I think this is cheese #23. I haven’t made cheese in so long I’ve forgotten!

Cheese Type & Number: Camembert #23

Description: A nice white-mold covered, soft, French cheese.

Source of Recipe: I used Margaret Morris’s recipe with a few changes.

Date: 12 November 2006

Warming the Milk: Warmed 1-1/2 gallons of whole store-bought milk and 1 cup of whole cream to 84 degrees F, very slowly in double boiler.

Ripening the Milk: Sprinked 1 package of DS Mesophillic starter, 1/8 tsp of Penicillium Candidum, and 1/4 tsp of Danica Flora on top of cheese and allowed to set for a few minutes. Then stirred gently to combine. Allowed to set for 15 minutes.

Additives: Added 1/8 tsp. CaCl mixed with 1/4 cup distilled water and stirred well. Then added 1/4 tsp of rennet mixed with 1/4 cup distilled water and stirred well. Covered. Kept at 84 degrees +/- 2 degrees for 1-1/2 hours.

Coagulation: Had a good clean break after 90 minutes.

Cutting the Curd: Cut curd into 1/2” slices.

Cooking and Stirring: Gently stirred curd to break it up into 1/2” pieces. Allow to set for 30 minutes. Poured off as much whey as possible.

Draining: Gently spooned curds into 3 Camembert molds set on a draining mat atop some glasses in a plastic box. This keeps the bottoms of the molds out of the whey. Let drain this way for 1 hour. Gently turned over the molds by sandwiching them between mats and boards. Allowed to drain for another couple of hours then turned the molds again. Poured all whey out of the box, put the lid on tight and placed in basement overnight.

Salting: The next morning I removed the molds and sprinkled each side of the rounds of cheese with a big pinch of cheese salt. Then placed the box with the lid slighly askew into a 50 degree mini-fridge.

Waxing or Other Rind Care: At the end of the day, I sprayed each round with just a spritz of Geotrichum candidum (the powder had been dissolved in distilled water about 30 hours before and kept in a spritzer in the refrigerator.) I will turn the cheeses in a few days and spritz again.

Aging: Once the cheeses developed a nice white mold, after a week, I wrapped them in cheese paper and put them into a 45°F refrigerator. They will simply age there for 6-8 weeks. I’ll let you know how it goes in subsequent posts!

I have a nice white mold after 10 days. I’ve wrapped the cheeses in cheese paper and lowered the fridge temperature to 45 degrees (F).

We tried one of these rounds last night, a full 2 or 3 weeks before I thought they’d be ripe. But, one was quite “mushy” so we cut into it. It was very runny. The flavor was nice, but the consistency was like a camembert that had aged a little too long! So, I might have overdone the bacteria. Or, I’m still getting used to the New Jersey atmosphere.

We ended up scaping the insides of two of the rounds onto bread or crackers and the flavor was good. The consistency, however was much too runny and they had not really developed their full flavor. We ended up just throwing the 3rd round away. I’ll try again soon.