Hi,
I’ve started making cheese and my first camembert was going great until i wrapped them.  by day 10 the camembert was completely covered in mould and was looking great.  I wrapped 4 of the cheeses in perforated cheese foil (which the book i used said to do) and the other 2 i wrapped in perforated cheese plastic.  The next morning i decided to check them to see how they were going.  I opened one of the foil wrappers and noticed that the white mold had almost completely disappeared which concerned me so i checked the other foil wrapped camemberts and the same thing had happened and they were moist on the outside.  I checked the plastic wrapped ones and they were ok.

I took the other camemberts from the foil and put them back in the fridge in the maturation containers in hope that they will grow the white mold again but I have my doubts.

I also cut a piece and tasted it.  The cheese was still chalky and firm and the tast was extremely strong, but not unedible.

Has anyone else had this experience?  I’m keen to keep trying to get it right so any tips would be really helpful.

Thanks,
Ben

making sure that the cheese is not suffocated is important. Also whats important is to make sure its not too wet, that will develop off flavors and halt blooming, just takes experience. A strong taste may be from being too warm and or maturing too fast.Did u add the blooming bacteria to the batch or spray it on?

The book that i’ve been using said to add a little of the blooming bacteria to a salt brine and to soak the cheese in the brine for 1hr per 200grams.  The book also said to stor at 11-15 degrees celcius.  for the majority of the time they were at 14.8 degrees celcius.

Hmm, i alwys add it to the batch, evenly distributed, my pref. try it both ways and see how it works for u.

Sorry i mean to say that i also added it to the milk at the start as well.

I’ve just been looking at your website “THE CHEESE HOLE” and comparing the photos with my cheeses so far.

My havarti seems to be similar in texture (up until i waxed it anyway) and my gouda looks simliar too.  I have one other question though, my curds (for all of my cheeses) seems to shatter while stirring.  I’ve been very gentle but it doesn’t seem to make much difference, while your photos show the curd cut perfectly and still in their original shape.  why could this be? 

I read somewhere that homogenised milk causes this problem, but unfortuneately where i live in australia means that i can’t really get unhomogenised milk (except for the organic milk that is 3 to 4 times the price of the homogenised milk making my hobby too expensive to continue.  By the way i have added calcium chloride to the milk.

Any suggestions?

Ultra homogenization usually makes it crumbly, lack of CaCl can also do that but u said u added it. What kind of Homo milk 3.5? try skim or 2% and add cream. It also maybe that the renneting wasent enough.

If I try skim and add cream, at what rate - cream:Milk? :?

I would say, depending on the cheese your making, 1L 10% to 4L skim in general, can add 18% as well.