Here are my first two baby camemberts. I made them last Thursday — and while the recipe was not difficult at all — it’s the same basic cheesemaking skills — heating milk, adding cultures, waiting for a clean break, cutting and separating curds from whey, and molding the cheeses. It’s not difficult.
Where the magic seems to come in is in the waiting. The cheeses are in the fridge, in their mini-cave made from a plastic storage box, and I’m waiting for the mold to form on their surfaces.I’m a little concerned that they are not entirely smooth — there are some pits where the curds didn’t settle evenly. So, we’ll see what happens as they ripen.
Cooking the milk and waiting for the curds to set took about 4 hours (most of that was waiting around). Waiting for the cheese to ripen will take 2-4 weeks. For me, this is the hard part. I am not patient. I am trying very hard not to pester the cheeses. I’ll keep you all posted.
Very nice! Please post more on your mini cave. The only mold ripened cheese I’ve attempted was a bleu…and I used a crummy bleu from the store as the innoculant so the whole thing went to the chickens.
And we’re not patient either. I’ve done a few nice cheddars. We just ate them young.
Oh, I don’t think you’ll have a problem at all with the uneven curd settling. Your not a factory.
Can’t wait to hear how these turn out!!!
The French will inform you that it is very important not to hurry a cheese. This is why they take long lunches, do not work on public holidays, Sundays or Mondays and disappear during August. They are patiently watching their cheeses ripen.