What is needed for homemade camembert?
- Chy-max microbial rennet
- Milk - cow's, goat's, sheep's, whatever you have available
- Or make it easier for yourself and reach for a ready-made eco- goose kit for making camembert
How to make homemade camembert?
First we pasteurize the milk. Let's heat it up to 64 °C, turn it off and let it stand for half an hour.
After thirty minutes, cool the pot with milk to a temperature of 35-37 °C and add the mesophilic culture and the Camembert culture.
Let the culture ferment for about 50 minutes (at least half an hour), then add calcium chloride and rennet. Milk should be between 28-33 degrees during curdling. Add chloride and rennet and mix thoroughly.
We stabilize the milk level and let it curdle. The curdling time varies according to the amount of rennet, for soft cheese we will want to curdle for about 40 minutes.
We curd for as long as we have a broken curd. We can tell by sticking a knife into the milk and lifting it slightly. If the so-called meringue is formed (if we simply manage to lift the curd slightly), we are done. If not, we'll wait.
If the curd is firm, cut it vertically and horizontally into a grid of approx. 2x2 cm, let the curd set for a while, i.e. rest for approx. 10 minutes.
Turn the cheese in the molds regularly. After 20 hours, remove from the mold, salt the cheese (salt brine 18-20, leave 250g of cheese for 30 minutes). Let the cheese drain and after an hour put it on a wire rack so that the mold can grow. Maturation conditions: maximum room temperature 16°C, minimum 9°C. High humidity. After about 7 days, the cheese is ready.