The Cheese Thread

[ArnieW]

If its from Coles its probably parmalait. That should come in a full cream as well. our local Coles certainly carries it and its what I use for chesemaking normally. If I'm feeling really flush I'll get some uber hippy milk from Macro but at $7 for 2l that's a bit steep for everyday.

Some cheeses do want a low fat milk though... fetta is one from memory (chese book not with me at work). The brie type styles usually want more than full cream. Cheddars and things like that are usually regular full cream.

Cheers
Dave

OK, thanks Dave. I'll have to have a closer look but at least I know I'm on the right track.

 

[wambesi]

My first batch of Camembert is on it's way!
Although efficiency ( ) was down as I got 3 instead of four, I don't think my clean break was as clean as it could have been.

Anyway the three have been turned a few times, and will now be left overnight for the other half to salt tomorrow morning as I have to leave quite early.
Made some ricotta with the leftover whey as well.

I guess we'll see how it goes, looking to do some chedder in the coming weeks as well as a stack of other styles, thank god I have the extra fridges (there goes the power bill...)

:lol:

 

[AndrewQLD]

Wambesi, you'll love your first taste of home made cheese. Sounds like the bug has well and truly bitten.

Here's a pic of my latest Blue. 24 hrs old and just out of the mold, 10 lt of milk went into this one.

 

[wambesi]

Wambesi, you'll love your first taste of home made cheese. Sounds like the bug has well and truly bitten.

Here's a pic of my latest Blue. 24 hrs old and just out of the mold, 10 lt of milk went into this one.

Nice. Yeah the bug has hit, now doing cheese, yoghurt, jerky, mead, beer, ginger beer and the list grows bigger...!
My camemberts came out of the moulds this morning and are standing around 2in tall. Do you think they will reduce down more still?

 

[edoeven]

my first batch of cheese turned out incredibly good - very tasty, quite strong, but very runny (like, thick cream runny)!
what process should I alter next batch to make the cheese a little firmer?
- longer curd ripening time?
- smaller cuts? (altho, already very small already in last batch)
- longer draining/ more turning time?
- does ripening temp have an effect on consistency?

fyi I just used cheap homebrand milk - the curds set well (nice clean break) and the cheese was awesome.
the cheese was matured for ~ 3-4 weeks @ 13-16 deg C (room temp inside), the first one I tried at about T+4.5weeks was nice but still had a firm center and runny outside. Cheese was then left to mature in the fridge for a further few weeks - after another 3 weeks, the remaining cheeses were creamy all the way thru.

 

[capretta]

Nice. Yeah the bug has hit, now doing cheese, yoghurt, jerky, mead, beer, ginger beer and the list grows bigger...!
My camemberts came out of the moulds this morning and are standing around 2in tall. Do you think they will reduce down more still?

no, i dont think they will shrink much more. they will reduce in size a little over the next 2-3 days as the extra water comes out but only by 10% or so..

very tasty, quite strong, but very runny (like, thick cream runny)!
what process should I alter next batch to make the cheese a little firmer?

umm, was it a camembert/ brie? if so the riper they are the runnier... so , eat them earlier would be the answer. the action of the white mold breaks down the curds to a runny consistancy, thats why the runniness moves from the outside to the middle as the mold does its work. maybe try making some harder cheeses..

 

[edoeven]

I think the problem was the initial maturation was at a temp that was too high - the outside was too runny even when the inside was firm! (not yet ripened!)
gotta get around to making some more...

 

[wambesi]

Righto, here's a pic of one of my Camemberts. They are almost ready to wrap and mature further.
Hopefully should be nice in a few weeks....

 

[AndrewQLD]

Righto, here's a pic of one of my Camemberts. They are almost ready to wrap and mature further.
Hopefully should be nice in a few weeks....

View attachment 20730

Looks great wambesi, very nice covering of mold.

 

[AndrewQLD]

Wambesi, you'll love your first taste of home made cheese. Sounds like the bug has well and truly bitten.

Here's a pic of my latest Blue. 24 hrs old and just out of the mold, 10 lt of milk went into this one.

View attachment 20560

Here's the blue starting to mold up, 10 days after making I've got the humidity up around the 85% region.



Andrew

 

[wambesi]

Here's the blue starting to mold up, 10 days after making I've got the humidity up around the 85% region.

Andrew

That looks like alright, I havn't had much blue before so maybe I might start checking some out.

Mine have now been wrapped as they have a nice white coat all over, 2-4 weeks now apparently.
What have most people found best aging the camemberts? They will be kept around 15 deg.

 

[wambesi]

Well I don't think these have turned out..... :angry:



I just cut this one after three weeks but only around the outside (apart from the rind) is oozy/runny, the inside has either dried out or does it need more time?
I have a feeling though that it has gone bad, it has quite a discouraging "grassy" smell, which gets worse when I cut it. No other visible moulds or anything else bad except the drier centre.
Maybe they were to thick? I thought they might have been when I put them in the molds.

Still have one left in the fridge but not sure what to do.......

 

[capretta]

not matured enough, the inside turns soft last. the in the grassy smell is probably closer to ammonia, a byproduct of the process, that will die down as the spores complete their work. dwrahac..

 

[AndrewQLD]

Well I don't think these have turned out..... :angry:

View attachment 21013

I just cut this one after three weeks but only around the outside (apart from the rind) is oozy/runny, the inside has either dried out or does it need more time?
I have a feeling though that it has gone bad, it has quite a discouraging "grassy" smell, which gets worse when I cut it. No other visible moulds or anything else bad except the drier centre.
Maybe they were to thick? I thought they might have been when I put them in the molds.

Still have one left in the fridge but not sure what to do.......

Looks pretty good to me for a 3 week old cheese. Another 3 weeks and it will be completely soft. It should still taste good now it just won't have matured as much.

Andrew

 

[wambesi]

Ok thanks guys, appreciate the info. Another few weeks it is.

Good to hear the smell should subside as it was very offputting.

 

[KHB]

i made a camaberet and it turned out rubbery any ideas i heald my temps when making at what the book said

 

[reviled]

Is it possible to make cheese without buying any of that stuff from that cheese website...

I dont think any of its available in NZ, if I was going to do it id have to make a postal order <_<

 

[wabster]

After the cheese making demo at TCB Casula on August 2nd, we bought a camembert making kit.

We have 3 batches of 4 cheeses in various stages of production, however the first batch is ready.

We tried the first one on Saturday, with some Spanish jamon and Essential Ingredients smoked salmon with dill, and some crackers.

We let the camembert come to room temperature, and it was neither firm nor runny, just right I'd say. The flavour was just wonderful. I have photos but they are on MsWab's phone so I'll post them later. All in all fantastic outcome.

AndrewQld - where did you get your gear for the blue cheese? And how did you keep the temp and humidity right for it to mature the way it has?

So much cheese, so little time!!! Cheerz Wabster

 

[AndrewQLD]

After the cheese making demo at TCB Casula on August 2nd, we bought a camembert making kit.

We have 3 batches of 4 cheeses in various stages of production, however the first batch is ready.

We tried the first one on Saturday, with some Spanish jamon and Essential Ingredients smoked salmon with dill, and some crackers.

We let the camembert come to room temperature, and it was neither firm nor runny, just right I'd say. The flavour was just wonderful. I have photos but they are on MsWab's phone so I'll post them later. All in all fantastic outcome.

AndrewQld - where did you get your gear for the blue cheese? And how did you keep the temp and humidity right for it to mature the way it has?

So much cheese, so little time!!! Cheerz Wabster

I believe Country Brewer sells a blue cheese making kit now.
I use a small "Dorm" fridge to mature my cheese it sits at around 13 at it's highest setting and if the cheese is in a closed container the humidity is up around the 85-95% mark.

If your looking at getting a maturing fridge I'd have a look at the wine cabinets, try to get one that chills via a peltier device, in other words without a compressor. Find one that will have a temp range from 8-15 if possible, you will find the humidity in these will be a lot higher than a fridge that tends to dry the air out drastically.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[wabster]

This is a pic of the "First cut". I didn't think of taking a side view of the cut surfaces after cutting it, as myself and MsWab were really hanging out to get into it, and the accompanying goodies.

I'll remember next time Thanks Andrew for the heads up on the Blue cheese and temp control.

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