The Cheese Thread

[Fents]

Oh and the white mould - a bit is put into the starter at the beginning and then another bit put in the brine soloution u soak the cheese in...

 

[fixa]

top pictorial fents!!

You had a much better set on the curds than i got. Will take a pic tommorow night of the mould on my camembert.

 

[Fents]

wicked cant wait to see where its at fixa!

 

[fixa]

Well here's some pics;

Firstly one of the four Camemberts;




And one of the two blues;






There's some pretty funky mould happening on the blue. It's really interesting watching it change. The Camembert has a light coating of white fuzz. I flipped them today, and they are looking good i think. Can't wait to get stuck into them...

How's all the condensation in the container? No water bowl or anything in there, wonder if it might be too humid for them.. The marks on the blue are from the mould, and the marks on the top are from the draining mat.. looks good!

 

[Kai]

Those are some hairy cams, fixa!

 

[fixa]

Damn straight! going well. Must be the humid air up here!

 

[Fents]

I have a question...

My brie has formed a beatifull white mould but i turned it over and theres some black mould on all the blocks underneath. Not much but def have to get it off. Have tried wiping with a cloth soaked in vinegar but as i wipe it that seems to spread it...

Any other ideas? i dont really want to have to cut it out... :angry:

 

[NRB]

I hope for your sake Fent it's not Aspergillus niger or another toxic black mould species. :blink:

 

[Kai]

Wipe it with a weak hypochlorite solution if you're desperate. It's not likely to be A. niger (oo err), though if the colonies have black heads with a white base then head for the hills.

 

[bonj]

though if the colonies have black heads with a white base then head for the hills.

How would you know on a brie/camembert?

 

[Fents]

i just ended up cutting it all off.

will the mould still spread to the now "un moulded" area i have cut or should i apply more mould spores?

 

[Kai]

If you've got good growth of nice mould in the non-nasty areas then it's got a good chance of recovering the exposed space before the black one can recover. You'd best keep a careful eye on your cheese though, because it's much more likely now that you will see that mould again.

It won't hurt to apply more nice mould to the exposed areas though. Some people like to make up a spray bottle of mould solution, if you've got a biggish maturation area then even spraying the whole thing down can be useful.

 

[fixa]

Got some hippy milk from the local iga today! gonna make havarti tommorow. Trying to build the stock up now so they can age..

 

[sjc]

Hi Fixa
I had a go at making havarti a couple of weeks ago. Are you using the recipe book that cheeselinks sells? One of the final steps in the process is adding cold water to bring the curd/whey temp down to 28 C. Make sure you have enough water to achieve this quickly and don't let the curds spend more than 5 mins at this temp before you hoop them otherwise you might find they will not readily fuse together in the hoops.

Are you planning to wax the havarti or do the traditional washed rind treatment that the recipe refers to?

Cheers
Stephen.

 

[fixa]

cheers mate. will do that. Yes, using the cheeselinks book. handy little number that one!
I'm gonna wax it, as i'm going away for work in 2 weeks, so won't be able to wash it all the time.
I'm at the temperature raise point ATM, gee this one takes a while to make!!! longer than a batch of AG!

 

[sjc]

Hope it goes well for you then fixa. Yes depending on the style you're making, the cheesemaking can be quite labour intensive compared to making beer.
I making up some quarg at the moment (incubating at 20 C since last night) which will be used for making a baked cheesecake Sunday night. Also have cultured some cream overnight which is now chilling to be ready for churning into butter tonight. When I told one of my friends they asked had I heard of supermarkets?
Cheers
Stephen.

 

[fixa]

Yeah, my friends are like that too. Stuff 'em, they won't get any of it!
Just hooped the curds, quite an open texture on this one. now to cool in water then the brine.

 

[sjc]

Hi Fixa
yes the texture is quite open, but if you think of any commercial ones that would be to style. I think mine ended up being too open, so I hope you have better success. After I got mine out of the hoops I decided they were too open to wax, hence my decision to give them the Brevibacterium treatment!
Cheers
Stephen.

 

[Fents]

thing im gonna have to throw most of my brie the blacks creeping back slowly. bloody stupid bugga. might be able to save a tiny wheel just like brewing lern from the costly mistake and push on right?

 

[Kai]

I assume it's not soft enough to eat? Unlike beer, you can keep your cheese if you're willing to rub out the infection every few days. It's not contaminating the whole cheese after all, but it is an indication that everything ain't entirely perfect. If you think you can salvage it, then you may as well try. If not, break out the black plastic bag.