Failed camembrie and First Hard Cheese

This is a bit of a mixed post. We tried the latest batch of camembries a while ago and I didn't have the heart to post an update at the time. They were vile. Very sharp and one-dimensional. They looked great but they didn't taste it. I'll pick over my notes and try to figure out why a bit later but to some extent I think that dealing with sensitive micro-organisms on a home scale with only very basic testing and environmental control I'm just likely to have the occasional bad batch. I do remember the curd tasting funny (sharp and almost lemony) when I tried some fresh, but I don't really know what caused it. It does point towards something more fundamental than bad maturation though. Perhaps the milk wasn't right. Perhaps I dropped a lemon in by mistake.

Anyway, on a slightly more positive note a friend bought me a Dutch Press for my birthday and so today I've attempted my first hard cheese. A fascinating process! Quite different to what I've done before and the heating and -- relative to soft cheese -- rough treatment of the curd felt all wrong. Still, the results I've ended up with so far seem perfect according to my recipe and I'm currently pressing what I suppose must be in the region of 1lb of cheese.

From the usual 12 pints of milk I got my pint of yoghurt, the Main Feature hard cheese as mentioned above, a small quantity of ricotta, and some left over hard cheese curds which I mixed with half a clove of garlic and some black pepper to make a boursin-style cheese.

The main different with the hard cheese recipe has been that the curds are cut, stirred, drained and then mixed gently by hand with salt before keeping warm and repeatedly breaking up for an hour or so. Finally this mixture is wrapped in cheese cloth and pressed gradually at first and more firmly later in the press. There is much more separation of curd and whey before the cheese enters the mold and so even under pressure the contents of a normal camembert size mould (10x10x10) has not greatly diminished in the first hour or two. Maybe by 10-20%. Contrast this with camembries which lose half their volume in the space of a few hours and express buckets (literally) of whey.

One other thing that I've been wondering, looking at this recipe and others for soft cheeses, is whether I shouldn't be cutting the curd for soft cheeses and instead scooping large chunks of it out whole. The results have been good but messy as much curd has squeezed through the holes in the moulds. One to investigate next time.

New Camembrie Batch

Started a new batch of camembries today. Accidentally heated the milk to 100F (distracted) but thought I'd give it a go anyway. 6 litres, Rennetted (14 drops of 520 mg/l) at 100F and inoculated with yoghurt and a piece of a previous camembrie[1].

Four hours later, curds cut, left to rest, then poured into moulds. I note that my curds are very, very delicate and tend to break up into tiny pieces no matter how carefully I ladle them out. I don't know if this is normal or whether something in my method makes it more likely to happen. Must look into that though.

Anyway, they'll now drain over night and in about an hour I'll make up some ricotta with the remaining whey.

[1] And while we're on the subject, here's one of the three camembries from the 27th April batch. This is fresh from the fridge so no doubt it will really melt when it comes to temperature. We had the first of them last weekend, this one now (mainly to inoculate this new batch) and have one left that we may save for another week or may give to friends.

I thought last week's was a bit one dimensional but my wife loved it. I think this one is milder and more creamy, but perhaps that's the effect of it being served much colder.

A Tale of Two Cheeses

The camembries from the 27th April batch are doing nicely, with a light dusting of white mould appearing. All very promising.



The hard cheese, unfortunately, got forgotten and was left unchecked in a sealed box for far too long. Wensleyfail, anyone?

Something Old, Something New...

The final two cheeses from "Three Cheese Friday" 13th March:

Firstly the camembrie:

I feared I'd let these dry out too much but actually I quite like the result. The rind is mottled like a ripe brie bit has a little bit more firmness. The centre of the cheese is nicely ripe and the cheese tastes... well... like a Camembert or Brie.


And the intended-to-be-hard-but-ended-up-as-a-semi-hard-washed-rind:


This one suffered a bit from changing directions and whims as I experimented but has ended up as a palatable but not stunning Limburger sort of thing, except perhaps firmer.


And now some shots (one from of the current camembries from the something new range:




Finally, just a note that the last set of brined hard cheese (feta-ish) has been very successful diced in bulghur salads. I must get a photo of that next time I make up the dish.

12 pints of milk...

...on their way to become three camembries, a Similar Sized pressed cheese, 250ml of cream cheese, maybe 150ml of ricotta and 6 pints of whey for the dog.

Photos and results as and when.

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.

Ripe? It almost drowned me...

Well the camembert from the end of Feb has been interesting. One didn't form a proper covering of mould and didn't really ripen. The one from three days later, is so ripe as to be liquid now. A bit too ripe, really, but not with the sometimes present overpowering taste of ammonia, thankfully.

So there we go... the end of another batch of cheese. There are three more on the go, though. No photos but they're nice and firm and starting to show mould. Fingers crossed...