How to Make Camembert Sexy and Tacky

Blooming cheese is a reason to do cheesemaking. It includes the best aspects of cheesemaking: you can watch incredible clouds of fluffy curd condense into enchanting cheese circles with fabulous patterns, and watch fuzzy mold bloom – mold that you put there yourself on purpose. And after many weeks of care, lactic acid takes over and turns the hard cheese into the sticky, flowing, lactose-fuelled river of your dreams. It’s like magic, only it’s science.

This is our first real foray into serious stuff, and there are a few new steps and equipment involved (like the cheese cave ). Don’t be scared; it’s not harder, just more steps. Trust my serum and everything will work out. Or it won’t, because it’s just cheese making. (But it certainly will.)

Camembert ( recipe by Gavin Webber)

Ingredients:

• 1 gallon milk, not ultra-pasteurized (pasteurized, VAT-pasteurized, or raw can)
• ⅛ teaspoon rennet dissolved in ¼ cup distilled water
• ⅛ teaspoon calcium chloride dissolved in ¼ cup distilled water
• ⅛ teaspoon Flora Danica culture
• 1/16 teaspoon Penicillium candidum culture
• 1/32 teaspoon Geotrichum candidum culture
• 1 tablespoon non-iodized salt

Equipment ( recommendations for choosing equipment can be found in our buying guide ):

• Pot 6 liters or more
• 3 liter saucepan
• measuring spoons
• Thermometer
• 6 small cheese tins
• Tupperware container, long and flat, at least 8 inches by 12 inches and at least 3 inches high.
• Bamboo or plastic mat cut to size for Tupperware.
• Cutting board
• Do-it-yourself cheese cave

Customize your space

As with all cheese, cleanliness is inextricably linked to cottage cheese. Make sure that the pot, countertop, all the utensils you need and use – from measuring spoons to a thermometer – the faucet and sink are freshly washed and disinfected with white wine vinegar or a disinfectant solution. Keep a spray bottle of vinegar and clean towels nearby.

Once you get started, you don’t need to wash the dishes or anything else in the kitchen, as this can contaminate your cheese with drips. If you have enzymes, cover or move them so they don’t contaminate the cheese. We need a sterile environment.

Heat up the milk

We only bring the milk temperature up to 86℉, so you can choose whether you want to use the steamer or not. If you do this, you will be able to spend less time stirring because there is less chance of burning, but this is a low enough temperature that it will take such a short time to reach it that you will most likely stay at the pan and stir while you wait. Anyway. Attach a thermometer to the pot and turn on medium to low heat.

In any case, be sure to shake the milk before pouring it into the pan; you want to capture every bit of fat and cream. Basically, we’re doing a sticky brie/camembert situation, and what makes it better is the cream.

Stir the milk, bringing it to the temperature, and once it reaches 86℉, remove the pan from the heat. Mix well so that the milk forms a funnel, then add calcium chloride, stir for another full minute, then let the milk set.

Bring some culture

Now you are going to add all these cultures and I understand how absurd these measurements are, but that is why you have tiny measuring spoons . When in doubt, don’t be afraid to overdo the culture. It’s better to use too much than too little, so if you can’t measure 1/32 teaspoon accurately, use your own judgment. It’s a tiny pinch.

In any case, you will have to sprinkle the milk with Flora Danica, Geotrichtum and Penicillum, then cover and let the cultures rehydrate for five minutes. (Do nothing and the cultures will soak up the milk.)

Now stir for a full minute, using a figure-eight motion, for some real purpose. You want these cultures to mix with milk.

Set and cut curd

It’s time for rennet. Make a good stir in the pan to move the milk, then pour in the rennet. Stir vigorously in figure-of-eight motions for one minute, but no more. Bring milk to a boil and cover.

Take a disco-style nap for 90 minutes while the curd sets. After ninety minutes, check for a break. Your knife should cut the curd neatly, with the curd retaining its (new) edge and shape after you remove the knife. If you have a clean gap, go ahead. If you don’t, close the lid, wait another ten minutes, and repeat the test.

The great thing about this recipe is that the cottage cheese is almost not cut. You’re going to cut them into one inch wide columns, straight up and down in one direction into inch wide sections, then rotate the pot 90 degrees and make another set of inch wide cuts, perpendicular to your first set.

Now let the curd heal by awkwardly stepping away for five minutes.

Form and drain the curd

This is the most exciting part because you can finally use the damn shapes. Get out the basket molds and, assuming they’re perfectly clean, place them on the bamboo mat on the cutting board next to the sink. Take a piece of folded paper, a corner of a towel, or a butter knife, and tuck it under the side of your cutting board away from the sink. This will tilt the cutting board just enough to allow the whey to run down the sink, but we want the cheese pans to be more or less even, so lift the side up a bit and let gravity do the rest.

Bring the pan to the molds and, using a slotted spoon, carefully spread the curd into each mold. You will notice that they immediately start crying serum, which is exactly what they should be doing. Continue pouring to the top of the mold. It’s okay if there is some curd remaining: the curd in the molds will deflate as the whey comes out, making room for more curd.

Wait 30 minutes, then pour more curd into the molds. You will keep doing this until all of the curd is in the molds. How much curd you get really depends on how much cream was in the milk, how old the milk was, etc. You may or may not need all six molds. Use what you have as needed.

flip the cheese

Honestly, I’m so happy for you right now. This is the most fun part of cheese making, turning the cheese. It’s the most practical thing you’ll get. Whey flowed out of the curd in its mold, and at the same time this loose curd hardened. After two hours, they barely stick together, but will become stronger over time.

Turning cheese produces several results. This allows more of the whey to drain off, making the cheese even on all sides and giving it shape. These basket molds are slightly slanted so that when you flip the cheese, the pattern is imprinted on them and the cheese takes on a curved bell shape. It’s magical; trust the cheese.

Before you start turning, wash your hands thoroughly and spray them with vinegar. Gently turn the mold over onto your hand, but remember that the curd mass will be very tender at first. Carefully turn the cheese over in your hands and place it back into the mold upside down than before. The side with the pattern should now be on top. Turn the cheese every two hours. Do this three times (within six hours). Now let him hang out for the night.

When you wake up, it’s time to start flipping again. Turn it over every six hours for the next 24 hours. During this time, very little whey will be released from it, so if you need to move it to take back the kitchen, it’s okay. Place a very clean towel under the cutting board and move it to a place with a temperature of 60 to 75℉.

After 24 hours, sprinkle the cheese on all sides with salt and leave for another two hours. Then it’s time to send the cheese to the brining box – the Tupperware you set up earlier. Do not let the cheeses touch each other or the sides of the Tupperware. They need air around them to form the white fluff that makes them bloom. Then it goes to the cheese fridge.

Flip daily

For the next two weeks, you will have to turn these guys over daily with spotless hands. After a few days, you will see that white mold will start to grow, and this is absolutely correct. At first it will be spotty, but over time it will completely cover them.

Once they’re completely moldy, and at least two weeks have passed, you can move your Tupperware to a regular refrigerator for another two or three weeks. After two weeks, lightly press down on the middle of the cheese to check how firm it is. When you first start, you will most likely have a hard time knowing when everything will be “ready”. Look for a sign that the lactic acid has done its job and the cheese is sticky.

These cheeses have their pros and you can miss them if you’re not careful. They don’t last forever, so it’s better to risk one of them being less sticky than to let them all run for too long and miss the sweet spot entirely. Even before they get sticky, they are still pretty good.

Once you press “Gu”, then it’s time. Wrap these beauties in wax paper and hand them out to every damn person you know (assuming you only know four people, because of course you’ll need a few). Pick up the best baguette in town and relax in luxurious smugness. You have defeated the milk gods and should enjoy your reward.