Mark G - 25 March 2008 09:54 PM

Neil - 25 March 2008 08:35 PM

Their u go, the nose always knows

I’m pretty sure the temps were right so would a closed container cause rapid ripening and the ammonia smell?

Mark

your main issue was “not enough salt”

I made a second batch yeasterday and after sitting over night I rolled the disks in salt and then brushed off all I could. I don’t think lack of salt will be a problem this time

Mark

hope so

LOL,

I can tell you that 8 hours after salting the cheeses they have a hard"ish” rind on them that the last batch did not have.

Mark

Mark G - 31 March 2008 08:48 PM

I can tell you that 8 hours after salting the cheeses they have a hard"ish” rind on them that the last batch did not have.

Mark

be careful to maintain the humidity, it should not develop hard rind

Mark I’m curious…where are you aging them? In a fridge “cheese cave?” What temp?

If u wash the rind with brine daily it will develop a orange rind that sometimes is nice, something to thingk about.

Heathers - 01 April 2008 02:28 PM

Mark I’m curious…where are you aging them? In a fridge “cheese cave?” What temp?

They’re in my beer fridge at 45F in a ziplock container with the lid slightly open.

I use a beer fridge too at 45-48F. I am making mostly soft mold ripened cheeses. I just put the cheeses on sushi mats and let ‘em stay in the open inside the fridge. I have about four small dishes filled with water to boost the humidity plus due ot the fact that there are about 12 cheeses total in there, the air is pretty moist. Your cheeses may need more air flow so they don’t ripen too fast and get ammoniacal.

I am planning on purchasing a beer fridge this coming weekend just for aging cheese.  I hopefully will find one with about 3 shelves in it.

The one I bought doesn’t go above 48 degrees so you may want to check their temp range before you buy. I did purchase one of those gadgets to attach to the fridge to get a higher temp but I haven’t hooked it up yet. At any rate the small fridge is a great size and you can keep it in the kitchen so you can visit your cheese babies every day!

Thanks for the heads up Heathers, I will make sure that I check them out thoroughly.  Made a Feta last evening and it is draining today.  I mixed it with chives so hoping that it will be scrumptious.

I have saved the whey to make the brine for it, according to DR F. that is a good way to keep it from going soft on you.

Cheers.

I never knew that about whey and I have yet to make Feta (I’m waiting to meet my sheep farmer for that ha ha). I did try making ricotta from whey a couple of times but after going to the great effort to make a batch of cheese, the last thing I want to do is… make more cheese! So I fed some whey to my Siamese. Don’t tell the farmers—they’d be appalled.

Let us know how your Feta turns out. The addition of chives is a great idea. BTW do you use dry or fresh chives?

Hi

I had this problem (runny camembert). 

My problem was not over ripening.  The cheese would be runny near the rind even before the ripening
process reached the center of the cheese. 

I solved it (I think) by adding 1/2 hour of acidification before renneting (as suggested by Nabil), and upping
the temperature to 90F (84F was my original temp, from recipe in The Cheesemakers Manual by Morris). 
This results in more liquid being expelled from the cheese.

The resulting cheese had a consistency more like commercial camembert, even after 6 weeks in the cave.

So I encourage you to experiment with raising the renneting temp a little or lowering the pH as little (by increasing
acidification time).

-Carl