I’m having some confusion on which moulds and how many of each are needed per recipe. For talking purposes, I’ll reference Ricki’s book, which basically gives a starting point of using 2 gallons of milk for most recipes.
Under her Equipment heading, moulds (website), she does give some good information in the sense that for Camembert cheese it requires a mould for each 2 1/2 -3 quarts of milk. So it sounds as though one should have at least 4 of her 4 1/4 diameter x 4 1/4 high moulds on hand for a 2 gallon recipe. As for her small hard cheese mould (4 1/2 diameter x 5 high) this would be for a 2 gallon recipe.
Does this sound like accurate advice for a beginner?
Now another website, cheese supply, gives size based on wheel weight. A 7 3/4 diameter x 8 high for a 5-10# wheel, but fails to mention what size recipe in gallons this applies to.
Then there are the moulds like St. Marcellin (3 1/2 x 3 1/4) with bottom and the Crottin mould (2 1/2 x 4 3/4 high) also with a bottom found on the same site.
I guess my question here would be what determines when to use a mould with or without a bottom, and what cheese types are these two moulds used for? They also make no mention as to the recipe size.
In the case of hard cheese requiring a press, it would seem ideal to me to own one press and have one full mould with no excess curd left over. Since it probably doesn’t always work out this way, is it ultimately better to go to a mould that results in a larger diameter, but shorter cheese than a smaller diameter and taller cheese?
Would one Camembert mould fit the bill for a 2 gallon blue cheese recipe?