Hi

I’m new to this forum.  It is the best one I have found so far.  Thanks to Rick R. for
setting this up.

My name is Carl.  I live in Sonoma County, CA, which is pretty close to cheese
heaven with many artisan creameries with an hours drive (not to mention a
thousand wineries).  I’ve been making beer and wine for years. 
Looking forward to this new hobby.

So far I’ve made 2 serious (non-fresh cheeses).  My first cheese is a cow camembert, and
my second is a goat camembert (which has its own issues—more on this later)

For cheese #1, I followed the recipe in Morris’s book, summarized here…

Used Trader Joe’s Organic “Cream Top” whole milk.  The word on the street is that this
milk is from Strauss Family Creamery, a local high end producer.  (This may not
be true for TJ’s in other locations)  Strauss milk is the
milk that is used by Cowgirl Creamery for their cow cheeses.  (If you have never
tried Cowgirl Creamery “Red Hawk”, you should!)

Left 4L milk out over night to warm to room temp
Warmed milk to 84F (29C)
Added 1/8 teas MA4001
Added 1/8 teas Penicillum Candidum
Added 1 tsp CaCl disolved in 1/4 cup filtered water
Added 1/8 tsp microbial rennet in 1/4 cup filtered water

Held at 84F for 90 minutes
Clean break achieved
Cut curds into 3/4 inch cubes, let rest 5 minutes
Drained off as much whey as possible
Ladled into 3 moulds, refilling as necessary

Drained over night on plastic draining mat on top of sushi mat, flipped
in the morning.  Flipped again in the evening

Nov. 4 Placed in heated plastic tub in fridge.  Temperature
in the tub is about 45F.  Whey continued to drain slowly
for the next few days.

Nov. 9 First evidence of Pen. Can. bloom.  Flipped daily
from now until wrapping.

Nov.13 quite furry
Nov. 23 took picture #1
Nov. 27 wrapped in cheese paper, put back in plastic bin.  Cheese
still felt quite firm.
Nov. 30 bought wine chiller—transfered cheese to wine chiller set to 54
Dec. 3 unwrapped one cheese to view - looks like camembert!  Ammonia
smell is noticable.  Cheese is getting softer to the touch. Took picture #2

Dec. 7 Sampled Cheese.  Flavor was fairly mild.  Interior was quite liquid
and flowed out onto the cutting board, except for a ~5mm thick part in the
middle that didn’t seem ripened yet.

So (finally) my question….

Like Rick R., I’m not so happy about the consistency.  What variables should
I try to vary to make the cheese firmer?  My thinking is that it is not over-
ripened, because there was still a little bit in the middle that appeared “fresh”, i.e.
not mold-afftected.  So maybe there is too much water in the cheese?

I notice the Neil doesn’t have this problem, and he does a little pressing, which
presumably expels more whey. 

Should I try pressing a little? Or pre-draining in a colander? Or maybe I should
use a higher “cooking” temperature?  Or let the milk ripen before adding rennet,
(as some other recipes do) which might lead to more acidity which I’ve read
leads to whey expelling easier?  Rick R., did you ever solve this?

Comments and thoughts please. 

Thanks

-Carl

Welcome
I press mine lightly because since I dont have good humidity control the cheese will dry out and create a wrinkle appearance. I would not recommend leaving milk out over night because u never know what can happen if it might start to ferment. My experience with ammonia was when i first started because it was at too high a ripening temp and it ripened too fast. keep to the temps the recipe says.

acidity is the main factor, the cheese should get arround 4.7 pH, so the mold can work

Hi

Neil—I basically folllowed the recipe (age at 50 - 55), at least once I got the technology to get above
45F.  But I do think the aging went too fast.  Next time I will use 50F.  My next cheese is a
goat camembert, with geotrichum candidum, which is supposed to reduce ammonia (it has, but
produces its own set of smells!)

Nabil—what are you using to measure pH?  My guess is that my mold grew fine, maybe too well.  But
I’ve heard that pH can affect how well the whey drains.

Thanks

-Carl

I stopped making cheese in the summer because the temps were a problem, would have to use the fridge and it was too cal at times.
To help make sure their is lots of health acid, I make the starter the night before so that the milk turns to yogurt (was brought up in another recent post) This produces a rich active enzyme and fast, Also i watch for the curds to start separating from the container (see my pics) tells me the whey is starting to expel and acid high. Not scientific but home cheese making is frequently hit and miss to what your making but most of the time tastes real good or great for cooking. recipes generaly tell u to add a tsp or something like that and then u have to wait for the enzymes to mass produce. Doing it the night before u just need a pinch in a 1L mason jar and the next morning its packed with enzymes (yogurt) and u save on your stock supply.

i have a cheap pH tester (electronic) i bought $40..
u cana use pH papers (very cheap) $5 for like 100 testers.

any way , for camambert, proper meso cultuer should works for one full day after u mold the cheese in room temp, so the pH must goes to very low as possible (a lot more then mozzeralla and chedder 5.3 Ph))

to should go bellow 4.7 pH

for u, i recommend u follwo the recipt exactly as it says, and do not mind of the numbers

cheers

In regards to Camembert cheese, does this fall into the strong “Stinky” cheese category for taste?

I see one ingredient is Penicillum Candidum. On the New England Cheesemaking website of ingredients, they mention using 1 part geotrichum candidum to 4 parts Penicillum Candidum. Has anyone tried this combination, or is just the Penicillum Candidum all that’s needed?

Is raw cow’s milk the preferred milk to use?

Just the basic is required, PC, and no Camembert is not a stinky cheese its mild, however some Artisan cheeses can be very strong due to their milk source and maybe in the way they process.

i made mistake on my Camembert i want to share with you:
after few days of un-molding, the white mold just start to grow, a small part was fell, so i taste it, and i found out that it needs more salt or it will go bitter.
so i sprinkled some salt on the surface and left it,
unfortunately , i found out that the salt spots became bold spots (white PC was not able to grow on that spot) and my cheese became like islands maps. 

Reg salt does not affect the PC, Iodine does. I normally coat the outside with salt.

Yes, I agree that regular salt does not affected PC, but if you apply it after few days of mold growing, it will hold down its grows for ten days

yup reminds me of washing the cheese, u end up with a dif effect.