Second attempt at making camembert

Back in March I went on a day course to learn how to make cheese. On the course we made three cheeses, one of which was camembert. (You can see me making the other cheese we learnt about here and here). The camembert came back with me after the course and I looked after it for a number of weeks, hoping it would grow the necessary mould on the surface and also develop a nice mature flavour.

It didn’t really work as I had hoped. Despite having the luxury of a temperature controlled fridge (used for the beer making) so I was able to hold the cheese at exactly 12C whilst the mould developed... it didn’t. After a lot of fussing and worrying, I ended up with some rather hideous cheese with green and orange mould on it.

I was terrified about eating it – and especially giving it to anyone else. I didn’t want a case of listeriosis on my conscience! In fact we did try just a tiny tiny bit – it had been matured for so long it tasted like a real stinking Roquefort.

Hmm. So for many months, despite investing in rennet, culture and penicillin mould, I just avoided the idea of trying again.

Until ten days ago. I had a Saturday afternoon free, and so I decided to bite the bullet. But this time, because it was in my own kitchen with my own ingredients, I would take complete control over sanitation, so I could be as sure as possible that the cheese was safe to eat.

Well I’m pleased to report that the cheese making day went well, and over the last ten days the cheeses have been in the fridge at 12C. Four days ago the mould started to appear – this time it was fresh, white and evenly coated. Success!

So today the cheeses have been wrapped and will be chilled down to 4C to allow them to mature a little longer. I won’t be waiting as long as last time though. I know now that 8-10 weeks maturing makes a very stinky cheese! I made four, so I’ll be trying one a week from next weekend and seeing how the flavour progresses.

The photos below are of the new batch.