Third try Brie and high heat cheese

[BBQer]

Well here are the pics from my third try.

The Brie at the end of its draining phase.



And just starting the aging phase. Waiting for the fuzz.



And the high heat cheese. Milk just getting to temperature.



The high heat cheese draining.



And after pressing.



The high heat cheese didn't taste like much. I think I need to add more salt next time. It had a flavor like mozzarella only milder. Which is to say not much flavor at all.

[BBQer]

Well it's been 7 days. The white mold is growing nicely. But I turned the cheese at day 5 and I tore the mold cover off the bottom (now the top). I hope the mold fills in the torn spots.

It has a very strong smell. Not exactly ammonia. More like the really strong smelling cheeses or really old sweaty gym socks.

I finally broke out the hygrometer I bought some time ago and put it in the plastic storage bin I'm using as my aging "cave". It registered only 48% humidity. There was condensation on the sides of the box since the beginning so I assumed the humidity was in the proper range. Anyway, I put a small container of saturated salt in the bin with the cheese and within an hour the humidity was up to 75%. Hopefully things will get on the right track and turn out fine.

[BlueCheese]

Looks very nice

[BBQer]

Five weeks and we sliced into the brie. It looked like brie, oozed when brought to room temp like brie, tasted like brie - except it was just a bit too salty. Hard to get past the saltiness to the brie flavors.

Funny thing though, a couple of days later I tried it again and perception was the saltiness had diminished to a tolerable level. Went back and looked at the recipe, it called for rubbing it with a 1/4 of a cup of salt. I remember not even being able to get through an 1/8th of a cup. Next time I'll try even less.


Pre-room temp picture. No oozing yet.

[Richierich]

That looks great. What sort of temperature have you been ageing it at? I left mine for 6 weeks and it was solid like in the middle. Also how thick is your Brie? Mine was perhaps a little too thick, maybe 3" or so.

[BlueCheese]

looks fantastic LOL
I/4 cup salt? I use about 1-2tbls.

[BBQer]

Well I didn't (read as "don't" )know what I was (am) doing - first try and all.

I will definitely adjust the salting amount.

This piece is about 1.75" high. Didn't have a lot of control of that. I piled the curd into my make-shift mold to about 5 or 6" high. After all the draining, it ended up at the 1.75" mark.

The aging process went something like this - one day to drain and reduce in height to the 1.75" mark, then I was flipping it periodically until no more whey would drain out - another day or bit less, salted it, then stored it at about 50-55F and 90% humidity for 12 days, then wrapped it in breathable cellophane and stored it at 38-42F and 97% humidity for the remainder of the 5 weeks.

[Richierich]

I think as mine is a little thicker it will take that little bit longer to age, or rather I hope it will.

[BBQer]

And if it's quite a bit thicker, you'll just have a camembert right?

What is the difference between brie and camembert? Some of the recipes have both in the title.

[BlueCheese]

their the same except a temp dif of 31/88f compared to 29/84f at start up. I have not found any dif between thicknes, just ripening temps. The culture of the brie is throughout the cheese, so the enzyme cultivation is even, from my observation.