Rick's Ramblings

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Home Made Camembert

I mentioned we’d be having a home made Camembert cheese with our Christmas dinner. Here is the recipe for that cheese. I made it on 15 November. It made four rounds of cheese. We tried one in early December and while the consistency and texture was good, the cheese was not very well flavored. We tried another round last week and it was very good. I expect this cheese will be perfect on Christmas.

2 gallons whole milk from Shop Rite.
Warmed to 85° F.
1/4 tsp mesophilic culture, MM100.
1/8 tsp P. Candidum bacteria.
Tiny amount G. Candidum bacteria.
Let set for a few minutes and stirred bacteria into milk.
1/4 tsp of CaCl dissolved in 1/4 cup distilled water. Stirred in.
1/4 tsp of rennet dissolved in 1/4 cup distilled water. Stirred in.
Let set for 2 hours to clean break. Cut curds into 1/2” cubes (as best I can).
Stirred very gently for 5 minutes. Allowed to settle for 10 minutes.
Drained into cheesecloth-lined collander and allowed to drain for 15 minutes.
Scooped curds into molds on cheesecloth-lined drying rack in plastic container. Lift out cheese and pour out accumulated whey periodically.
After 2 hours, turn the molds over. After about 5 or 6 more hours, unmolded, turned and placed back in plastic box, covered to sit overnight.
Sprinkled 1/2 tsp of course salt on each side of each round and place in box in refrigerator with lid askew. Turned every day or two.
Some white fuzz started to grow at 5 days.
On 11/26, the rounds had a nice covering of white mold, so I wrapped all 4 rounds in cheese paper, put two in fridge at 40 degrees and 2 in fridge around 54 degrees. Plan to eat first two (54) in a few weeks and the other two a couple of weeks later.

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