AS-50: 8/21/10 Camembert #7, 10 (Variations in culturing)
I have a set of Camembert cheeses (hopefully) moldering away in my refrigerator. I put them in there on the 8/21/10 and hopefully by 8/31/10 they'll be nice and fluffy with penicillium candidum. The last batch I made was successful, and I cultured those by buying a commercial brie and tossing a piece of it's rind in with my milk. This time, I've cultured my milk from scratch with spores of penicillium candidum and geotrichium candidum. I hope this doesn't result in a "toad skin" or "slipped skin" cheese.
What can sometimes happen if you fail to get the ratio between the p. candidum and the g. candidum correct is that the g. candidum out-performs the p. candidum and breaks down the cheese proteins into ammonia before the other flavor processes are complete - thus resulting in a stinky mess that reeks of chicken poop... I'm REALLY hoping that this will not be what I end up making in my fridge... :P
I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but here's some interesting information about Brie and Camembert:
Brie is considered to be a period cheese, and apparently supposedly a favorite of Emperor Constantine Charlemagne, though I have no evidence to support what COLOR of mold the cheese originally acquired. There is anecdotal evidence indicating that p. roqueforti (blue mold) might have been in the mix originally, but the spore in the cheese aging caves might have been contaminated/changed around the time of WWI. I'm looking into this as I can. My interest in "moldy-on-purpose" cheese is admittedly limited, as I don't like any of them. However, moldy cheese is extremely period...
Camembert cheese wasn't "invented" until 1791 and is considered post period - HOWEVER, the ONLY DIFFERENCE between Camembert and Brie production is the SIZE OF THE HOOP in which the curds are packed. Brie uses a much larger hoop and thus ends up with a much smaller surface area/curd volume ratio than the smaller camembert. This means that a camembert has a stronger flavor profile than a brie, but the cheeses are otherwise identical. With that in mind, I have chosen to make camembert instead of brie, because I don't have room in my fridge to take up an entire shelf with a 20" diameter cheese wheel for a month...
What can sometimes happen if you fail to get the ratio between the p. candidum and the g. candidum correct is that the g. candidum out-performs the p. candidum and breaks down the cheese proteins into ammonia before the other flavor processes are complete - thus resulting in a stinky mess that reeks of chicken poop... I'm REALLY hoping that this will not be what I end up making in my fridge... :P
I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but here's some interesting information about Brie and Camembert:
Brie is considered to be a period cheese, and apparently supposedly a favorite of Emperor Constantine Charlemagne, though I have no evidence to support what COLOR of mold the cheese originally acquired. There is anecdotal evidence indicating that p. roqueforti (blue mold) might have been in the mix originally, but the spore in the cheese aging caves might have been contaminated/changed around the time of WWI. I'm looking into this as I can. My interest in "moldy-on-purpose" cheese is admittedly limited, as I don't like any of them. However, moldy cheese is extremely period...
Camembert cheese wasn't "invented" until 1791 and is considered post period - HOWEVER, the ONLY DIFFERENCE between Camembert and Brie production is the SIZE OF THE HOOP in which the curds are packed. Brie uses a much larger hoop and thus ends up with a much smaller surface area/curd volume ratio than the smaller camembert. This means that a camembert has a stronger flavor profile than a brie, but the cheeses are otherwise identical. With that in mind, I have chosen to make camembert instead of brie, because I don't have room in my fridge to take up an entire shelf with a 20" diameter cheese wheel for a month...