. Our dog enjoyed the disastrous results!

Well I've got a very strange cheese now. It's spongy and open-textured. I'm going to cool it in the fridge overnight and we'll see what we end up with.

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