Well, I just ladled my first camembert curds into the molds and am listening to them draining into the pan below. I have a really bad feeling about this cheese and have since the time that I first added the rennet.
As soon as I began stirring the rennet into the milk, the milk started to become a little grainy looking with little flecks of curd sticking to the spoon.
After giving it a two hour set (like the recipe called for) I had this grainy, very acidic looking curd that had shrunk away from the sides of the pan. The only other time I’ve seen this type of curd is when doing a mozzerella and sure enough I was using from the same bottle of rennet that I used today.
I was trying to finish off an older bottle of rennet before opening my new one up. Since this is the second strange looking curd from this bottle I can feel pretty confident that it is no longer any good.
Even though the curd looked grainy and soft, it did cut. It wasn’t even close to being nice and firm but like I said, it did cut.
Then, upon giving the curd a gentle stir, it started to really break up in the pan.
I stopped stirring and ladled the curds into the molds. I’m going to go ahead and let the curd drain and see what comes out of it.
I am pretty positive that I’m not going to be happy with the results, but then again you never know. I’m just glad that I decided to start with only a one gallon batch so that I didn’t waste my usual two gallons.
I do know that I did not use ultra pasturized milk and that the milk is not the problem. I used the exact same brand that I make all of my cheese from and bought it at the same store. It also smelled very fresh.
I’ll let you all know how it turns out. If I can get the curd to take shape in the mold, there still might be hope.
Man, I really hate it when a cheese fails.
Dave