Camembert Cheese

After cutting my teeth with several cheeses meant for fresh consumption (Mozzarella, Cheese Curds, and Queso Fresco a couple times each) I decided I really wanted to take the next step into cheesemaking and attempt some that require aging.  Aging cheese requires a combination of cool temperature (low 50s) and high humidity (85-95%) which is a non-trivial environment to achieve.  Normal fridges and freezers are too cold and, as part of their cooling function, they de-humidify the air.  So, using a fridge as a cheese cave requires these two competing and somewhat contradictory needs (temperature and humidity) to be balanced.

I have setup a cheese cave using a dorm fridge and leveraged a humidifier and temperature & humidity controllers to provide the proper aging environment for cheese.  After monitoring and making some tweaks I finally feel comfortable that I will be able to successfully use this cheese cave to make a simple aged cheese.  Will make a dedicated post on this cave once I feel I've worked out all the kinks.

For my first aged cheese I opted to make a Camembert which requires a couple weeks aging with very high humidity (low-mid 90s).  This will provide a good first test for my cave.  I will be trying the version from cheesemaking.com.

Camembert is a mold ripened cheese. It has a rubbery outer casing (referred to as the "rind") and creamy cheese in the center (Brie is the famous example of a mold ripened cheese).  What I, and probably most folks, didn't realize about this type of cheese is that the rubbery outside is actually mold.  The process of making the cheese is very interesting and quite different from other cheeses: 

• The curds aren't cooked or cut like with many other cheeses.  Once the curd is formed it is scooped directly into molds to slowly drain under it's own weight.
• Once the cheese is formed and salted it goes into the aging space.  The purpose of this is to grow a layer of mold on the outside (mold that is added during the ripening stage in this recipe).  This mold is what will convert the cheese curds into the soft creamy form the style is known for
• Once enough mold has formed, the cheese is moved into a colder space (normal fridge) to allow the mold to do the conversion in a slower and more controllable manner.  The amount of time given will dictate the consistency and flavor of the cheese - it becomes softer and more flavorful, funky, and pungent as time passes.  The point at which it is in an optimal state is a matter of personal taste - I don't believe I'll like it if it gets too ripe.

All said and done, you would expect this cheese to be ready in 4-6 weeks.

I have decided to use 1 gal of milk which will give me 2 cheeses (as I only have 2 forms at this point).  I'm using a milk that I've had very good luck with in the last couple batches of cheese.  Will follow the procedure as closely as possible and hope I don't run into any issues in my first go around.

Ingredients:

• 1 gal of Lucerne Whole Milk (Pasteurized and Homogenized)
• 1/8 tsp CaCl desolved in ~2 Tbs of spring water
• 1/2 Packet of Buttermilk Culture 
• ~1/16 tsp Penicillium Candidum
• "Smidgen" of Geotrichum Candidum (best guess at 1/64 tsp)
• 1/8 tsp Liquid Rennet in ~1 Tbs of spring water
• 2 tsp Kosher Salt

Process/Notes:

• 10/29/17 (Day 1):
• Heated milk to 90 F in a water bath in the sink
• Added CaCl
• Added culture.  Allowed this to rehydrate on the surface for a couple minutes and then stirred in
• Let acidify the milk for 30 min.  The milk was 93-94 degrees at the start of this
• Added the Rennet.  Stirred it in for 1 min or so.
• Let it set for 90 min
• Verified I had a clean break
• Ladled the curds into two cheese molds setup on draining mat

The pieces of curd were large at first

By the end, the remaining curd had broken up into little chunks

Ended up filling the mods all the way to the top (had one or two ladles worth of mostly whey that didn't fit)

• Let the cheese drain for 1 hr and then flipped for the first time.  Did this in the kitchen which is in the low 70s.

• Let drain for another hr (2nd hr) and flipped again.  Moved into onto a plate to drain more

• Let drain for another hr (at 3 hr mark now).  The cheese has started to consolidate now and not putting out as much whey.  Fell as one continuous mass on the flip (although it did stick to the top a bit

• Let drain for another hr (4 hrs in now).  The other side has consolidated as well but the surface is a bit lumpy on both cheeses.

• 10/30/17 (Day 2):
• Let it sit on this side until the next morning (8.5 hrs later - 12.5 hrs of draining time at this point).  They put out a fair bit of whey overnight.  Flipped them and then applied half the salt to the top.

• Let sit for 12 more hours and then flipped again.  Salted the other side.  Left them to absorb the salt and drain overnight
• 1/31/17 (Day 3):
• The next morning I removed the molds and move the cheeses to a ripening box on a piece of egg crate and a bamboo draining mat.  Moved this down into the mid-60s basement to dry

• After 12 hrs the top appeared dry.  I flipped the cheese to let the other side dry out.  Moved them to the unused quadrant of the bamboo mat on this flip
• After 2 more hrs this side was dry as well so I decided to move it to the temperature and humidity controlled cheese cave setup for 11-14 C (51.8 to 57.2 F) and 90-93% RH

• 11/1/17 (Day 4) - Flipped the cheese once in the morning and once in the afternoon.  No moisture on the surface but it is soft and moist.  No sign of mold yet.
• 11/2/17 (Day 5) - Flipped the cheese twice.  No real change in the cheese that I can see.
• 11/3/17 (Day 6) - Flipped the cheese twice more.  Noticed a bit of the white mold had started to form on the side of the cheese in the afternoon flipping.
• 11/4/17 (Day 7) - The mold has covered more of the side of the cheese.  It is a bit fuzzy and compresses a bit when touched.  I'll let it spread some more before doing much patting.  Flipped twice today.

Fuzzy mold forming on the edges

• 11/5/17 (Day 8) - The mold has started to form on the top and bottom of the cheese.  Patted everything down when flipping.  I think I'll give it another day or so before moving into the fridge.  Flipped a second time.
• 11/6/17 (Day 9) - The top and bottom have developed good layers of mold.  Decided to slow things down a bit by reducing the cheese cave temperature to 42-47 F.  I wrapped the cheeses in parchment paper to keep in humidity and shut off the humidifier.  It turns out the normal fridge is too cold at 33 F.
• 11/7/17 (Day 10) - The cheese case was running full time trying to get the temp below 47 F.  I decided to change the temperature range from 47 F to 52 F.  Also found that it was getting down to 70% humidity in the chamber so I decided to keep running the humidifier.
• 11/12/17 (Day 15) - I have flipped the cheeses every day.  I have been squeezing them slightly to see if I can get a sense for how the ripening is progressing.  They are softening up slightly but are still pretty firm.
• 11/19/17 (Day 22) - I decided to leave the humidifier off when I went out of town for a week.
• 11/28/17 (Day 31) - I decided to sample the first cheese.  I tastes just like Camembert should and it has gotten smooth in the middle but the outside edge, just under the rind, has dried out and is quite hard.  The humidity in the cave had dropped to 50-60%.  The second one is continuing to age at in the high 40s.  I'll turn on the humidifier again to see if that helps.

• 12/9/17 (Day 43) - I ate the first wheel.  Took out the second wheel.  This one was a bit dryer even - turning the humidifier on didn't help.  It didn't get any more ripe than the first one in the additional 2 weeks of aging (assume the drying halted any activity from the mold.  Tastes really nice but the texture is very wrong.  Going to have to try this again.
• 3/17/18 - I made another cheese on 2/11/18.  I aged it for 5 weeks between 11 and 14 C and 85%-89% humidity.  It stayed nice an moist the entire time.  It was feeling pretty soft so I cut into it today.  The middle is very smooth but firm still.  Has a really lovely and rich funky flavor.

Lessons Learned:

1. The sink water bath worked very nicely at heating the milk and keeping it at the correct temperature even without circulation I was able to hold the desired 90 F for the ripening and coagulation periods
2. Doing the draining of the whey in the kitchen into containers was a bit messy.  Would be better to have a way to drain the cheese off into a sink.  Will try to rig up something for the basement utility sink
3. The cheese cave pools up water at the bottom and then the water drains out onto the floor (probably half a cup every 12 hrs).  I will need to seal up the bottom of the cave a bit better.  Also, a lot of the steam being injected is being sucked directly into the freezer compartment.  I think a bit more pipe to direct the steam towards the back of the cave would allow me to avoid this happening so much.
4. In an attempt to slow the aging I wrapped the cheese in parchment paper and kept at high 40s with no humidity.  The cheese cave got down to 50-60% humidity in this period.  The cheese dried out quite a bit in the 2 weeks that I left it this way.  Next time I think I'll keep it at the normal aging and humidity levels until it is ready to eat.  I may put the other wheels in the fridge in a Tupperware once I don't want them to ripen more.